Products · Broad category
Raised as a usability problem by 353 people on Hacker News over 20 years (2007–2026), in 343 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
Every issue, all time, most people first
Emailed login links arrive about 30 seconds lateUnreviewed
20072026- Email magic links are inconvenient for users to log in with2025-10-25
- Emails with the one-time code don't always arrive right away, so logins stall2025-08-07
- Email login codes take ages and users struggle to find which address they signed up with2025-06-19
Unsubscribing is so hassled that users mark mail as spamUnreviewed
20072026- Marketing emails cannot be unsubscribed from, forcing the user to mark them as spam2026-06-04
- Unsubscribing from newsletters feels never ending, takes many attempts daily2026-03-03
- Cannot unsubscribe from marketing emails it never subscribed to2025-10-11
Signup popups block reading the article until signing upUnreviewed
20072026- Popups block the page and demand an email address while the person is reading2021-05-11
- Popups interrupt reading with email signup invitations, forcing dismissal before content is visible2018-06-06
- Interstitial sign-up popups block content and are hard to dismiss2017-11-29
Stored messages are hard to archive, search and findUnreviewed
20072026- Old emails become effectively unreachable because search is so bad2025-11-12
- Public list archives are less usable for searching than a local email client2024-01-11
- Searching encrypted email means downloading the entire archive first, which is slow and costly2022-08-23
Keeping several people on track means redundant forwards and long threadsUnreviewed
20072026- Email threads are hard to follow2025-02-04
- Email threading is inconsistent and reply-all sends create storms2021-11-19
- Email threads get confusing, with forwarding and constant CC'ing making conversations hard to follow2021-05-12
Email client is weak for heavy email or many mailing listsUnreviewed
20072026- Email interface is a mess even with a good client2023-01-11
- Desktop email clients perform poorly with threads of 25+ replies2022-07-05
- Local email clients freeze with large mailboxes, mishandle threads, and search poorly2022-06-09
HTML email is painful to render consistently across clientsUnreviewed
20072026- Editing complex emails means raw HTML in a browser text field, easy to edit wrong template2024-11-16
- HTML email is hard to get right, so formatting is crap2021-05-26
- HTML emails render misaligned due to broken markup and clutter distracts from the message2019-07-24
Emails are sometimes marked spam or greylisted for 15 minutesUnreviewed
20072026- Emails get lost in the inbox so recipients never reply2026-10-28
- Legitimate mail gets caught, so the user must scan all spam to check2025-09-03
- Work email is flooded with spam, notifications and unnecessary CCs, so real messages get missed2024-01-30
Long signatures and images bury the actual messageUnreviewed
20072026- Long signatures and images clutter emails so the actual message is hard to reach2022-08-28
- Image-heavy signatures in long chains make earlier emails hard to see2022-07-27
- Users must understand and do complicated steps to sign emails, which they don't grasp2019-03-13
Inbox flooded with spam, making it basically unusableUnreviewed
20072026- Too many minor delivery update emails flood the inbox after purchase2025-01-07
- Inbox flooded with thousands of spam emails, making it basically unusable2023-02-20
- Inbox is so junked up with spam it takes a weekend of rule-setting to use2021-09-20
Email encryption has terrible UI that is hard to useUnreviewed
20072026- Email encryption implementations have terrible UI, making them hard to use2023-03-31
- Email's E2E encryption attempts are unusable for people trying to use them2022-02-12
- Email encryption and signing is not doable in most email clients2019-03-13
Replies go to one person instead of all, breaking conversationsUnreviewed
20072026- Reply-all storms and cc-ing make it hard to manage who joins the conversation2021-01-12
- Reply vs reply-all mistakes drop people from conversations; fields and subjects are tedious2018-03-21
- Replies break conversations; reply goes to one person instead of all2012-03-09
Formatted emails are hard for screen readers and translationUnreviewed
20072026- Average HTML email is almost impossible to read without a browser2026-06-16
- Formatted emails are hard for screen readers and machine translation to handle2022-09-12
