The discussion centers on an experimental update to make the mobile composer permanently full-screen, aiming to prevent layout jumps when the keyboard toggles and to facilitate easier self-review chapoi. While users like sam and Don appreciate the improvement, noting that the minimize button still allows for quick checks, others express significant frustration. NateDhaliwal and JammyDodger argue that a full-screen view hinders their ability to quote other posts or compare their reply with the original text side-by-side. chapoi acknowledges that the tablet experience is currently lacking and requires a different approach.
A key point of contention is the lack of a toggle option; chapoi explicitly stated there are no plans to add a button to switch between half and full-screen views, suggesting that fixing the cursor placement issue when minimizing would suffice. However, users like jrgong and seanblue feel the change forces a worse user experience on mobile, making it difficult to reference posts while composing. chapoi confirmed the feature is experimental and planned for core integration soon, though some users are seeking CSS workarounds or plugins to restore the split-view functionality tempogain, darkpixlz.
To see the forum while composing, you can still use the dedicated minimise button in the top right corner.
There may be potential differences in experiences between Hub/webapp, or the various browsers. Please report those to see if this is a viable change everywhere or not.
Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer having the composer at half-height when the keyboard is closed, as I need to quote different things from a post above, but this makes it harder - I have to collapse the whole composer instead.
On a smartphone, things look good to me. However, on tablets, I am less sure.
First, when I start a reply, the composer area is quite small (screenshot from a 12.9“ iPad below), definitely smaller than it needs to be.
But when I enter the text box and start typing, the composer goes fullscreen as for my iPhone, which is not really needed IMO (and there’s also no obvious means to resize it to half size - which is probably intended).
Yes, the tablet experience is lacking atm and has a whole bunch of other things “going on” that I need to look at to optimise things. It def needs a different approach.
Would it be possible to have the option for both? I like the full screen for reading back, but I also like the half screen for inserting quotes and comparing my answer to the post I’m replying to. At the moment, when I minimise it places the cursor to the end of the composer text, and pops the quote there (when I wanted to put it mid post).
Could I have a button that toggles half screen/full screen (& minimise)?
I like the half-composer for this too. I like the option of having both my bit and the thing I’m replying to next to each other without having to flick between screens. I think it helps me double-check what I’m saying is relevant and I’m replying to what was said and not just what I think someone said [1]
Edit: Just realized that this is by design and, according to the quote below, “experimental”.
In that case, it would have been a more graceful solution to make it opt-in only via site settings, just like any other experimental feature, and not force it upon all users.
I wish someone could come up with a workaround plugin or a hotfix to bring back the split-view composer.
I didn’t realize this change was intentional, but it makes the experience on mobile significantly worse for me. Why does the composer need to be full screen to review what you wrote? There’s already a preview button for that which does the same thing but better. Now it’s much harder to check what I wrote against the post(s) I’m replying to since I can only see my text (full screen composer) or their text (minimize the composer), never both at the same time.
I experimented a bit with building a Theme component that basically renders the cooked post I am replying to, right above the composer. But that didn’t really cover the use case when I want to quote text snippets from multiple posts in a subsequent manner.
I would rather have a non-fullscreen adjustable composer text area which then expands with each consequent line break.
When replying, opening an empty composer in full height is definitely not the best use of the very limited space on a smartphone. See screenshot below and the red marking.
I don’t know how I missed this topic but this is a significantly annoying change. I would historically close the keyboard to copy quotes from users and whatnot but now that’s basically impossible unless I fully close the composer which is way worse UX, not to mention the other ways this impedes on my ability to use the software. Is it too late to make this optional somehow?
Yeah I like it too. Thanks 
