[Bug]: Android mobile app renders overlapping text and UI elements in chat messages

[Wizhill05]

Before submitting

• I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
• I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.

Area

apps/mobile

Steps to reproduce

1. Open the T3 Code Android app on the latest update.
2. Open any conversation containing assistant responses with timestamps, copy actions, or markdown lists with repository link badges.
3. Scroll through the messages and observe the layout of chat bubbles, timestamps, and list items.

Expected behavior

Text and UI elements should render with independent positioning:

• Timestamps and action buttons (like the copy icon) should occupy their designated space without colliding with message text.
• Bullet points, link badges (such as GitHub icons), and text labels should align with proper spacing.

Actual behavior

Following the latest Android app update, several layout overlap regressions occur:

• In chat bubbles, timestamps and action buttons (such as the copy icon) render directly on top of the message text.
• In markdown lists containing links, the badge icon renders on top of the first characters of the item text instead of inline or padded to the left.

The previous update did not have these layout issues.

Impact

Major degradation or frequent failure

Version or commit

Android mobile app: latest release from Google Play Store (regression introduced in the current update)

Environment

• OS: Android
• Client: T3 Code Android App (latest Play Store version)

Logs or stack traces

N/A (UI layout rendering regression in the mobile client)

Screenshots, recordings, or supporting files

1. Timestamp and copy icon overlapping chat text:
   

2. Link badge icons overlapping list item text:
   

Workaround

Backing out of the conversation and reopening it occasionally forces a redraw. Viewing the thread on desktop or web avoids the issue.

[juliusmarminge]

Thanks for the screenshots — this looks like a real Android chat layout bug, not a server/provider issue. Web/desktop reading the same thread is expected: those surfaces do not use the mobile Android markdown + LegendList path.

What we think is going on

There are two overlapping-but-distinct failures in apps/mobile. Treating them as one already-fixed PR would be wrong.

1. Timestamp + copy painted on assistant text

The first screenshot is right-aligned 12:29 AM then the copy control sitting on the following assistant lines. In ThreadFeed.tsx that chrome is a normal row under the user bubble (justify-end, timestamp then copy) or under the assistant body (copy then timestamp) — not an overlay. This matches the “chrome-over-prose” reports on #5340 (timestamp/copy on the first assistant line; work-log chrome through a paragraph).

#5340 was closed as fixed by #10983 (Android LegendList keeps itemLayoutAnimation undefined so rows stay on the non-animated positioning path). That merge is 2026-09-09. Play Store 1.1.0 was called out on #5340 as 2026-09-07, so a current store build can still show this even if main is better. #10983 also does not claim to fix inline markdown icons.

The leave-and-reopen workaround fits stale row measurement / a remount, same family as #5340 / #10983.

2. Link / file badges on the first letters of list items

The second screenshot is GitHub marks drawn on the first characters of bullet labels. Android chat markdown has used the selectable renderer since #8779 (SelectableMarkdownText.android.tsx → @t3tools/mobile-markdown-text). Off iOS that falls back to React Native Text with nested Image icons (MarkdownTextPrimitive.tsx, NativeMarkdownSelectableText.ios.tsx).

#11079 tried a broader icon-alignment fix and was reverted in #11098. Open #11118 only keeps the Android TextView on a SpannableStringBuilder so icons stay vertically aligned. It explicitly does not fix timestamp/copy overlap or icon wrapping. We should not close this issue when that PR lands unless someone has checked this “icon on the first letters” crop.

#8779 (selectable Android markdown, merged 2026-09-04) is the most likely store-visible change behind “the previous update did not do this.”

Related

• [Bug]: Android thread content overlaps after switching directly between threads #5340 (closed) — same timestamp/copy-over-body class; fix (fix(mobile): prevent Android chat rows overlapping during sync #10983) may not be in the Play Store build yet
• fix(mobile): prevent Android chat rows overlapping during sync #10983 — sync / thread-switch row overlap; different from icon-on-text
• fix(mobile): keep Android markdown icons aligned #11118 — vertical markdown icon drift only
• fix(mobile): keep Android markdown icons aligned with text #11079 / Revert "fix(mobile): keep Android markdown icons aligned with text" #11098 — broader icon fix, reverted
• [Bug]: Mobile app chat messages render overlapping / garbled text #10846 — iOS garbled body glyphs; different platform
• feat(mobile): make chat text selectable on Android #8779 — Android selectable markdown

Not marking as duplicate of #5340 (closed, and this report adds a live icon bug) or as already fixed by #11118.

Next step

Keep this open.

