If you receive feedback that elements of your website (like buttons) are slow to respond on mobile devices, the issue may be related to the app that users are viewing the site in.


If the user clicked onto your site through a social media app like Facebook or Instagram, they will be viewing it within the web browser of that app. The browser for Instagram, in particular, is known to be slow - so if there are a lot of assets on your webpage then they may not all work correctly (especially for older mobile devices).


To replicate this scenario and see if the app browsers are part of the issue, you can follow the below steps.


Facebook

  1. Log into a Facebook account
  2. Create a post with the link of the webpage that is having issues
  3. On a mobile device and in the Facebook app, click on the post link
  4. Review the issue


Instagram

  1. Log into an Instagram account using the mobile app
  2. Change the profile's bio link to the webpage that is having issues
  3. Click on the bio link
  4. Review the issue


Previously we have found that a 'broken element' like a button does work, but may take several clicks before it responds.


When a webpage has a lot of content on it - especially large images - it takes a longer time for the app browsers to load it. One way to counteract this is to optimise pages to be more mobile-friendly, focusing on pages which are likely to be visited on mobile devices - like pages you are using for social media campaigns.


For these mobile-first pages, you can 

  • Reduce the amount of images (and use smaller ones)
  • Reduce the text and paragraph size
  • Focus on one call-to-action button that you want to direct users to


If you'd like more advice or assistance with mobile-first content, we're happy to help - just send us a ticket and we'll be in touch.