The click delay

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Last major update on 7 April 2014.

On touchscreen devices there’s a delay of about 300 milliseconds between a touchend and a click event. Exactly when does this delay occur?

The proxy browsers, Symbian Anna, Puffin, and IE9 do not support the touch (or pointer) events and are untestable.

IE10 does support removal of the delay, but you have to use (-ms-)touch-action: manipulation or a similar value that suppresses double-tap zooming.

iOS Android Chrome Opera BlackBerry Nokia UC Puffin Nintendo Dolphin Tizen One IE Firefox
6 7 2 4 28 34 Mini Mob 12 Mob 20 6 7 10 Xpress MeeGo Anna Belle Mini 8 9 9 10 OS And
Delay

How long is the delay? (Rounded to nearest 100 ms)

Test page without meta viewport. This is the baseline.
400 300 200 - 300 200 200 400 300 - 400 - 300 - 300 No 300 - 300 300
  • Android 2 note: Sony e-reader and Samsung Pocket about 300; HTC Legend about 400.
  • Symbian Belle refuses to execute my test.
  • UC8 claims the delay time is 0, but still executes a double-tap zoom. But then, UC8 is a weird browser.
  • Tizen has no delay time and (usually) doesn’t execute a double-tap zoom.
width=device-width

Is the delay removed when using width=device-width?

Test page
No No No Issues - No Issues No - No - Yes - No - No - No No
  • Chrome 33 and Opera 20 on Galaxy S4/Sony remove the delay; on Nexus 7 they don’t.
    I asked for a lot of tests on Chrome, and the result is that the delay is removed on nearly all phones, but is not removed on most (but not all) Nexus 7s. Right now I’m assuming that there’s something wrong specifically on the Nexus 7. But this one is a puzzler, and I just don’t know what’s going on. See this blog post for some more information.
user-scalable=no

Is the delay removed when using user-scalable=no?

Test page
No No Yes - No Yes No Yes - No - No - No - No - No No Yes
scaling

Is the delay removed when using initial-scale=1,minimum-scale=1,maximum-scale=1?

Test page
No No Yes - No Yes No Yes - No - Yes - No Yes - No - No No Yes

Tested browsers

Mobile browser test array 1.3; March 2014

iOS 6
WebKit 536
Default browser on iPhone 4S with iOS 6.1.3
iOS 7
WebKit 537
Default browser on iPad 2 with iOS 7.1
Android 2
WebKit 533
Default browser on HTC Legend, Android 2.2
Default browser on Samsung Galaxy Pocket, Android 2.3.6
Default browser on Sony Reader PRS-T3, Android 2-based. (I’m not 100% sure this is an Android WebKit 2, but it seems to be, so I classify it as such for the next few tests.)
Android 4
WebKit 534
Default browser on Xiaomi M2, Android 4.1.1
Default browser on Huawei C8813, Android 4.1.1
Default browser on Samsung Galaxy Note I, Android 4.1.2
Default browser on Sony Xperia S, Android 4.1.2
Default browser on LG L5, Android 4.1.2
Default browser on Samsung Galaxy S3, Android 4.1.2
Default browser on HTC One X, Android 4.2.2
Chrome 28
Blink
Default browser on Samsung Galaxy S4, Android 4.4.2
This is Samsung’s Chrome, and not Google’s. It will be interesting to see if the two resemble each other.
Chrome 34
Blink
On Samsung Galaxy S4, Android 4.4.2
On Nexus 7, Android 4.4.2
Opera Mini
Presto
Proxy browser
7.0.5 on iPad 2, iOS 7.0.3
7.1 on Nokia PureView 808, Symbian Belle
7.5 on Samsung Galaxy S4, Android 4.4.2
8 on BlackBerry 9800 (OS6)
Opera Mobile 12
Presto
12.00 on Nokia E7, Symbian Anna
12.10 on Samsung Galaxy Pocket, Android 2.3.6
Opera Mobile 20
Blink (Chromium 33)
On Sony Xperia S, Android 4.1.2
On Nexus 7, Android 4.4.2
BlackBerry 6
WebKit 534
Default browser on BB Torch 9800 (OS6)
BlackBerry 7
WebKit 534
Default browser on BB Torch 9810 (OS7)
BlackBerry 10
WebKit 537
Default browser on BlackBerry Z10 (BB OS 10.1)
This device has 1GB of internal memory instead of the customary 2GB, which may matter in performance tests.
Xpress
Gecko 20100401; this version was used for some Firefoxes from 3 to 4.
Proxy browser
3.9 on the Nokia Asha 311, S40.
This browser used to be called Ovi. Nokia developed it because it saw how succesful Opera was on Nokia’s own devices.
MeeGo
WebKit 534
Default browser on Nokia N950, MeeGo Harmattan 1.2
Originally slated as Symbian’s successor, MeeGo was ousted in favour of Windows Phone. Some devices were sold, however, and a Finnish company is trying to re-start MeeGo under the name Sailfish. Also, rumour has it that Nokia is quietly hiring back ex-MeeGo people, so a Nokia-based restart is not entirely impossible.
Anna
WebKit 533
Default browser (7.3) on Nokia E7, Symbian Anna
The next-to-last Symbian build. I don’t think it was the prime Symbian build for long; it was replaced by Belle fairly soon. But it’ll be in some people’s pockets.
Belle
WebKit 535
Default browser (8.3) on Nokia PureView 808, Symbian Belle FP2
The most recent Symbian build.
UC Mini
Gecko; don’t know version number
Proxy browser
8.8 on HTC One X, Android 4.2.2
UC
WebKit 534
UC 8.5.1 on Xiaomi M2 (Android 4.1.1)
UC 9.2.3 on Huawei C8813 (Android 4.1.1)
The largest Chinese browser. This is the full variant, not the proxy. These browsers were pre-installed (next to Android WebKit; don’t ask me why).
Puffin
WebKit 534
2.1 Free Edition on Samsung Galaxy Note, Android 4.0.3
Claims to be Chrome 11
Nintendo
WebKit 536
Nintendo browser 2.0.0 on Wii U 4.0.0
Supposed to be based on NetFront.
Dolphin
WebKit 534
Dolphin 10 with JetPack on Sony Xperia S, Android 4.1.2.
Independent full browser for Android, as long as you install both Dolphin 10 and the Jetpack extension.
QQ One
WebKit 533
4.2.2 on HTC One X, Android 4.2.2
This is the downloadable, international browser TenCent created.
Tizen
WebKit 537
Default browser on Ref.Device-PQ by Samsung; Tizen 2.2
Tizen is an OS jointly being developed by Samsung and Intel. Still, it doesn’t seem that actual Tizen phones are being planned.
IE9
Trident
Default browser on Nokia Lumia 800, Windows Phone 7.5.
IE10
Trident
Default browser on Nokia Lumia 820, Windows Phone 8.0.
Default browser on Nokia Lumia 520, Windows Phone 8.0.
Firefox OS
Gecko 18
Geekphone/Telefónica (Peak and/or qcom); Boot2Gecko 1.0.1.0-prerelease
Default browser on ZTE Open, FF OS 1.0.0802
Firefox Android
Gecko 28
28 on Samsung Galaxy Pocket, Android 2.3.6
28 on Samsung Galaxy S4, Android 4.4.2