Bubble has earned its reputation as one of the most powerful no-code platforms, and if you have tinkered with it even briefly, you have seen why. You drag, you drop, you connect a few workflows, and suddenly you’ve got something real that you can share with the world.
The mobile editor is a natural extension of that process. It’s meant to help you tweak your layouts so they look just right on phones and small screens, which is where most of your users are actually going to experience your app.
But here’s the honest truth…
What feels buttery smooth when you’re designing in the desktop editor can turn sticky the moment you flip over to the mobile view. You try to drag an element and it freezes. A repeating group stutters as you preview it. Or you tap a button in mobile preview, and it just refuses to respond.
It’s frustrating, especially when you’re on a deadline or you just want to polish up a design. The good news is that these glitches don’t mean your app is broken. They’re really just side effects of how Bubble handles layouts and responsive rules in tighter, mobile-friendly conditions. Once you understand why these issues happen and you learn a few tricks to simplify your pages, the mobile editor suddenly feels much less painful.
In this post, we’ll chat about why the Bubble mobile editor behaves differently, the usual suspects behind those slowdowns, and some practical ways to make the building process smoother.
Why the Mobile Editor Feels Different
On the desktop, the editor has all the room in the world. You can spread out your groups, drag elements wherever you want, and the engine doesn’t have to recalculate too much.
On mobile, though, every pixel counts. That smaller screen size means your design depends on layers of responsive conditions and collapsible groups. Each of those rules adds to the editor’s workload.
So when you move an element on the mobile canvas or hit preview, Bubble is busy recalculating the size and behavior of every single thing on the page. If you’ve stacked on dozens of conditions or nested groups, those calculations pile up fast. What feels like a glitch is often just the editor working overtime behind the scenes.
Common Causes of Mobile Editor Glitches
Too Many Responsive Rules
A classic slowdown comes from overloading your page with conditional logic. For example, let’s say one text box changes font size at three different breakpoints, hides when the screen shrinks below 400 pixels, and swaps color when the screen is wider than 600 pixels. That’s five separate rules on one tiny element. Multiply that across your whole page, and suddenly the editor is juggling hundreds of conditions every time it redraws the canvas.
The fix isn’t to ditch conditions altogether. If two or three rules lead to the same outcome, merge them into one. That way, the editor has fewer checks to make, and you get smoother movement when designing.
Spacer Overload
A lot of builders use invisible groups as spacers to control layout. It works, but every invisible box is another layer Bubble.io has to calculate. On mobile, those layers add up. Instead, lean on container gaps and padding settings. They give you the same breathing room but with way less overhead, and your layouts stay more consistent across breakpoints.
Heavy Image Files
Big images can look fantastic on desktop, but they’re notorious for dragging down mobile previews. When you drop a high-resolution image into a mobile page, the editor has to load that heavy file and keep adjusting the layout while it finishes. If your app uses dynamic images, make sure you’re serving lighter versions on mobile. Bubble.io actually has built-in image processing that can deliver smaller files automatically.
Workflows on Page Load
If your page is running a pile of workflows the moment it loads, don’t be surprised when the preview stutters. Think of actions like setting custom states, fetching user data, or switching themes as they all fire at once, and the editor has to keep up. On mobile, where devices aren’t as powerful, the lag shows up even more. A simple fix is to delay non-essential workflows until after the page has rendered. Let the page load with default settings, then apply user preferences a second later.
Repeating Groups
Repeating groups are essential for lists, feeds, and dashboards, but they can also slow things down fast. On a mobile screen, you may only show three or four cells at a time, which tempts you to fill each one with conditions, icons, and nested groups. That bloat makes the editor work harder than it needs to. It is important to keep your cell designs lean and stick to fixed row heights when you can.
Conflicting States
Custom states are fantastic for managing navigation or swapping content without reloading the page. But if multiple elements are trying to set states at the same time, they can fight with each other. The result? Flickering layouts and inconsistent styling in the preview. A better approach is to centralize state management into a single parent group that controls everything. That way, your states don’t clash.
Practical Ways to Reduce Glitches
Clean Up Your Data Dependencies
Chained dynamic expressions are sneaky lag producers. If a text box is pulling a user’s option label, which references another data type, which references yet another, the editor has to resolve all those steps before it shows anything. That’s when you notice freezing. Precompute common values or store them locally in lighter fields. You’ll get quicker previews and fewer headaches.
Lean on Reusable Elements
Copying and pasting the same group all over a page adds unnecessary weight. Not only do those groups drift apart over time, but they also multiply the number of elements the editor needs to track. Converting them into reusable elements solves both problems. Your page stays lighter, and your design stays consistent.
Test on Actual Devices
Desktop previews are useful, but they’re not the whole story. Real devices have different CPUs, networks, and touch behaviors. Always check your layouts on a physical phone or a reliable emulator. If a glitch only happens in the editor and not on a device, you can relax. But if it shows up in both, you know it’s time to optimize.
Save in Smaller Steps
We’ve all been there – you’re working smoothly, and suddenly the mobile editor becomes sluggish. The problem is figuring out what caused it. Saving checkpoints more often makes life easier. If today’s version feels good, lock it in. If tomorrow something breaks, you can roll back and isolate the culprit instead of starting from scratch.
Smarter Data Queries
Loading a giant dataset and filtering it on the client side is asking for stutter, especially on mobile. Use server-side constraints instead. Only grab the data you need for the first screen, then load more as the user scrolls.
Design with Touch in Mind
Hover states don’t mean much on a phone. If your buttons only respond to hover, users are going to think they’re broken. Always give buttons clear pressed or focused states and make sure your tap targets are big enough to hit comfortably. That small change alone can make your app feel way less glitchy.
When It’s the Editor, Not You
Sometimes the slowdown has nothing to do with your design. The Bubble editor itself can lag if you’ve had a session open for hours, if your browser is outdated, or if extensions are interfering. Try opening your project in an incognito window or a fresh browser.
If you find issues that are consistent and reproducible, record them. Jot down your browser version, your operating system, and the exact steps that trigger the glitch. Even better, capture a short screen recording. Bubble’s support team relies on detailed reports to squash bugs, so the clearer you are, the faster they can help.
Also, some glitches aren’t technical at all. They come from overcomplicating the design. A mobile page that’s constantly collapsing and expanding sections and rearranging layouts on the fly is always going to feel fragile.
Often, the cleanest solution is to simplify. Split a complex page into two. Cut back on unnecessary hidden panels. Reduce the number of dynamic shifts. The simpler the flow, the less the editor has to juggle, and the smoother your app feels in both preview and production.
Conclusion
The new Bubble mobile editor is a powerful tool, but it has its quirks. Lag and glitches usually come down to complexity, overloaded responsive rules, heavy assets, too many workflows, or design choices that ask the editor to do too much.
The fixes are rarely glamorous, but they’re effective. The solution? Simplify your layouts. Standardize your styles. Test on real devices. Save often. And when glitches come from the editor itself, document them so Bubble’s team can step in.
With a cleaner structure and a more thoughtful approach, you’ll spend less time fighting the editor and more time shipping features.