- Email is terrible for comfortably viewing a stream of images2016-06-03
Email forces a subject line and exact addresses, adding frictionUnreviewed
20072026- Email needs extra steps like a subject line, making quick informal messages friction-heavy2025-03-05
- Email forces a subject line and requires remembering exact addresses, adding friction versus messaging2016-04-19
- Uses 'email' to mean an address rather than a message, so it confuses readers2014-08-27
Tracked links look random and suspicious, resembling phishingUnreviewed
20072026- Tracked links look random and suspicious, so users cannot tell legitimate emails from phishing2026-05-15
- Secure email requires clicking a third-party link, which contradicts its own security warnings2025-10-20
- Email safelink redirects make links awkward and unreliable to follow2024-07-18
Users can't tell if an account exists, so they wait for emails that never comeUnreviewed
20072026- Each extra sign-up hoop makes users drop off, so verifying by email loses many2024-09-28
- Users can't tell if an account exists, so they wait endlessly for emails that never come2022-11-23
- Laggy first run and confusing forced sign-up before adding email accounts2012-12-27
Sending a short reply takes too much frictionUnreviewed
20072026- Email replies take a minute or more; attachments often blocked2022-12-08
- Replying requires 2-3 extra clicks, waiting to send, and cluttered windows2018-04-15
- Sending a short reply takes too much friction and is slow2016-04-26
Automated notifications flood inbox, hiding human messagesUnreviewed
20072026- Notifications pile up with no aggregation, muting or expiry, drowning out human messages2022-11-09
- Unsubscribing does not stop the flood, so inbox fills with 40+ daily noise messages2021-05-12
- Automated notifications flood inbox, can't filter out or find human messages2021-03-24
Confirmation email steps are annoying to go throughUnreviewed
20072026- Confirmation links are so long they wrap and are hard to use in a terminal mail client2022-08-24
- Receipts bounce until the sender clicks a confirmation link they cannot or will not complete2018-10-19
- Typo'd email addresses only discovered later; confirmation emails interrupt user flow and make users hunt for links2013-07-27
Email list wastes screen space, so little fits on screenUnreviewed
20072026- Email becomes unwieldy and needs constant sorting to stay usable2021-04-29
- Visually digesting a constantly changing long email list is a lot of work2016-09-01
- Email list wastes screen space, so little information fits on screen2012-12-26
Threads grouping identical subjects hide documentsUnreviewed
20072026- Hard to track threaded conversations with multiple concurrent subtrees2021-05-12
- Can't find documents because threads group many messages with identical subjects2016-04-20
- Conversations scatter across many single messages, and document copies get edited and re-sent2009-07-10
Quoted messages pile up above the actual replyUnreviewed
20072026- Email threads get messy with quoted replies, mixed fonts and unreadable chains2024-04-27
- Entire thread of quoted messages piles up above the actual reply, confusing readers2020-04-08
- Quoted replies form a mishmash of arrows, making the original message hard to follow2012-11-27
Must switch between the site and email appUnreviewed
20072026- Must switch apps, hunt for email, wait, copy and paste the code2025-08-27
- Getting email to work like a native app takes many convoluted workarounds2014-04-02
- Requires switching between the site and email app, which is bad UX2012-07-29
Users mistype email addresses and mistakes are hard to catchUnreviewed
20072026- Valid email addresses are rejected, so users cannot enter their real address2018-07-28
- Users mistype email addresses and mistakes are hard to catch2018-04-05
- Users mistype email addresses at sign-up and then can't receive password resets2013-09-18
200+ morning emails, 50-70 needing replies, overwhelm processingUnreviewed
20072026- Sifting through many emails takes half an hour daily and reply chains are a pain2014-12-25
- Morning backlog of 200+ emails, with 50-70 needing responses, is overwhelming to process2014-04-30
- Hours spent finding one important email among hundreds all tagged high priority2010-11-09
People miss the email address and look for a form insteadUnreviewed
20072026- People lose emailed data, can't find it, and ask for it again2022-11-12
- People miss the email address and look for a form instead2013-09-30
