Description section of listings missing on Android appid app

[tosh_i]

I've noticed that when I look at another seller's listing that the description part of the listing is missing. It's only been today that I've noticed. Hopefully it will be fixed soon? 

[downunder-61 · Accepted solution]

The descriptions are still there, they are just not being displayed.

The eBay app seems to be affected by the issue, as well as mobile browsers in mobile mode.

Try using a desktop browser or a mobile browser in classic mode or desktop mode.

Credit to: eburtonlab

[tosh_i]

Cheers, thanks! I'll have to dig the laptop out 😊

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Descriptions are present in the Android ebay app for me, morning of 7.20.2022.

[toysaver]

Sometimes it's empty because not all sellers write a description.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@toysaver  Not in this case. ebay has stated they were (or are) conductng a test.

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-listings-missing-descriptions-in-app/

[eburtonlab]

Thanks for that link.

eBay may have been conducting a test of some kind, but I doubt that hiding item descriptions for mobile devices was an intended part of any test.

More likely eBay tried to test something else entirely, and that wound up having a side effect of preventing descriptions from appearing as they should on mobile devices. Once eBay realized the problem was connected to the test, the test was likely halted and any changes undone.

"Tapping the title" is just a method to reload the page. When the problem was ongoing, reloading the page did not help -- the descriptions were not displaying at all. Once the problem was corrected on eBay's end, then reloading the page allowed the descriptions to appear once more.

[tosh_i]

Thanks for all the responses, very helpful 🙂

[a_c_green]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

"Tapping the title" is just a method to reload the page. When the problem was ongoing, reloading the page did not help -- the descriptions were not displaying at all. Once the problem was corrected on eBay's end, then reloading the page allowed the descriptions to appear once more.

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No, it's not a page refresh command. In the specific case of viewing the listing in eBay Mobile, tapping on the title twice will jump you to the full description page.

I should mention here that it doesn't have to be the usual double-tap (like double-clicking text on a desktop or laptop): you can tap the title once, count to five (or other in other words let some time go by), and then tap once more, and at that point it will react. It's literally counting the number of taps, and triggering when the count reaches two.

If the explanation from eBay that @valueaddedresource quoted in her blog is accurate ("We're experimenting on the impact of the changes to the usability"), that is utterly, irredeemably stupid. The idea here should be to get more buyers to read the full description, not try to post selected excerpts on the main page and find ways to hide the full text even more.

[eburtonlab]

No, it's not a page refresh command. In the specific case of viewing the listing in eBay Mobile, tapping on the title twice will jump you to the full description page.

That I did not know. Thank you very much for pointing that out!