Google's Custom Tabs will make in-app browsing even better

Many Android apps offer the user the ability to open web content directly from them in an in-app browser, instead of having to jump from one app to another, such as when opening a link from within the Gmail service. Think about when you open an article from within Facebook and read it normally without the app taking you to, say, the Chrome browser.

This is achieved by app developers taking advantage of the WebView component, but Google has an even better idea that will make the whole process and the user experience in general much more usable. It's Custom Tabs that instead of filling the entire user screen, they display the content of the webpage only on half of it so you can use the application you arrived from at the same time.

Essentially this is a split-screen mode, but it will be up to the developer of the main app to set how much space the web content tab will take up and of course the user will be offered the option to view it in full screen.

Google also notes that in case Custom Tabs are not supported by the web browser the user has chosen as default (e.g. Samsung's browser instead of Chrome), then the content will be displayed normally in full screen.