1. Please add the exact Play Store version / versionCode if you have it (Settings or Play Store listing). That tells us whether you are still on pre-fix(mobile): prevent Android chat rows overlapping during sync #10983 1.1.0.
2. Engineering: reproduce screenshot 1 on current main. If it is gone, the next Android store/native build should clear the timestamp/copy case. If it is still there, fix(mobile): prevent Android chat rows overlapping during sync #10983 is incomplete.
3. Engineering: reproduce screenshot 2 on main, then on a build with fix(mobile): keep Android markdown icons aligned #11118. If badges still cover the first letters, that needs a follow-up in apps/mobile/modules/t3-markdown-text (inline Image width / span measurement), not only the Spannable factory.

Device from screenshot EXIF: Vivo PD2193F. Workaround you already have (leave thread / use web or desktop) is still the right one until a store build with the feed + markdown native fixes ships.

[Wizhill05]

Yeah, I just updated to the latest Play Store version, 1.1.0, and I don't remember which version I was in previously where this bug was not there. After coming to this newest version, the error is just a lot buggy, in my opinion. Many a time, it has happened that when I open a thread, it just does not load itself, neither the chat bar nor the chat itself. Sometimes the chat bar loads, but the chat itself does not load. These kinds of bugs are there. As you asked, it is the latest 1.1.0 version from the Google Play Store.

[xob0t]

App version 1.1.0

[amihos]

Still reproducing today (2026-09-11) on Android 1.1.0 (Play Store), on the OnePlus 7 Pro (GM1910, OxygenOS 11 / Android 11) from my earlier report on #5340.

#10983 hasn't reached Android

#5340 was closed as fixed by #10983, but the fix never shipped to Android. It isn't in the 1.1.0 store build, and the production OTA skipped Android:

• The production run for #10983 published the update for iOS only (runtime 055ec5b3…). For Android it computed the fingerprint and published nothing.
• The last Android update on the production channel came from this run on 2026-09-07 at 19:19 UTC (runtime 2088dbe8…). I checked the logs of all 54 Mobile EAS Production runs since then, up to today's 06:50 UTC run. None of them published for Android. iOS kept getting updates until Sep 10.

So a Play Store 1.1.0 install is still running that Sep 7 update. Store users can't confirm or rule out the fix until an Android build that includes #10983 is public. Could this issue stay open until then? Happy to re-test once one ships.

What the screenshot shows

This is the whole-row form, not just the timestamp/copy row sitting on body text:

• At least three consecutive assistant messages are painted into the same band, interleaved line by line. For example, a Verification list sits on top of an "I opened PR [bug] I can't close the View diff sidepanel? #935…" message, and a Branches list sits on top of a Checks: bullet.
• An assistant line ("Opening the PR from the feature branch now.") is drawn inside the composer, under its placeholder.
• The Worked for 43s › work-log row renders below the composer, outside the feed.
• Rows are out of chronological order. The 12:16 PM user bubble ("Yes") sits level with a 12:17 PM assistant footer, and a 12:09 PM footer sits under text from a later message.
• the boxes are redacted information

[vizvamitra]

Let me add my 5 cents. Pixel 9a, android 16, app version 1.1.0

[MDHaarith]

Same problem here.

[bsteuber]

OK I can't use this app anymore until a fix ships. This is insane..

EDIT: I've just asked Astra to build me an apk and that works fine now

[amihos]

Friendly check-in from the Android art gallery 🎨

Every time I open a thread, the app finds a new, creative way to present my data. Today's piece, "Still Life with File Icons": the text has left the building, only the TS / React / JSON / Markdown badges remain floating in the void, and one M↓ is trying to escape through the composer 😂

(Still Play Store 1.1.0. This looks like a cousin of the inline-icon case, #2 in the triage above: the prose vanished entirely and only the badges were drawn.)

A less artistic data point: no production run since Sep 7 has published an Android OTA, not even after the Android production builds kicked off on Sep 12, 13 (×2), 14 and 15 (the 1.2.0 one). iOS gets an OTA after each of its builds; the latest run published iOS only again. So either those Android builds aren't finishing, or CI's Android fingerprint never matches theirs.

Is 1.2.0 the Play release that will carry #10983 (and #11611, if it lands)? Happy to re-test on my OnePlus 7 Pro the moment it's out.

[MDHaarith]

@amihos I think the just left Android users aside. Android hasn't been had an update since I downloaded it. I am using it for about 2 to 3 months.

[juliusmarminge]

@amihos I think the just left Android users aside. Android hasn't been had an update since I downloaded it. I am using it for about 2 to 3 months.

Lol android got updated last week just like iOS did... another release is coming shortly for both platforms

[MDHaarith]

@juliusmarminge Yeah I know it was on sep 7. But I feel like nothing has changed tbh. I don't know whether I didn't notice or is it something different. But please this can be much better. I hope you notice it as well.