iPad/Touch Editor Workflow - Issues/Future for on the go editing

Hey everyone, new-ish member here and I’ve recently started dabbling in Construct 3. so far, I’m really enjoying it and it's starting to click with me.

I wanted to ask about using Construct 3 on an iPad Pro, because I’m running into some serious issues and I’m not sure whether this is expected behaviour or something on my end, and I didn't think it warranted a bug report.

On my iPad Pro (8 GB RAM, latest iPadOS), the editor becomes very difficult to use with touch alone, unusable sometimes. Pinch to zoom and zoom out, often gets stuck or locked with flickering of textures and similar weird flickers when zoomed in, and I’m usually unable to zoom back out. This seems to happen more often in certain projects, like the Demonaire example on the default starting layout. On top of that, left/right clicking alludes me besides a long press, and touch controls in general feel unreliable. Without a keyboard and mouse, it ends up feeling more like a proof of concept than a practical on the go workflow, which is fine if that's intended.

I’ve read some older discussions mentioning limitations or quirks when using touch devices with the editor, and I understand that desktop is still the recommended way to work. However, since this doesn’t happen in all projects, I’m wondering if I might have a setting wrong or if some example projects are particularly problematic on touch devices, and are touch controls a experience the developers intend to be there?

The reason I’m asking is that I’m seriously considering subscribing to Construct. I’m on the move a lot, and a browserbased editor that also works offline is incredibly appealing as I mainly do art. When it does work smoothly, I really like the event system, the TypeScript support, and how active the dev team is.

I should also mention that on my desktop (M1 Max Mac, Safari), I run into smaller odd issues as well. I’m not using any extensions on macOS or Safari, which makes me wonder if this is browser related and should I be using Chrome or such.

So the goal of this post is really to get community feedback and start a discussion around a few questions:

- Is the mobile/touch use of the Construct 3 editor considered a core, supported feature, or more of a secondary/experimental use case compared to desktop browsers? Can we expect it to improve or be as native as Desktop.

- Is using “Desktop Mode View” on iPad the recommended one, or is the mobile view there for performance reasons.

- Are there specific settings, gestures, recommended when using Construct 3 on an iPad?

- Should Safari be avoided for Construct 3? Is Chrome or another browser generally more stable or better supported for touch devices?

- Has anyone found a genuinely comfortable way to work with Construct 3 on iPad without a keyboard and mouse? I have used a keyboard and mouse, it works on iPad linked but iPad is just bit weird with them, but that could be the brand I have.

Really appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this and give some honest discussion and feedback, keen to get involved in the community. Thanks in advance, happy new year all.

I think using a touch device for any sort of game development is really adding another layer of difficulty to an already a very difficult challenge. Could you not just buy a cheap laptop?

I think using a touch device for any sort of game development is really adding another layer of difficulty to an already a very difficult challenge. Could you not just buy a cheap laptop?

Hey, thanks for the response. Yeah, I understand that. I mentioned I have a laptop too, but I do a lot on my iPad. Working on an iPad, if possible, is a boon for travel. I understand it's more of a challenge, which is why I am curious if it’s an actual possible workflow the Devs are working on to improve or make a more viable option.

I did test Godot for iPad once, but it's paid. However, it works very well.

Why not this: use Construct 3 in Desktop Mode on your iPad and use a Keyboard and Mouse. Then you have the "proper" experience on an iPad ;)

I tried out Demonoire on an iPad running iOS 26.2 and was both surprised and not surprised to find it did look pretty awful with a lot of flickering. Surprised because I didn't know that was happening before, and not surprised because developing for Safari is a total nightmare largely due to Apple's negligence. It looks like the flickering only happens with the new WebGPU renderer that is only supported in Safari 26+ and it's OK with the older WebGL renderer. Given we're waiting on Apple to fix a known flickering bug with WebGPU we just released r466.2 that disables WebGPU in Safari for the time being, so if you try it again on your iPad with the latest Construct update, it should be working a lot better.

As I mentioned, due to Apple's negligence Safari is the most buggy and worst supported major browser, so I would strongly recommend using any other browser on macOS. On iOS unfortunately due to Apple's brazenly anticompetitive browser engine ban, all iOS browsers at the moment are just skins over Safari, so you can't escape it. Hopefully our latest update helps though.

The mobile version of Construct is designed mainly for reviewing and tweaking. It doesn't support all editor features because in many cases it would require a significant redesign or upgrade to properly support touch input, and especially if it's meant to support screens as small as a phone. And as mentioned even if it did support everything, it may well be the case nobody wants to do that kind of heavy development on a mobile device anyway. So for now we're leaving the mobile editor as a sort of lighter editor.

You can however open Settings and change UI mode to 'Desktop', and use the full desktop UI on a mobile device like an iPad. It should work particularly well if you have a keyboard and mouse attached, in which case it should function pretty much the same as a laptop!

I tried out Demonoire on an iPad running iOS 26.2 and was both surprised and not surprised to find it did look pretty awful with a lot of flickering. Surprised because I didn't know that was happening before, and not surprised because developing for Safari is a total nightmare largely due to Apple's negligence. It looks like the flickering only happens with the new WebGPU renderer that is only supported in Safari 26+ and it's OK with the older WebGL renderer. Given we're waiting on Apple to fix a known flickering bug with WebGPU we just released r466.2 that disables WebGPU in Safari for the time being, so if you try it again on your iPad with the latest Construct update, it should be working a lot better.

As I mentioned, due to Apple's negligence Safari is the most buggy and worst supported major browser, so I would strongly recommend using any other browser on macOS. On iOS unfortunately due to Apple's brazenly anticompetitive browser engine ban, all iOS browsers at the moment are just skins over Safari, so you can't escape it. Hopefully our latest update helps though.

The mobile version of Construct is designed mainly for reviewing and tweaking. It doesn't support all editor features because in many cases it would require a significant redesign or upgrade to properly support touch input, and especially if it's meant to support screens as small as a phone. And as mentioned even if it did support everything, it may well be the case nobody wants to do that kind of heavy development on a mobile device anyway. So for now we're leaving the mobile editor as a sort of lighter editor.

You can however open Settings and change UI mode to 'Desktop', and use the full desktop UI on a mobile device like an iPad. It should work particularly well if you have a keyboard and mouse attached, in which case it should function pretty much the same as a laptop!

Arh! Thanks for the detailed response!

I spent some time this morning doing some tests with your latest update. So, massive improvements on the Safari Mac Desktop too, no more flickering, smoother and zooming and middle click dragging works without weird texture issues. Also, some examples textures are loading in, I thought some of the older ones were just bit broken! But now they're running fine with WebGPU off.

I retested on the iPad - Again, much better, no more black screen flickering and getting stuck zooming ect. I tested iPad with a keyboard and mouse again with the iPad and I was impressed, it works the same as the Desktop.

Thanks for the response, I generally think a mobile version especially with how well the editor can run would be good, but I understand the higher version, but I would say GDevelop and Godot for iPad are some good examples of it working quite well, Godot "Xogot" runs well for a larger engine.

The WebGPU OFF fixed a lot of issues, iPad does need a keyboard and mouse it seems to be a proper workflow with the Desktop View on, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that your team circles back for a more portable compatibility upgrade for the touch controls and devices!