Pull-to-refresh is bad design.

[Ertio]

I am sure most of you are familiar with the "pull-to-refresh" touch screen gesture. You know, that thing that refreshes when you pull against the top.

 

It goes by several names, including "pull-down-to-refresh", "swipe-to-refresh", "pull-to-reload".

 

The pull-to-refresh gesture, has become a de-facto standard in mobile apps. We have accepted it without questioning how useful it actually is, and more importantly, whether it might be doing more harm than good. It's time we question it.

 

Pull-to-refresh seems like a helpful shortcut at the first glance, but there is more here than meets the eye.

 

Pull-to-refresh does more harm than good.

 

Unwantedly refreshing a page while scrolling up is one of the most frustrating parts of using a smartphone.

 

Unwanted refreshes occur when you swipe down to scroll up, then you didn't realize quick enough that you already reached the top, pull down again, and initiate an unwanted refresh.

 

That's because the pull-to-refresh gesture creates ambiguity when swiping down. The result of swiping down becomes unclear. It is no longer that swiping down does exactly the one straightforward thing of scrolling up, but it might cause a refresh.

 

The presence of the pull-to-refresh gesture forces the user to pay attention with each swipe down to avoid triggering a refresh accident. Scrolling up is necessary far more frequently than refreshing content, so most of the time, refreshing is an unwanted effect of pulling down.

 

Now, refreshing might seem like something harmless, even something positive, but that's not always true.

 

Destructive refreshes

 

Refreshing isn't always harmless. Refreshing can be destructive since it clears all input from the page.

If you were playing audio or video from a website, a refresh forces you to seek the last position again.

If you were writing a text and just wanted to scroll to the top but swipe down one time too much, say good-bye to your hard work!

Pull-to-refresh is in effect "pull-to-delete".

If you were browsing a feed, a refresh kicks you out of the current position and you lose the last seen post.

 

Google made it mandatory in mobile Chrome.

Once upon a time, someone working at Google had a thought. That thought was: "Twitter has this thing that where you pull down at the top, it refreshes. How about we implement the same thing in our web browser?"

 

And with that, the most disastrous addition to Chrome for Android was born.

 

Both tech giants Google and Apple have made pull-to-refresh mandatory in their mobile web browsers. This means it is impossible to turn it off. Google used to have the mercy to let users turn pull-to-refresh off, but in 2019, they took that option away. Chinese giant Xiaomi also made it mandatory in their browser.

 

To get rid of pull-to-refresh, all Android users can do is switching to Samsung Internet because at least Samsung has the decency to let users turn this utter nonsense off.

 

But Samsung Internet lacks a different vital feature, the ability to save pages into the download folder. Samsung saves pages in a private locked-down location where the files can only be accessed through Samsung Internet on that one phone. The data can not be backed up or moved to a new device, so if you switch devices, you can't take your saved pages with you. It's called data lock-in. But that's a topic for another day.

 

Pull-to-refresh does not save time.

Pull-to-refresh is often slower to access than a refresh button since pull-to-refresh requires that the user is viewing the top end of the page.

If someone actually wants to refresh a web page, they can use a refresh button that can be accessed in half a second from a submenu.

 

Conclusion

I would love to see blindly accepted destructive design trends die out. Pull-to-refresh is one of those trends.

[Godlygamer23]

I have the issue with TechPowerUp's website where it's something similar, but opposite - scrolling down to go to the next page , and it's more sensitive than Apple's implementation within their browser for pull-down-to-refresh. Many times I've scrolled to the bottom, only to end up going to the next page. But I don't have an issue with pull-down-to-refresh on my iPhone XR.

[SpookyCitrus]

Hmm, I've never had issues. I don't think in my using of smartphones, since forever, have I accidentally refreshed a page. I've had pull-down-to refresh be stubborn and not work when I've wanted it to. But I've never had it refresh a page using the gesture unintentionally. Also it's a gesture that's not always enabled. It's only enabled on apps where refreshing is an option. Most messaging apps don't have it enabled, when on an actually integrated mobile site when inside of a textbox it's automatically disabled. This kind of a niche gripe, if I'm being honest.

[Hellowpplz]

  On 7/19/2024 at 7:54 AM, Ertio said:

the most disastrous

idk man

 

Personally have never had issues, it makes you push down quite a bit for it to work so i've never done it on purpose, if anything only occasionally will it NOT do it when I want it to. What I do wish to see die is web browsers that COMPLETELY REMOVE the physical refresh button.

Also those websites that hide the navigation menu until you scroll to the very top

[Ertio]

  On 7/19/2024 at 8:11 AM, SpookyCitrus said:

I don't think in my using of smartphones, since forever, have I accidentally refreshed a page.

Perhaps you use shorter strokes than me while scrolling. I use long strokes. I like to race to the top of the page, not walk on eggshells.

 

I'd prefer to use a scrollbar or a "go to top" button, but many apps still don't have those basic features as of 2024.

 

The pull-to-refresh gesture also interferes with zooming. If you try to zoom in while at the top, it might detect that you were trying to pull down to refresh. If there is no pull-to-refresh gesture, it can not make this misdetection.

[Hellowpplz]

  On 7/19/2024 at 3:50 PM, Ertio said:

The pull-to-refresh gesture also interferes with zooming. If you try to zoom in while at the top, it might detect that you were trying to pull down to refresh. If there is no pull-to-refresh gesture, it can not make this misdetection.

also hasn't happened to me but I don't find myself zooming in often so I can't say

  On 7/19/2024 at 3:50 PM, Ertio said:

Perhaps you use shorter strokes than me while scrolling. I use long strokes. I like to race to the top of the page, not walk on eggshells.

 

I'd prefer to use a scrollbar or a "go to top" button, but many apps still don't have those basic features as of 2024.

 

The pull-to-refresh gesture also interferes with zooming. If you try to zoom in while at the top, it might detect that you were trying to pull down to refresh. If there is no pull-to-refresh gesture, it can not make this misdetection.

Expand  

most web browsers ive used have physics if that makes any sense. I swipe, I let go, and itll keep going depending on how quick my swipe was.

[E-waste]

Firefox allows no pull-to-refresh by default, and it allows addons with Android.