Scrolling Changes Coming to Mobile Safari in Future Update

[MacRumors]

Apple is planning to make some changes to scrolling behavior in mobile Safari in a future update, making for a more unified scrolling experience.

The news comes courtesy of a Hacker News thread discussing Apple's default scrolling behavior vs. the scrolling behavior of webpages that use Google AMP, a discussion inspired by a Daring Fireball post on the subject.

Google AMP (or Accelerated Mobile Pages), for those unfamiliar, is an online publishing format created by Google that's optimized for mobile web browsing and rapid page loading. It is used by multiple news sites, including CNN, ABC, and The Washington Post. On mobile Safari, AMP uses its own scrolling behavior, making AMP pages stand out from non-AMP pages.

In the Hacker News discussion, Malte Ubl, who created Google AMP, says the AMP team filed a bug report about the scrolling discrepancy, and as a result, Apple is going to implement a change that makes all webpages scroll like AMP pages.

With respect to scrolling: We (AMP team) filed a bug with Apple about that (we didn't implement scrolling ourselves, just use a div with overflow). We asked to make the scroll inertia for that case the same as the normal scrolling.

Apple's response was (surprisingly) to make the default scrolling like the overflow scrolling. So, with the next Safari release all pages will scroll like AMP pages.

Another Hacker News responder, "Om2," who appears to work on WebKit, explains that Safari webpage scrolling is inconsistent from all other scrolling, an intentional decision implemented several years ago. Following a review of scrolling rates, Apple has decided to implement a change to introduce a more consistent scrolling experience.

In current iOS Safari, webpage scrolling is inconsistent from all other scrolling on the system. This was an intentional decision made long ago. In addition, overflow areas are consistent with the rest of the system, and thus inconsistent with top-level webpage scrolling. This is semi-accidental. In reviewing scroll rates, we concluded that the original reason was no longer a good tradeoff. Thus this change, which removed all the inconsistencies: https://trac.webkit.org/changeset/211197/webkit

Having all scrolling be consistent feels good once you get used to it.

At the current time, the difference between scrolling on an AMP page and a standard webpage is noticeable, with the AMP pages scrolling faster and more smoothly. It's not entirely clear when the scrolling change will be implemented in mobile Safari, as the new scrolling behavior is not available in the current iOS 10.3.3 beta.

Article Link: Scrolling Changes Coming to Mobile Safari in Future Update

 

[soupcan]

Just make it stop jumping the page all over the place because images are loading off-screen, both on iOS and in Mac OS.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Hopefully they add this as an option. The atrocious scrolling of AMP pages, while similar to that of that throughout iOS, is just terrible for Safari when you've been using the old/current scroll model for years.

 

[aforty]

Wasn't this already possible with -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;

 

[Zirel]

Awesome!

Current iOS scrolling is too slow.

Again, the WebKit team really is brilliant!

 

[_Refurbished_]

So Safari will FINALLY become more snappy!

I used to use a jailbreak tweak that allowed for faster scrolling. I never realized how slow scrolling was in Safari by default, until I installed this tweak. I'm surprised that Apple doesn't allow scrolling speed customization.

 

[LordQ]

Yay, an iOS 11 rumour!(?)

 

[schneeland]

Scrolling in Safari is the one thing that has constantly been bugging me since I switched to iOS. It's both inconvenient when you want to quickly scroll longer pages and inconsistent with the rest of the system; to make it worse, it also affects web views in many apps (e.g. Facebook, Kickstarter), so that change would be most welcome.

 

[Jsameds]

Is Safari...scrollier?

 

[itsmilo]

Never understood why they didnt add the faster scrolling depending on how fast u scroll into Safari. Patents? It would be the most obvious app to need it imo

 

[d5aqoëp]

I HATE the scrolling in AMP pages and tap the chain icon to load full page just for Apple's awesome scrolling. But it would be damn funny to know that Apple wants to regress in this area and join the ranks of Android for inaccurate and uncontrolled web-page scrolling.

 

[Sharkoneau]

Wasn't this already possible with -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;

Yes and no. That can be a good method for smoothing out the scrolling on problem elements, but as someone who dabbles in web design (and tried implementing that) it made no discernible difference for my pages

 

[Swift]

When will somebody file a report on AMP, which provides for sloppy sites to remain sloppy?

 

[AngerDanger]

I always liked ice levels in video games. Super pumped that Safari is getting one!

 

[gigapocket1]

Just being back the ability to start interacting with the page when you hit the back button. Instead of that 2 second delay where you can't interact with the webpage

 

[TMRJIJ]

Safari is Scrollier... nope. Doesn't work.

I don't care much about the difference between AMP and non AMP speeds. I can wait two more seconds.
I just want the ability to scroll all the way to the bottom of a page without exercising my fingers kinda like the way we just tap at the top to go back to the beginning of the page.
I feel like some MR members type paragraphs worth of posts just to piss off iOS users.

 

[v0lume4]

So Safari will FINALLY become more snappy!

I used to use a jailbreak tweak that allowed for faster scrolling. I never realized how slow scrolling was in Safari by default, until I installed this tweak. I'm surprised that Apple doesn't allow scrolling speed customization.

Indeed! It wasn't until I got an Android phone that I realized how slow the iOS scrolling is. Now, whenever I use a family member's iPhone when viewing a webpage, I feel like it takes so much effort just to scroll anywhere. It takes multiple swipes to really get that momentum scrolling going on.

Strangely, in iOS, scrolling in the Mail or Messages app is much faster than in Safari. I wonder why the speed isn't consistent across all apps within iOS?

 

[HarryT]

I must be blind. What's the difference in scrolling? Tried both the AMP page and macrumors.com and thought scrolling was the same on both (iPhone 7 Plus latest iOS).

 

[bigjnyc]

I might be in the minority here but scrolling on those AMP websites feels worse to me. it feels a little choppy and not smoother at all...worst of all it feels a little androidish

 

[dontwalkhand]

How about Google AMP just go away? Links never work and I always accidentally scroll sideways and get a totally different page. Stop Google from trying to make itself the internet.

 

[mcdspncr]

It's gonna be snappier

 

[design couch]

Yes and no. That can be a good method for smoothing out the scrolling on problem elements, but as someone who dabbles in web design (and tried implementing that) it made no discernible difference for my pages

As someone who makes their living in web design, I can say that this very much fixes scrolling issues for containers that have content overflowing. The key to understanding this is that it affects MOBILE Safari.

 

[d5aqoëp]

AMP should be destroyed. I think Google has done it intentionally to cripple the browsing experience on iOS phones. Now Google is pointing fingers at Apple for AMP being buggy!

Well Google, stop shoving your crap down our throats.

I have actually stopped browsing on macrumours from my iPhone. The comments were not loading on articles.
AMP scrolling reminds me of the terrible Android scrolling experience. You are either at the top or bottom of the page. No in-between.

 

[slimothy]

How about it scrolls faster than normal iOS Safari, but slower than AMP. AMP just feels sloppy and unpolished IMO.

 

[JesperA]

As someone who makes their living in web design, I can say that this very much fixes scrolling issues for containers that have content overflowing. The key to understanding this is that it affects MOBILE Safari.

Agreed, without it my divs feels like i am trying to move Mt Everest, they behave like immovable object, with it, they are much smoother.