Back button/navigation uses platform conventions
Why it matters
iOS users swipe from the left edge to go back without looking — it is the most frequent navigation gesture in the OS. Replacing it with a custom back button forces users to reach up to the top-left corner one-handed, which is physically uncomfortable on phones above 6 inches and drives session abandonment. On Android, a broken hardware back button is an Android Vitals crash-class signal and directly lowers Play Store visibility.
Severity rationale
High because navigation is the most-used control in the app and breaking it degrades every session.
Remediation
Use React Navigation's native stack — it wires up iOS swipe-back and Android hardware back for free. Do not disable gestureEnabled without a documented reason:
import { createNativeStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/native-stack';
const Stack = createNativeStackNavigator();
<Stack.Navigator screenOptions={{ gestureEnabled: true }}>
<Stack.Screen name="Home" component={HomeScreen} />
<Stack.Screen name="Detail" component={DetailScreen} />
</Stack.Navigator>
If you use a custom navigator, add a BackHandler listener on Android.
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the Mobile UX Patterns Audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from mobile-ux-patterns·automated