diff --git a/.github/workflows/appium_Android.yml b/.github/workflows/appium_Android.yml
index 5c47b83fe..20c9e5efb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/appium_Android.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/appium_Android.yml
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ on:
     branches:
       - 4.x
       - appium-esm-migration
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - 4.x
 
 concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.event.pull_request.number || github.ref }}
diff --git a/lib/element/WebElement.js b/lib/element/WebElement.js
index 79c8793f2..e646870f0 100644
--- a/lib/element/WebElement.js
+++ b/lib/element/WebElement.js
@@ -15,10 +15,13 @@ class WebElement {
   _detectHelperType(helper) {
     if (!helper) return 'unknown'
 
-    const className = helper.constructor.name
-    if (className === 'Playwright') return 'playwright'
-    if (className === 'WebDriver') return 'webdriver'
-    if (className === 'Puppeteer') return 'puppeteer'
+    let ctor = helper.constructor
+    while (ctor && ctor.name) {
+      if (ctor.name === 'Playwright') return 'playwright'
+      if (ctor.name === 'WebDriver') return 'webdriver'
+      if (ctor.name === 'Puppeteer') return 'puppeteer'
+      ctor = Object.getPrototypeOf(ctor)
+    }
 
     return 'unknown'
   }
diff --git a/lib/helper/Appium.js b/lib/helper/Appium.js
index d0908b67f..427c3e03e 100644
--- a/lib/helper/Appium.js
+++ b/lib/helper/Appium.js
@@ -179,13 +179,13 @@ class Appium extends Webdriver {
     super(config)
 
     this.isRunning = false
-    this.appiumV2 = config.appiumV2 || true
+    this.appiumV2 = config.appiumV2 !== false
     this.axios = axios.create()
 
-    if (!config.appiumV2) {
-      console.log('The Appium core team does not maintain Appium 1.x anymore since the 1st of January 2022. Appium 2.x is used by default.')
+    if (this.appiumV2 === false) {
+      console.log('Appium 1.x is no longer maintained by the Appium team (since 2022-01-01).')
       console.log('More info: https://bit.ly/appium-v2-migration')
-      console.log('This Appium 1.x support will be removed in next major release.')
+      console.log('Appium 1.x support will be removed in the next major CodeceptJS release.')
     }
   }
 
@@ -220,6 +220,9 @@ class Appium extends Webdriver {
       deprecationWarnings: false,
       restart: true,
       manualStart: false,
+      // Mobile emulator/device cold starts (esp. on cloud grids like Sauce Labs)
+      // routinely exceed webdriverio's 2-minute default. Bump to 5 min.
+      connectionRetryTimeout: 300000, // ms
       timeouts: {
         script: 0, // ms
       },
@@ -331,6 +334,24 @@ class Appium extends Webdriver {
     }
     this.$$ = this.browser.$$.bind(this.browser)
 
+    // wdio v9 implements `element.isDisplayed()` for non-mobile contexts by
+    // injecting a JS visibility check via POST /execute/sync. Appium's native
+    // context cannot execute JS, so each call logs an ugly
+    // "Method is not implemented" ERROR before the existing catch swallows it.
+    // Short-circuit isDisplayed to `true` while in native context so the
+    // request is never issued (matches existing _isDisplayedSafe semantics).
+    const helper = this
+    if (typeof this.browser.overwriteCommand === 'function') {
+      this.browser.overwriteCommand(
+        'isDisplayed',
+        async function (origFn, ...args) {
+          if (helper.isWeb) return origFn.call(this, ...args)
+          return true
+        },
+        true,
+      )
+    }
+
     this.isRunning = true
     if (this.options.timeouts && this.isWeb) {
       await this.defineTimeout(this.options.timeouts)
diff --git a/lib/helper/WebDriver.js b/lib/helper/WebDriver.js
index cf22e8639..62c0b4dc2 100644
--- a/lib/helper/WebDriver.js
+++ b/lib/helper/WebDriver.js
@@ -1264,7 +1264,7 @@ class WebDriver extends Helper {
     const elem = selectElement(res, field, this)
     highlightActiveElement.call(this, elem)
 
-    if (await fillRichEditor(this, elem, value)) {
+    if (this.isWeb !== false && await fillRichEditor(this, elem, value)) {
       return
     }
 
diff --git a/test/helper/Appium_test.js b/test/helper/Appium_test.js
index ce3942346..6208b7988 100644
--- a/test/helper/Appium_test.js
+++ b/test/helper/Appium_test.js
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ const apk_path = 'storage:filename=selendroid-test-app-0.17.0.apk'
 const smallWait = 3
 
 describe('Appium', function () {
-  // this.retries(1);
+  this.retries(1)
   this.timeout(0)
 
   before(async () => {
diff --git a/test/unit/WebElement_test.js b/test/unit/WebElement_test.js
index 3da5a9570..2c200c521 100644
--- a/test/unit/WebElement_test.js
+++ b/test/unit/WebElement_test.js
@@ -36,6 +36,22 @@ describe('WebElement', () => {
 
       expect(webElement.helperType).to.equal('unknown')
     })
+
+    it('should detect Appium as webdriver via prototype chain', () => {
+      class WebDriver {}
+      class Appium extends WebDriver {}
+      const webElement = new WebElement({}, new Appium())
+
+      expect(webElement.helperType).to.equal('webdriver')
+    })
+
+    it('should detect subclasses of Playwright as playwright', () => {
+      class Playwright {}
+      class CustomPlaywright extends Playwright {}
+      const webElement = new WebElement({}, new CustomPlaywright())
+
+      expect(webElement.helperType).to.equal('playwright')
+    })
   })
 
   describe('getText()', () => {