Question Annoying UI bug in Contacts

[chawke]

I reported this annoying issue to Google a few times since last year, still no fix. This bug seemed to start happening when the contacts interface got an overhaul.

In Google's default Contacts app, when I tap on the Notes area of a contact to edit the notes, the cursor appears where I tap, but the view scrolls all the way to the bottom. This is especially problematic when there is a longer set of notes as it can take a while to find where the cursor / intended edit point is. Typing does not move the view back, I have to manually scroll back. I asked Google to revert it to the previous behavior: wherever I tap in the notes, keep the view where it is; don't scroll all the way to the bottom.

Meanwhile, is anyone aware of a workaround to prevent the view scrolling all the way down? Within the last few weeks I think I saw it behave normally once, but I wasn't aware of doing anything differently and I haven't been able to replicate it.

Latest version of Android on Pixel 7a. Thank you.

 

[VidJunky]

Could you post some screenshots of your Notes area? I have an S24U and my notes area in Google Contacts is maybe 2 lines tall. Wherever I touch it snaps to the top of the box. Now I don't have any contacts with notes but in the one I tested I typed a hundred random words and still can click anywhere and not be snapped to any other portion of the text box.

When you started having this issue is this the same device? I can see how this Google app might be different on the Google Pixel but it is difficult to imagine this issue looking at my app.

You talk a bit about the issue and how long you've been reporting it, but you don't mention any steps you took prior to try and fix the issue. I looked this up to get a feel for the scope of this issue and the found your question at Google Support. It starts off with a few suggestions for how to restore the previous function.

Let us know if you've tried this already. I'm hoping you can fix this.

 

[VidJunky]

This is advice from Google Gemini.

If the cursor in Google Contacts on your Pixel phone is jumping around while creating notes, it could be a bug or a problem with your keyboard settings. One solution is to disable features like predictive text or "Show recently copied text" in your keyboard settings, as they can sometimes cause cursor issues. Another option is to try restarting your phone or updating it to see if the problem resolves. If the issue persists, you can try reporting it to Google via their support channels. [1, 1, 2, 2]

 

[chawke]

I attached a screenshot of an example note: when I hit Edit and place my cursor at "First line", the view jumps all the way to "Last line". The cursor itself is at First line but I have to scroll all the way back up from Last line.

I've tried clearing cache and restarting the phone as per the suggestion provided to the user on the Google forum, but that didn't work, nor disabling settings equivalent to what you listed in your second post.

 

[VidJunky]

OK so after your last post I made my test about a thousand words longer, saved the contact, reopened the contact, touched the box to edit the note and it did indeed leave the cursor where I touched while the box itself snapped up showing the bottom of the box. Looking for a work around I thought I might be able to place the cursor and start typing , thinking it would snap me back to my cursor, but no dice. Tried touching one of the other boxes first, nope. Long pressing a word in the box, nope. Then I started wondering what do other apps do? I tried making big boxes in some other apps that have text boxes but most of them kept the box the same size and scrolled the text. Until I tried Samsung Contacts, big box, no snap. Samsung Contacts still pulls from and adds to your Google Contacts and may have a better interface. Well less annoying for you anyway.

 

[chawke]

OK so after your last post I made my test about a thousand words longer, saved the contact, reopened the contact, touched the box to edit the note and it did indeed leave the cursor where I touched while the box itself snapped up showing the bottom of the box. Looking for a work around I thought I might be able to place the cursor and start typing , thinking it would snap me back to my cursor, but no dice. Tried touching one of the other boxes first, nope. Long pressing a word in the box, nope. Then I started wondering what do other apps do? I tried making big boxes in some other apps that have text boxes but most of them kept the box the same size and scrolled the text. Until I tried Samsung Contacts, big box, no snap. Samsung Contacts still pulls from and adds to your Google Contacts and may have a better interface. Well less annoying for you anyway.

Thanks for testing. Seems Samsung Contacts is only available for Samsung phones, but I could try another third-party app. Cheers. But ideally it would work in the main Android app so if anyone finds a workaround, please share. Thanks.