My thoughts for 2025

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As a dedicated advocate and proud “Bubbler” for five years, I’m optimistic that 2025 could mark a turning point for Bubble.

Let’s be honest, over the past months, or even years, Bubble has earned a reputation for instability and unreliability. This reputation wasn’t entirely undeserved; millions of users across countless apps have been affected by platform issues, often on a weekly basis.

That said, credit must be given where it’s due. In recent months, Bubble has made significant strides, addressing many of the problems that caused frustration. Kudos to the team for the progress!

Now comes the real challenge: sustaining this positive momentum. Bubble must focus on listening to its users, continuing to address issues, and driving consistent improvement. With that in mind, here are the key areas I believe Bubble should prioritize in 2025:

  1. Commitment and transparency
    Bubble’s recent efforts to improve transparency have been fantastic, but there’s still room for growth. Many projects face delays or stagnation: mobile updates, delayed; backend workflow tab, delayed; table element, abandoned; native PDF generation, abandoned; mouse and keyboard interactions, abandoned. While occasional delays are understandable, repeated occurrences undermine trust. If you promise a feature will be ready in one month, four months, or even a year, that’s fine, just commit to that timeline and stick to it.

  2. Performance and stability
    Reliability has improved significantly, but there’s more to be done. Performance is still a key area that needs attention. Bulk actions, loading speeds, SEO optimization, and overall performance must improve. While Bubble isn’t yet the fastest or most efficient tool, sustained effort could make it a benchmark for others.

  3. Effective and fast bug resolution
    This one is simple: bugs need to be resolved quickly and thoroughly. No more “we are unable to complete the fix at this time… we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.” Users expect prompt action, and delays must be minimized.

  4. User authentication
    User authentication has seen little evolution since Bubble’s launch, and it’s overdue for an update. Magic links are a step in the right direction, but what about magic codes (perfect for native apps)? The current system has flaws. For instance, relying exclusively on magic links leaves critical features like updating user credentials dependent on passwords. A more flexible system that offers multiple authentication methods, such as magic links, magic codes, and passwords would address this issue effectively.

  5. Mobile apps
    The potential to build native apps with Bubble is exciting, but the execution still falls short. I’ve tested several native apps built with Bubble, and while they’re decent for beta versions, performance often lags. Bubble must improve speed and incorporate essential native features such as deep links, the Web Share API, payment integrations, and animations. Platforms like Play offer great inspiration for enhancing native app design and functionality.

  6. Workload units
    First, resolve the bugs and concerns users have regarding workload unit tracking and unpredictability, as it appears inconsistent for many. Second, as apps increasingly consume more workload units, particularly with backend workflows now in their own tab, adjust pricing to reflect these changes fairly.

  7. Privacy rules
    It’s time to address the long-standing limitations of privacy rules, such as the infamous “This Thing’s X’s Y can’t grant search access right now” error. Introducing flexible and intuitive privacy rules would be transformative for users.

  8. Outdated features
    Bubble should focus on phasing out outdated features and prioritizing meaningful improvements. For instance, the Font Awesome icons still showcase a dated 2013 aesthetic. It’s time to move forward, users deserve today’s modern options.

  9. Stop chasing trends
    Bubble should resist chasing trends. While AI is exciting and undoubtedly part of the future, is it truly the right focus for now? How many users are clamoring to create pages with AI? Instead of diverting resources to flashy features, Bubble should focus on strengthening its existing tools, enhancing its infrastructure, and delivering the long-promised native app functionality. As the saying goes, “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

  10. Design
    Have you seen some of the latest apps out there? Web apps like Airbnb and Duolingo, or native apps like Flighty and Netflix, they boast stunning animations, seamless performance, and incredible speed. Come on, Bubble, don’t leave us hanging! Let’s bring those same qualities to the Bubble platform.

I’m genuinely excited about Bubble’s potential. To achieve that potential, however, Bubble must act decisively. The time for improvement is now. We trust Bubble, it’s time for Bubble to show that it trusts us in return.

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Well said and some great points there.

There’s a lot of promises but unfortunately more broken than kept.

Hopefully 2025 bubble can deliver.

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One thing I have learned in life is that nobody has any right to be disappointed in a person or entity based on their own expectations of how that person or entity should behave or conduct themselves. But, everybody has a right to be disappointed in a person or entity when they do not do what they said they would, as that effectively sets the expectation, and when people or entities fail to live up to expectations, they become a disappointment.

Im personally a bit concerned about this area…I don’t know but just based on my interactions with support, it seems that they may be short staffed, overburdened and overwhelmed at times. Hopefully Bubble could put an emphasis on ensuring they provide Top Notch Support…failing to do so definitely will continue to erode trust in the platform.

Please upvote this idea to provide what would seem to be a simple feature to implement for an easier approach to user authentication for backend workflows.

I’m just hoping for basic features that enable use to design our apps as we wish…too many limitations on element types at the moment.

Every time I test I see results that do not align with expectations as set by bubble in their public facing pricing sheet and explanations of how WU pricing works. It is also frustrating that every single time I report a WU related bug, I seem to get the same support agent, who 9 out of 10 times on first response provides some seemingly made up explanation to try and explain it away. Comes across as an inscenere in their desire to fix WU related bugs.

That and non-functional bubble plugin elements

YES YES YES…OH WAIT SOMETHING SHINY AND BUZZ WORTHY :dog:

They should be doing more to promote the people and businesses that add so much to the ecosystem, like agencies, full time freelancers, plugin developers, template builders, course creators and content creators to drive more traffic to bubble in the form of new users who can be turned into new bubble subscribers when they engage any of the people or businesses that add so much to the ecosystem.

Instead the focus seems to be create a revolving door of new users and short term subscribers…allow AI to build a functional but not optimal app, let user subscribe to launch, allow WU pricing to cripple the app financial viability, and expect that the concept of AI built apps continue to attract the next wave of new users/short time subscribers. AI is not going to create long term subscribers for bubble, but all of the businesses and people that add to the ecosystem and the products they offer do create long term subscribers.

I’ve heard Bubble founders talk about how much ‘trainers’ help Bubble and how much developers drive bubble success…it seems like they may be losing site of that, or feel AI can do more. :man_shrugging:

AI is not actively promoting their own business (agency/freelancer/course creators) which in turn drives free traffic to bubble since it is the business operator spending their resources on the promotional campaigns, that land them clients and new users for Bubble.

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I’ve observed instances where it seems that some support representatives may lack a deep understanding of the platform or customer needs. This has sometimes led to interactions where basic or unnecessary questions are asked, which can feel frustrating and counterproductive.

I believe this could be addressed with enhanced training for remote employees or hiring individuals with more direct experience with Bubble’s functionality and community needs. A stronger focus on ensuring all team members are aligned with the core mission of the platform would greatly enhance the customer experience.

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I think a lot of these problems could be addressed by allowing the community to help develop and work on features without having to create “second class” plugins. Open source stuff like the table element, let the coders in your community maintain what’s important to us. Serious frameworks should be open source at least partially.

It would require some investment to set it up but it’s worth it in my opinion. Otherwise, the list of unkept promises and abandoned projects will keep growing.