Android System WebView is a system component for the Android operating system that enables Android apps to display web content directly inside an application. It is a pre-installed app that receives regular automatic updates. WebView is used to embed applications in other web applications, and it is a low-code way of constructing hybrid applications that free developers from having to code native applications from scratch. Developers who want to add browser functionality to an application can include the WebView library and create an instance of a WebView class, which essentially embeds a browser within the app to do things like render webpages and execute scripts.

Android System WebView is needed because it lets applications display browser windows in an app instead of transporting the user to another browser. It is an essential part of the Android OS that lets apps display web content without starting a separate web browser. Most modern Android devices rely on it, and it cannot be disabled or uninstalled without potentially causing issues for the phone. Disabling it may lead to system-wide crashes, and many apps rely on it to display web-based content, including emails in Gmail.

In the past, WebView was tightly coupled with the OS, and it was only updated when a new version of the OS was released. It is now a discrete application that can be updated through the Google Play app store. It is worth noting that updates usually contain important bug fixes, so it is not a great idea to uninstall updates for Android System WebView from a security standpoint.

To summarize, Android System WebView is a system component for the Android operating system that enables Android apps to display web content directly inside an application. It is an essential app that cannot be disabled or uninstalled without potentially causing issues for the phone. It is updated through the Google Play app store, and updates usually contain important bug fixes.