Hey everyone, hoping to get some clarity on how Bubble handles responsiveness and multi-device compatibility.
I originally built my app as a web app, assuming it would behave like most websites I’ve seen — where the same page just reflows based on screen size. For example, buttons that are laid out horizontally on desktop stack vertically on mobile, or multi-column layouts collapse into a single column. That’s what I expected Bubble to do automatically.
My app had a three-panel layout; all three panels sitting side by side horizontally. When I tried to view it on mobile, nothing reflowed. Half the content was cut off, nothing stacked, nothing adjusted. So I ended up fully rebuilding it for mobile, where all three panels are now arranged vertically. It’s essentially a completely different design, not a few tweaks.
Now I have two separate versions of the same app. And if I want to support tablets too, that’s potentially a third design. It feels like a lot of duplicated work.
So my questions are:
Is this the expected workflow in Bubble, or is there a proper way to design once and have it reflow across screen sizes? I understand there’s a Responsive tab where you can preview different breakpoints, but I couldn’t figure out how to actually make the layout adapt automatically rather than just previewing how broken it looks on smaller screens.
What’s the Native Mobile App option in Settings (currently in beta)? How is that different from what I’m already building, and is it relevant to this problem?
You are correct, and that’s exactly how your site will behave.
The key thing to understand is that this layout reconfiguration is not automatic. It needs to be designed and configured by you, taking into account how each component should behave at different screen sizes.
This is actually very similar to the standard responsive design approach used throughout the industry. If you’ve ever built a website with WordPress, you’ll probably find the concept familiar.
“What is the minimum width a component can have before it forces other elements to wrap onto a new line? What should remain visible, hidden, or appear differently at various screen sizes? At a certain width, should this button become smaller, or should it stretch to occupy the full width of the screen?”
Your key UI elements will require specific responsive settings. At the end of the day, there’s no magic involved. Everything is intentionally configured by you to provide the best possible user experience across different devices and screen sizes.
Below is a link to a video tutorial:
In this case, that option would allow you to build an actual app that can be installed on mobile phones through the App Store or Google Play, as opposed to a responsive website.