- Nearly impossible to find an available email username, even by mashing the keyboard2013-07-23
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Emails get lost in the inbox so recipients never reply2026-10-28
- Sign up button at the bottom of the page does not work2026-09-02
- UX changes year to year for no good reason, making apps keep shifting under users2026-08-31
- Fiddly and overly idiot-proof, with only average search capabilities2026-06-23
- Average HTML email is almost impossible to read without a browser2026-06-16
- Marketing emails cannot be unsubscribed from, forcing the user to mark them as spam2026-06-04
- Tracked links look random and suspicious, so users cannot tell legitimate emails from phishing2026-05-15
- Sign-up requires an unfamiliar, unusual flow that users don't recognise2026-04-02
- Document sharing via email aliases is still a painful, confusing process2026-03-06
- Unsubscribing from newsletters feels never ending, takes many attempts daily2026-03-03
- No option to report that a verification email was not requested by the user2026-02-25
- Deleting selects the next message, so a second delete press removes the wrong one2026-02-25
- Toggling review emails off in preferences still results in weekly review emails2026-02-21
- Elderly user gets lost when the attachment button moves, needs remote help to find it2026-01-26
- Old emails become effectively unreachable because search is so bad2025-11-12
- Email magic links are inconvenient for users to log in with2025-10-25
- Secure email requires clicking a third-party link, which contradicts its own security warnings2025-10-20
- Cannot unsubscribe from marketing emails it never subscribed to2025-10-11
- QR codes in emails hide the real link, so people can't check where it goes2025-10-09
- Folders, filters and management make email a second job2025-10-05
- Email can be unwieldy unless users develop a good strategy for managing it2025-10-03
- Legitimate mail gets caught, so the user must scan all spam to check2025-09-03
- Accidentally sends half-written emails when using indentation keys inside the editor2025-09-02
- Must switch apps, hunt for email, wait, copy and paste the code2025-08-27
- Unsubscribing from spam subscriptions daily doesn't reduce incoming junk2025-08-20
- Emails with the one-time code don't always arrive right away, so logins stall2025-08-07
- Can't find a saved address because it's spread across email, Dropbox and Drive2025-08-05
- Can't block promotional emails without risking needed transaction or reset emails2025-07-15
- Email login codes take ages and users struggle to find which address they signed up with2025-06-19
- Login takes many steps: slow email, copy-pasting links, and duplicate tabs left behind2025-06-12
- Sites without passwords force emailing a login link every single time2025-05-15
- Sites with no passwords force email login every time, which is tedious2025-05-14
- New default-on email classification is a nightmare to deal with, must be found and turned off2025-04-23
- Notifications force the user to log into a portal just to see content2025-04-18
- Setting up mail authentication requires professional expertise, which is hard for ordinary operators2025-03-27
- Can't tell if the verification email arrived; resending requires waiting five minutes2025-03-20
- Comparing patchset versions requires manual mailbox searching, applying patches, and range-diffing2025-03-05
- Email needs extra steps like a subject line, making quick informal messages friction-heavy2025-03-05
- Email threads are hard to follow2025-02-04
- Unique per-service email addresses are hard for ordinary users to set up2025-01-25
- Link prefetchers count clicks, so a button is needed and stats mislead2025-01-08
- Too many minor delivery update emails flood the inbox after purchase2025-01-07
- Editing complex emails means raw HTML in a browser text field, easy to edit wrong template2024-11-16
- Dislikes how it handles attachments, enough to avoid it entirely2024-11-14
- Unsubscribing, marking as spam and replying all fail to stop unwanted emails2024-10-01
- Demo blurs out the generated HTML, so users cannot see or use the output2024-10-01
- Mailto links fail without a default mail handler, and phones may open the wrong account2024-09-28
- Each extra sign-up hoop makes users drop off, so verifying by email loses many2024-09-28
- Login emails sometimes never arrive, blocking users from signing in2024-09-09
- Forced email login is slow and annoying for users with non-standard email setups2024-09-08