The discussion revolves around the issue of Chat not working on iPads and other devices in landscape mode. Earnie_Baird reports that when using an iPad in landscape, the left rail with channel navigation is not visible, making it impossible to leave a channel or DM. Jagster shares similar experiences, and Earnie_Baird provides screenshots to illustrate the issue. Jagster suggests trying the ‘Chat separate sidebar mode’, but Earnie_Baird confirms that the issue persists. Chapoi and joffreyjaffeux suggest that the problem might be due to the desktop version being used on mobile devices, but Earnie_Baird clarifies that the issue is specific to iPads and devices in landscape mode. Lilly shares screenshots of Safari on the latest iOS, showing the issue in landscape mode. Earnie_Baird concludes that the problem occurs on devices with screens that are not wide enough to display the left rail, and suggests that ideally, the layout should automatically switch to mobile at that breakpoint.
A few users have reported that they are unable to use Chat on iPad,Samsung Fold and other devices.
Testing this out: everything works fine on iPad in portrait as channels appear on the left pane and the current channel or DM is on the right pane.
If you turn the device to landscape however, you only see the right pane and there is no UI available to leave the channel (unlike on mobile where there is a back arrow at the top with the channel name).
Many (most?) iPads are used in landscape so this is problematic.
Possible solutions:
Can a back arrow be added for iPads in landscape?
Alternately if mobile styles could be forced somehow that would work too
Not sure what to tell you… this is me using chat on meta.discourse.org on an iPad Mini with latest OS. Others are using full size iPads and other devices.
The screenshots don’t lie. There is no way to leave a channel or DM once you’ve joined in landscape as there is no left rail or back arrow at the top near the channel name.
Perhaps you would like to try setting Chat separate sidebar mode?
Because even here the layout is same as I showed — but sure, when one have small screen, like mini or is using the sidebar of Safari, the sidebar here doesn’t stay open.
I’m not sure if this is a bug, but more like Contribute > UX
I can’t repro the problems either but let’s try the obvious one first:
If the above screenshot is from a tablet, then it seems that you are using the desktop version, which could explain the situation on certain devices/viewports. Can you click the little mobile icon and see if this resolves your issues?
Yes @j.jaffeux - I am sure desktop is not being used on mobile. On mobile for my discourse site I am using the wonderful Chat Bubbles component by @chapoi and it works flawlessly on phones.
The issue is that iPad always gets desktop and not mobile (as you’ll also see in my screenshot for this site). I wish there were a way to force either iPad or devices in landscape to use mobile but I can’t figure out how to do that.
also @chapoi - to answer your question above, when people use iPad in landscape they never see that entire left rail in order to click on that little mobile icon (see my screenshot above).
It’s annoying that for some reason it defaults to desktop view, but they should still be able to open the sidebar via the menu icon top right, and then find the little mobile icon again at the bottom.
