Q: Please briefly introduce yourself, Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore, and the type of work conducted there. What projects are you currently working on?

My name is Mahesh Machavolu, a Staff Engineer leading browser engine development for the Samsung Internet project at Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B). Established in 1996, SRI-B is one of Samsung’s key R&D centers. The talented teams here focus on building cutting-edge technologies and are at the forefront of advanced research.

The Samsung Internet browser is built on top of the open-source Chromium project and is regularly updated on the Play Store, similar to browsers like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Our team is responsible for developing innovative solutions and addressing user-facing challenges to provide a secure, privacy-centric, and unparalleled web browsing experience on Android Galaxy flagship phones and Galaxy Book.

Samsung also believes in transparency and values the power of open-source communities. Since 2014, it has actively supported developers worldwide through initiatives such as Samsung Open Source Conference (SOSCON) and Samsung Developer Conference Korea (SDC Korea). I was fortunate to be a distinguished speaker at SOSCON India 2023, where I presented SRI-B’s open-source contributions to the Chromium project.

I currently serve as a Committer in the Chromium project, with privileges to review and approve changes in the modules I own. I also lead and mentor a group of open-source contributors on our team and frequently collaborate with engineers from Google Chromium to integrate Galaxy-specific experiences—such as One UI, S Pen, Galaxy AI—into mobile applications using Android WebView, and occasionally into the Chrome browser as well.

Q: Please tell us about the importance of your research field or technology.
(Why is it needed, and how might it change our lives in the future?)

The web browser is arguably one of the most used applications on personal mobile devices and computers. It serves as the primary interface for accessing the web, shaping how users search for and navigate online content. As part of the browser engineering team, we have the opportunity to apply the latest technological advancements to bring intelligent, privacy-centric features directly to Galaxy users.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international organization that sets standards for the World Wide Web. It operates as an open forum where diverse voices from around the world collaborate to develop web standards that ensure the long-term growth and interoperability of the web. All major players in the browser industry—including Google, Microsoft, Opera, Mozilla, and Samsung—play a pivotal role in defining these standards. One of the key focus areas of Chromium open-source project is ensuring conformance to W3C standards. Contributing to this project not only impacts Samsung’s own browser solution (Samsung Internet), but also benefits all browser solutions built on Chromium.

Web browsers are also playing a crucial role in the era of Agentic AI, acting as both interface and tool for AI agents to understand and interact with the web. This enables them to perform advanced reasoning and execute complex tasks such as form filling, data extraction, workflow automation, and more with remarkable accuracy. Significant progress is being made in developing protocols and web standards to support interoperability, security, and scalability in multi-agent systems. AI agents are poised to revolutionize sectors like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, by automating tasks and enhancing efficiency. To make Agentic AI a reality in the near future, browsers and their underlying web platform capabilities must continue to evolve through advanced research and innovation.

Q: What motivates you to continue pushing boundaries in your field of research?

Every time I contribute a new change to the Chromium project, I get to engage with domain experts responsible for specific modules. Their code reviews and feedback always offer something new to learn. There is a strong emphasis on writing tests that cover all corner cases, following extensible designs without cyclic dependencies, choosing appropriate data structures, and guarding new behaviors with feature flags.

For example, when developing the S Pen handwriting-to-text feature using Galaxy Intelligence, I designed the implementation in a modular and componentized fashion. This allowed it to be reused later for a similar feature—Android Stylus Handwriting—which was expected to launch the following year.

I find deep satisfaction knowing that my work has global visibility, supports my professional growth, and impacts millions of users. This, I believe, is my primary motivation to keep working in this field.

Q: How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in your field?

I keep track of new standards from the W3C, attend web platform conferences such as BlinkOn, and follow updates from the blink-dev and chromium-dev Google Groups. In addition, Chromium publishes “Intent to Ship” and “Intent to Experiment” notices—internal processes used to signal upcoming or experimental features—that impact public web developers and embedded browser engineering. These updates are extremely helpful for anticipating and adapting to what’s coming next.

Q: Could you tell us about your main achievements and the most rewarding moments in your research, or share a memorable episode at Samsung?

