Interface
In short
Why does Reply not fit properly on my phone?
The Reply web app reshapes itself for a phone or tablet browser rather than shrinking a desktop page, so most of it fits. Two groups of screens do not: a handful that are deliberately built for a large screen, such as the sequence builder, and the ones that have not been adapted yet, which still scroll sideways. Separately, the Reply mobile app is a different application with its own sign-in; the two are straightforward to confuse.
Quick fix
- To reach the navigation on a phone, tap the menu button in the page header. On a tablet the navigation sits at the side as a narrow rail of icons.
- If the page you are on has no menu button, go back to one that does and navigate from there.
- If you need the sequence builder, administration, the browser-extension settings or the column-mapping step of an import, switch to a laptop or a desktop. Those are large-screen screens by design.
- If a page makes you scroll sideways, it has not been adapted yet. Turning the phone to landscape usually makes it workable in the meantime.
- If what you actually want is the Reply mobile app, install it from your phone's app store and sign in there; it is not this.
Didn't work? Contact Reply support; the team can check your account directly.
Symptom
Reply in a phone browser mostly looks right: the navigation folds away, panels open over the page and the contacts list turns into cards. Then one screen behaves differently; it runs off the edge and you have to drag it sideways, or there is no way to open the navigation from it, or a button you use on your laptop never appears because it only shows on hover.
This is not the Reply mobile app
These are two different products and it is worth being clear which one you are in.
| Reply in a phone browser | The Reply mobile app | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The same web app, reshaped to fit the screen | A separate application you install |
| Signing in | Your normal Reply session in the browser | Its own sign-in, done in the app |
| What it covers | Everything the web app covers, adapted screen by screen | Your inbox, approvals, the assistant, notifications and your profile |
So "it does not fit on my phone" and "the mobile app does not have this screen" are different problems with different answers. This page is about the first one.
What changes on a small screen
Below tablet width the side navigation collapses to a rail of icons, and on a phone to a menu button in the page header. Panels that normally sit next to the content open over it instead. Dialogs shrink to the width available. The contacts list stops being a wide table and becomes a card per contact.
The four reasons a screen does not fit
1. The screen is meant for a large display
Some parts of Reply are not adapted on purpose, because the work itself needs room:
- the sequence builder canvas, on a phone
- administration screens
- the browser-extension settings
- the column-mapping step when you import contacts from a file
How to recognize it: the screen is cramped or unusable from the first moment, not only at one point in the flow, and it is one of the four above.
What to do: do that piece of work on a laptop or desktop. There is no phone layout coming for these in the near term.
2. That screen has not been adapted yet
Adaptation is going out screen by screen rather than all at once. The main shell and the contacts area are done. Several other areas are still in progress, so you can land on a screen that is still laid out for a desktop and scrolls sideways on a phone.
How to recognize it: the page loads normally and everything works, but it is wider than the screen and you drag left and right to read it.
What to do: landscape gives you more width while you wait. It is useful to tell support which screen it was; that is what moves a screen up the list.
3. There is no menu button on the page you are on
On a phone, the way into the navigation is the button in the page header. A page whose header does not carry one leaves you with no route to the rest of Reply from where you are standing.
How to recognize it: you are on a phone, you want to move somewhere else, and there is nothing in the header to tap.
What to do: use your browser's back button to return to a page that does have one, and navigate from there. Opening Reply's home address again also lands you somewhere with the menu.
4. The control only appears when you hover
A number of controls in Reply are built around a mouse: the row actions that fade in when the pointer is over a row, and tooltips that explain an icon. Touch has no hover, so these are out of reach on a phone.
Touch-reachable equivalents exist in the contacts list today. Elsewhere, a hover-only action stays a desktop action.
How to recognize it: you know a button is there because you use it on your laptop, and on the phone the row shows nothing.
What to do: use the contacts list where it offers the same action, or do that step on a desktop. Tooltips are a desktop extra and are not expected to work by touch at all; the interface should make sense without them.
FAQ
Is this the same as the Reply mobile app?
No. The mobile app is a separate application with its own sign-in, covering your inbox, approvals, the assistant, notifications and your profile. Opening Reply in your phone's browser gives you the web app reshaped for the screen instead. Neither one replaces the other.
Which screens work on a phone?
The main shell (navigation, headers, panels and dialogs) and the contacts area are adapted. Other areas are being added over time. The reliable test is whether the page needs sideways scrolling.
Why can I not build a sequence on my phone?
The builder canvas is one of the parts kept for a large display. It asks you to see a whole multi-step flow and drag pieces of it around, which does not survive being folded into a phone-width column.
Why do I have to scroll sideways on some pages?
Because that page still has its desktop layout. It is not a fault in your browser and clearing anything will not change it; the page has not reached the adaptation queue yet.
Still stuck? Contact Reply support
If these steps didn't solve the problem, the Reply support team can look at your account directly. Open the Reply Help Center and send the team a message.
To get an answer faster, include:
- which screen in Reply it was, and what you were trying to do there
- your device and browser, and whether you were in portrait or landscape
- whether you were in the phone browser or in the Reply mobile app
- a screenshot showing the part that ran off the edge
Don't send passwords, API keys, or access tokens.
Related
- Why does dark mode keep resetting or not appear? – the other thing the theme section controls
- Why can I not sign in? – including signing in on a second device
Build with Reply
The API and MCP work the same from a phone as from a desktop, so an assistant on your phone can reach things the phone layout does not cover yet.
- REST API: docs.reply.io/api-reference · MCP: docs.reply.io/mcp