Historically, Discourse has had two distinct views for mobile and desktop. Over the years, these have tended to converge towards more modern viewport-width-based design. Those modern patterns are documented here . In the latest version of Discourse , we are replacing the user-agent-based detection of…

Had to uncheck as recent updates show mobile view on foldable phones when folded and desktop view when opened full

[image] pmcpa: desktop view when opened full Folding phones is one of the reasons that we made this change. The feedback we’ve received elsewhere is that folding phones should show more on the screen when unfolded. Showing the ‘desktop view’ there is intentional. Is there a particular part o…

Font size decreases, clicking on a thread or category changes from tapping anywhere on the entire line (mobile) to must tap on text (desktop), Menu goes from drop down (mobile) to taking up 1/3 of the screen on the left (desktop) thus erasing any gain in screen size. These are just a few off the top…

We just upgraded to the most recent version and started getting complaints from users until I realised I needed to uncheck the viewport based mobile mode admin setting. A substantial number of our older community members prefer to view topics by category, so we have a navigation link to ?mobile_view…

The viewport based mobile mode setting will be removed soon, and ?mobile_view=1 will stop working. So if you can collect some more specific feedback from users (or direct them here to share it), that would be great. [image] stuwest: substantial number of our older community members prefer to vi…

If it isn’t the case already, setting the site to Desktop category page style to Categories with featured topics will get the layout most like the mobile categories view (shows the categories with a few topics each). Individuals can also go to their account preferences /my/preferences/interface and…

[image] david: Why do you need the mobile mode for that? A site layout should be intuitive, as an Admin I shouldn’t need to direct any user to any page, they should just be able to find it honestly, but humans are funny, and like things the way they are. [image] david: setting will be re…

I believe it’s to cut down on overwhelm. I can’t screenshot the forum because we handle confidential information, but there’s a lot more clutter in the Categories with featured topics mode in desktop view compared to the categories page in mobile view.

[image] david: Folding phones is one of the reasons that we made this change. The feedback we’ve received elsewhere is that folding phones should show more on the screen when unfolded. Showing the ‘desktop view’ there is intentional. just an FYI David, the Viewport based mobile mode setting i…

Thanks! Tbh, we are long overdue on removing the setting. All of our design work now assumes it remains enabled, and I’m sure there are plenty of bugs which will occur when it’s turned off. For that horizon issue, we should try to get it fixed without touching this setting.

Improving automatic switching of mobile/desktop modes

Development

david (David Taylor) May 26, 2026, 8:23am 12

Legacy mobile mode has now been removed

Topic		Replies	Views
Improve desktop view for mobile UX	15	282	September 15, 2024
No more switchable mobile/desktop layouts? UX mobile , ux	18	310	March 4, 2026
Mobile/Desktop View toggle Support	11	204	November 29, 2024
Which browser loads the correct mobile display? Support	6	115	March 8, 2026
Different landing page for desktop vs mobile theme? Feature	42	7655	May 15, 2023

Improving automatic switching of mobile/desktop modes

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