wry
A cross-platform WebView rendering library in Rust for building desktop and mobile applications.
What is wry?
Wry is a cross-platform WebView rendering library written in Rust that allows developers to embed web content into native desktop and mobile applications. It provides a unified API to create WebViews across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, abstracting away the underlying platform-specific WebView engines like WebView2, WebKit, and WebKitGTK.
Rust developers building cross-platform desktop or mobile applications that need to embed web content, particularly those using the Tauri framework or windowing libraries like tao and winit.
Developers choose Wry for its type-safe Rust API, consistent cross-platform behavior, and tight integration with the Rust ecosystem. It offers fine-grained control over WebView features while maintaining minimal overhead compared to heavier Electron-like solutions.
Overview
Cross-platform WebView library in Rust for Tauri.
Use Cases
Best For
- Embedding web-based UIs in Rust desktop applications
- Building cross-platform apps with Tauri framework
- Creating native mobile apps with web content using Rust
- Developing lightweight alternatives to Electron apps
- Integrating web views into existing Rust windowing applications
- Prototyping desktop apps with web technologies and Rust backend
Not Ideal For
- Projects requiring a full-stack JavaScript framework with built-in UI components and tooling
- Teams unfamiliar with Rust or unwilling to manage native dependencies like WebKitGTK on Linux
- Applications targeting only web browsers without native app deployment needs
- Developers wanting drag-and-drop WebView creation without handling event loops and windowing libraries
Pros & Cons
Pros
Provides a unified Rust API for WebViews on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, abstracting platform-specific engines like WebView2 and WebKit for consistent behavior.
Seamlessly integrates with popular Rust windowing libraries such as tao and winit via the HasWindowHandle trait, enabling flexible and native UI setups.
Allows defining custom URL schemes through WebViewBuilder::with_custom_protocol, facilitating asset loading and specialized request handling without server overhead.
Offers compile-time flags for optional features like devtools and transparent backgrounds, letting developers optimize builds for specific platforms and use cases.
Cons
Requires manual GTK initialization and event loop integration for winit, and child webview support is limited on Wayland, adding significant development overhead.
Demands setting environment variables, using specific macros like wry::android_binding!, and inheriting from AppCompatActivity, making setup cumbersome and error-prone.
Features like devtools on macOS use private APIs, which can hinder App Store submissions, and behavior may vary unpredictably across different WebView engines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
TauriBuild smaller, faster, and more secure desktop and mobile applications with a web frontend.
DioxusFullstack app framework for web, desktop, and mobile.
icedA cross-platform GUI library for Rust, inspired by Elm
eguiegui: an easy-to-use immediate mode GUI in Rust that runs on both web and native
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