Products · Product
Flutter
Raised as a usability problem by 153 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 100 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Web pages behave like mobile apps, so text can't be selected with mouseUnreviewed
20122026- Text rendered to canvas can't be selected, defined, or translated2025-09-24
- Canvas-rendered pages lose links, text selection, context menus, and smooth scrolling behaviour2025-02-28
- Can't select text or copy-paste anything in Flutter web apps2024-11-17
Scrolling feels choppy and linear, not elastic like iOSUnreviewed
20122026- Apps with a platform view on screen become janky, sub-30fps while scrolling2024-01-31
- Scrolling feels wrong because it lacks native system scroll acceleration and speed2023-08-14
- Scrolling doesn't work properly and the app is hard to use2021-05-12
Slow loading and lag while images load, low frame rateUnreviewed
20122026- Every interaction including scrolling is noticeably laggy and drops frames on iPhone2025-02-28
- Example takes 20 seconds to load and scrolls choppily2024-10-26
- Slow loading, awkward scrolling, lag while images load, low frame rate2023-05-31
Cross-platform apps differ in spell-check, text selection and shortcutsUnreviewed
20122026- Cross-platform UI gives non-standard UX that differs from native iOS and Android2019-08-15
- Apps not following platform conventions are harder to navigate, since users can't reuse their habits2019-05-07
- Apps built with cross-platform frameworks behave differently from native apps, frustrating users with spell-check, text selection, and shortcut differences2018-12-04
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
- Very hard to install and work with, so distributions lag behind releases2026-08-23
- Flutter apps have poor text rendering, selection and scrolling behaviour compared with native2026-06-14
- Page background flashes white after each tap and shows a long blank loading screen2026-01-21
- Custom rendering breaks accessibility and makes apps feel broken and unnatural2025-11-13
- Design choices are inconsistent and counterintuitive, making simple tasks hard to figure out2025-11-06
- Flutter apps' scrolling and touch feel unnatural and out of place on iOS2025-10-24
- Text rendered to canvas can't be selected, defined, or translated2025-09-24
- Flutter web UI is stuttery and unresponsive with high latency on Firefox2025-04-13
- Every interaction including scrolling is noticeably laggy and drops frames on iPhone2025-02-28
- Canvas-rendered pages lose links, text selection, context menus, and smooth scrolling behaviour2025-02-28
- Dark mode toggle animates choppily, around 2fps, even on high-end GPUs2025-02-28
- Web versions of the apps feel laggier than the installed app2025-02-22
- Flutter apps look subtly off from native iOS and macOS, so users can tell they aren't native2025-02-05
- Byzantine, seemingly unsolvable setup errors forcing repeated full reinstalls2025-01-23
- Can't select text or copy-paste anything in Flutter web apps2024-11-17
- Scrolling is janky with no momentum or overscroll, and carousel scroll triggers browser back navigation2024-11-03
- Mobile-style desktop UIs lack information density and configurability, and bury things in deep modal layers2024-10-29
- Flutter UI text cannot be selected, so users can't copy messages or content2024-10-29
- Draws its own widgets, so making controls look native per platform needs parallel UIs2024-10-29
- Canvas-rendered web apps have poor scrolling, text, input, and working links2024-10-29
- Flutter UI text can't be copied, blocking screen readers, translation and understanding of buttons2024-10-29
- Example takes 20 seconds to load and scrolls choppily2024-10-26
- Flutter web links don't work as real links and scrolling and text handling are poor for users2024-10-07
- Making two-way scrollbars work is a horror show, requiring nesting and confusing tutorials2024-10-04
- Had to search Stack Overflow for everything because Dart was unfamiliar2024-08-13
- Flutter web apps break normal browser conveniences like links, context menus and shortcuts2024-08-12
- Spent a ridiculous amount of time centering something on screen across orientations2024-07-25
- Scrolling, clicks and screen-reader support feel broken or laggy in the web version2024-07-09
- Hidden a11y toggle; screen reader gets generic nodes without semantics, decorative logos appear as nodes2024-07-09
- Global singleton pattern makes even small codebases hard to navigate2024-07-01
- Zoom with letterboxing and gesture handling fails; fast swipe navigation basically never works2024-06-04
- Flutter lacks proper pinch-zoom; existing InteractiveViewer doesn't re-layout children or respect platform scroll behavior2024-06-03
- Cupertino widgets misalign icons, mismatch page animations, and make pinch-zoom gallery gestures nearly impossible2024-06-03
- Screen reader users must opt in, then double tap, and lists only expose on-screen items2024-05-18
- Custom-drawn UIs lose discoverability, accessibility and power-user shortcuts of standard controls2024-04-10
- Flutter apps feel janky, dropping frames while scrolling even on new phones2024-04-08
- Flutter apps feel janky and out of place, with platform UI weirdness2024-04-08
- Text can't be selected, looked up, or read by accessibility tools2024-04-02
- Flutter web version has slow performance and long load times2024-02-11
- Flutter apps on iOS drop to very low frame rate, noticeably laggy to interact with2024-01-31
- Apps with a platform view on screen become janky, sub-30fps while scrolling2024-01-31
- State management is painful and hard to get right2023-12-26
- Build system is arcane and nobody understands it, so it breaks unexpectedly2023-12-19
- Flutter web apps are slow and feel horrible to interact with2023-12-10
- Pure-canvas rendering makes web apps unpleasant and breaks normal browser behaviors2023-12-02
- Text fields feel different from native ones, so typing feels alien2023-11-24
- Users can't select text and the back button doesn't work2023-11-24
- Hard to find where UI code gets executed; hard things much harder2023-11-24
- Widgets imitate platform looks inconsistently and feel slow to interact with2023-09-29
- Scrolling feels wrong because it lacks native system scroll acceleration and speed2023-08-14