Zoom disabled

Silktide checks each page for code that prevents visitors from zooming in on mobile devices. Pinch-to-zoom should always be available, because many people rely on it to read your content.

The code responsible is the page's tag:

<!-- Problem: both user-scalable=no and maximum-scale=1 block zooming -->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no">

<!-- Fix: let users zoom -->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

Why this matters

Pinch-to-zoom is how people with low vision read the web on a phone. It is also how everyone else deals with small print, dense maps, and detailed images. A page that disables it makes all of that impossible - there is no workaround a visitor can apply.

Zoom is usually disabled for cosmetic reasons, to stop a layout shifting. The cost falls entirely on the people who most need the feature, and accessibility guidelines require that text can be resized. Some devices now ignore the restriction precisely because it causes so much harm, but many browsers still honour it.

How to fix it

Remove user-scalable=no from every viewport tag.
Remove maximum-scale values that cap zoom at or near the page's normal size (such as maximum-scale=1).
If your layout breaks when zoomed, fix the layout with rather than locking visitors out of zoom.

How Silktide tests this

Load the page on a simulated mobile device.
Find every viewport meta tag.
Report each tag that blocks zoom - either user-scalable=no, or a maximum-scale no higher than the scale the page already loads at.

Troubleshooting

I can still zoom on my iPhone

iOS ignores these viewport restrictions and allows pinch-to-zoom anyway. Other browsers and platforms still honor them, so the code remains a real barrier and should be fixed. To reproduce the issue, test on an Android device.

The tag is added by my framework or theme

Some older themes and app frameworks inject user-scalable=no by default. Look for a viewport or zoom setting in the theme, or override the tag in your page template.