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Neither the old android browser nor the old webviews could be updated through the play store.

Could they in a modern phone? I thought that was part of the point of Google's slightly sneaky updates to "Google Play Services" -- that it allows them to do their own OTA updates sidestepping carriers.

(See e.g. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/09/balky-carriers-and-sl...)

The newest version of Android (Lollipop) can update the WebView now.

http://developer.android.com/about/versions/lollipop.html#We...

Not even Google Play Services can update binaries on /system partition. That's the manufacturer's playground, (often signed and checked at boot).

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