Bug 194235 – Bottom 44px area is not clickable and shows navbar

• Component: Layout and Rendering
• Status: RESOLVED MOVED

[Adam Stankiewicz]

Created attachment 361085 [details]
Example of navigation at the bottom of page

We and many other companies try to put navigation interface at the bottom of page (just like native iOS apps often put there navigation buttons, I attach example of our tinder-like left/right navigation and example of native iOS app navigation in references). Unfortunately this area is hijacked by iOS Safari to show bottom navbar, so to click any button in this area you need to click 2x in slightly different places.

From all mobile browsers only Safari doesn't allow clicking on this area. All mobile browsers show navbar when user starts scrolling towards the top of the page.

This bug has been heard by Safari developers over and over again, but there's no response or plan. We kindly ask you to finally fix this behavior: please show navbar only when scrolling towards the top of the page, and allow to click in any place on page, like all other mobile browsers.

More references:

- https://www.eventbrite.com/engineering/mobile-safari-why/
- https://benfrain.com/the-ios-safari-menu-bar-is-hostile-to-web-apps-discuss/
- https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/130822/safari-ios-menu-bar-conflicts-with-buttons-in-lower-10-of-the-screen
- Example of Native iOS application with bottom navbar: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/09/fbupdate.jpg

[Simon Fraser (smfr)]

This is expected behavior.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/47796345>

[Adam Stankiewicz]

Please elaborate: how not allowing for using bottom area for navigation while native apps can do so can be expected behavior? Who decided this?

[Tim Horton]

Please file a bug at bugreport.apple.com; this is not WebKit behavior.

[Adam Stankiewicz]

Unfortunately filing issue there is like throwing it into black hole.

I believe there must be Safari developers registered here, so please comment on this issue here.

[Matthew Shelley]

Couldn't agree more with you Adam. 

"This is expected behavior." and "Please file a bug at bugreport.apple.com; this is not WebKit behavior." are pretty careless responses IMO. As a near 50% share-holder in the Mobile device market you'd think this would not be so quickly disregarded with such blanket statements.