title: Android 4.0 WebView.loadURL oddity
body: <p>I have an Android app which includes an activity called <a href="https://github.com/ldo/ti5x_android/blob/master/src/Help.java" rel="nofollow">Help</a> This uses a WebView to display the help content in HTML format. Thie activity can be invoked two ways: either passing a URL, or direct text content. The only URL that I ever pass to this is “file:///android_asset/help/index.html” (which is an HTML page included in my assets in the APK).</p>
  
  <p>Passing the URL works fine on my HTC Desire running Android 2.2. It also seems to work in an emulator running Android 3.0. However, when I try it in an emulator with Android 4.0, it seems to try to launch the Web browser instead, to display a blank page; when I close this, I am back in my Help activity, also showing a blank page.</p>
  
  <p>Passing direct text content works fine on all the versions I’ve tried. The <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView.html" rel="nofollow">WebView</a> documentation says “Note that, in order for your Activity to access the Internet and load web pages in a WebView, you must add the INTERNET permissions to your Android Manifest file:” But I have no need to access the Internet as such, I just want to display my app-internal help page. And this has worked on Android versions prior to 4.0.</p>
  
  <p>Is this a bug in Android 4? Or is it just something I’ve misunderstood? Thanks for any help.</p>