As an open-source leader at Samsung over the past few years, I have facilitated cross-continental collaboration with Samsung and Chromium teams in the United States, UK, India and Korea to successfully launch Galaxy Intelligence and One UI features for Android WebView and Chrome.

A couple of years ago, I independently contributed the S Pen handwriting-to-text feature to Chromium for Galaxy flagship devices. This feature detects editable input fields on a web page, allowing users to write directly with the S Pen or stylus. The handwriting is converted to text and composed into the field—such as Google search box or Gmail input area.

One of the biggest challenges was identifying interactable elements on a webpage rendered via the HTML Document Object Model (DOM). Unlike native Android apps, web content does not expose these elements readily to the platform. Additionally, since Chromium sandboxed these elements in separate renderer processes, we had to implement multiple asynchronous messages to detect editable fields near the touch area—within milliseconds of the S Pen touching the screen.

All of this had to be accomplished without compromising user privacy, ensuring the system avoided sensitive inputs like passwords or credit card fields, and without interfering with websites that already support stylus events like canvas drawing.

This collaboration project was a tremendous success and provided invaluable learning opportunities. One of the most rewarding moments was traveling to Samsung’s headquarters in Suwon, Korea, to meet engineers from both Samsung Google Chrome. Their positive feedback on my contributions was deeply motivating. Later, the feature was showcased at Galaxy Unpacked 2023, which was a memorable milestone in my career.

Building on this success, I gained the confidence of the Chromium WebView teams and established collaboration channels for introducing Galaxy AI into Chromium. This led to the integration of the AI Writing Toolkit in 2024, enabling smart editing features like tone adjustment, auto-completion, and content summarization directly within the browser.

Q: What is your vision for the future, and what goals would you like to achieve at Samsung Research?

My ultimate goal is to contribute meaningfully to creating services that enhance the web browsing experience on flagship devices by leveraging Samsung’s continuous hardware innovation. I also aim to conduct key research on emerging web technologies and play an active role in shaping new web standards within the W3C.

Furthermore, I aspire to be an integral part of Samsung’ open-source charter—leading and expanding our Chromium contributions into areas like the Blink rendering engine, WebXR, Agentic AI platforms, while helping to strengthen Samsung’s global presence in the open-source community.

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring researchers interested in pursuing a career in your field of expertise?

Working on browser technology has been an incredible journey. The Chromium codebase, with over 25 million lines of source code, offers countless opportunities to learn. Much of it is written in C++, so developing a strong foundation in the data structures and algorithms in C++ is essential for contributing effectively.

Web-related testing typically involves HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which are key for writing functional tests. Chromium also features a multi-process architecture using message pipes to handle both synchronous and asynchronous messages through a platform-agnostic framework called MOJO. Understanding this architecture is crucial for implementing new features in Chromium.

Open-source projects come with extensive documentation and well-defined code structures. Studying the Chromium documentation is a great way to understand its top-down design. It offers insights into scalable architecture and multi-process sandboxing, helping developers isolate critical or potentially unstable modules

Chromium development is also closely aligned with emerging W3C web standards. Staying updated on these standards is one of the best ways to remain connected to ongoing innovation in the web ecosystem.

As the web ecosystem continues to evolve, several emerging technologies are reshaping the role of modern browsers. Integration of AI, large language models (LLMs), and machine learning has become a key focus area. AI is being embedded into browsers for tasks such as personalized search results, AI-driven content generation, and intelligent search engine optimization (SEO).

There is also growing emphasis on user privacy and cybersecurity, with features like ad blockers, data protection mechanisms, and secure browsing modes. In parallel, browsers are integrating technologies like blockchain, edge computing, and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to expand their capabilities.

With the rise of virtual and extended reality platforms, standardization efforts around the WebXR Device API have also gained momentum—offering exciting opportunities for researchers in the field.

These emerging technologies offer a glimpse into the next era of the web—one that is more intelligent, immersive, and secure. I am excited to continue exploring these frontiers at Samsung, and to help shape the future of web browsing for millions of users around the world.