Substack: Ensuring a Better Experience!
Of Substack Dos and Don'ts, and Essentials of User Experience.
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Hello everyone and a warm welcome to new readers! I’m back with my favorite topic: Substack User Experience! 😊 Here’s my assessment of recent changes, categorized as wins, mixed bags, and misses.
Pro-tip: Use the horizontal bars to the left of this post to access the auto-generated table of contents!
Wins
Edit in Chat
Problem: No 'Edit' feature for chat replies, unlike for post comments or Notes.
It’s finally here—after a year of persistent feedback!
Improved Notifications
Problem: Clicking 'Activity' opened a new page, disrupting workflow when you were browsing on Substack Home page.
Substack now uses a slide-in panel to keep users on the same page.
Paid Subscriber Notes
Substack added a 'Paid Subscriber Notes' tab under Dashboard/Stats, listing feedback from paid subscribers. Previously, these came via email notifications.
Mixed Bag
Video Playback on Desktops
Win: Users can now play videos on desktop - it’s shocking that users prefer watching 60-minute videos on larger screens! 😉
Miss: No option to record videos from your desktop.
Search Your Subscriptions
Win: You can now search for a specific writer or publication within your mega list of subscriptions! Access it via the Profiles/Settings menu.
Miss: Still no bulk unsubscribe option. If you went crazy one night subscribing to 400 publications and regretted it the next day... well, you're stuck. One by one it is—just like those gym memberships. Easy to sign up, but to cancel? You’ve got to meet the Sales Director! (guilty!)
Misses
Reader Experience on Mobile Downgraded
Problem: The mobile view ignores your custom site design. Readers are shown a simplified tab interface - Posts, Notes, Chat, and About—making your content hard to navigate.
Why It's an Issue
Tags, sections, and organized categories are missing from the mobile view.
For writers with hundreds of posts, this kills discoverability.
Desktop readers see your full design, but mobile users don't—defeating the purpose of designing a publication layout.
Perhaps, less of a concern if a majority of your readers are accessing content via the desktop?
How to Help Your Readers:
Pin1 a 'Home' Post: Introduce readers to your content and organization by using a standard ‘Start Here’ or ‘Index’ post pinned to the top of your publication.
Highlight Key Tags: Use links to important posts within your categories.
Share Diverse Posts: Provide both high-engagement posts and lesser-known but valuable articles.
Unfortunately, this forces your website to always display the pinned index post, which isn’t ideal if you want to offer a dynamic or varied experience for desktop users.
Optimize Your ‘About’ Page: Provide a bio, publication overview, and testimonials for engagement.
Optimize Your Emails: It’s the best way to communicate your focus pillars. Include site tags, navigational hints, and a brief intro for new readers.
Below is the mobile view with the pinned post and a chronological listing. You can compare it to the full site view here.
What Substack Should Do: Enable writers to control mobile views, offering responsive layouts or tag visibility.
Avoid Contact Syncing
Problem: Once synced, Substack permanently stores your phone contacts. This results in join notifications and ‘Follow’ suggestions with no way to undo the sync.
Miss: Substack violates CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) principles for data handling—a standard in software design by not offering a way to delete synced contacts. Is this an oversight or a tactic to drive customer acquisition? Note the inadequate explanation in help:
Whack-a-Notification
Problem: Substack overrides user preferences to push video notifications. (See images).
Miss: You can’t clear unwanted notifications, and desktop users are still prompted to "Get the app." (But why?)
Now, multiply these notifications by all the writers you're subscribed to who are doing live videos and podcasts. Particularly annoying when the live video has already ended, and you’re stuck with a notification sending you to a dead link. Enough to make readers unsubscribe? Probably! 📣🙄
What Substack Should Do: Honor the setting, period!
Miss: Redesigned Navigation of Preview Screen
Problem: Substack’s new 'Preview' uses a nested pop-up setup.
Here is how it works:
You click Preview, which opens a child window (Level 1) where you can toggle between mobile, desktop, and email views. Also, you can preview free/paid subscriber views.
By default, this displays the mobile view in a second child preview window (Level 2),
However, this Level 2 window functions as a full browser window, allowing access to your entire website (Dashboard, Notes, Settings).
Why It's an Issue
Users can easily get lost navigating unrelated parts of their site. Maybe even start a Note and record a video in the app? 😄
Returning to the draft requires clicking Done or manually navigating back within the child window.
To view the entire post, you now have to scroll within the child window (Level 2) instead of using the draft window (Level 0) scroll support from the previous version—which was more convenient and allowed for easier navigation.
What Substack Should Do
Essential: Restrict the child window to post previews only.
Preferred: Simplify the experience by using a single pop-up for previews - in other words, roll it back to the previous version—it would be the easiest solution! (Rule: Don’t fix what isn’t broken!)
Preferred: Move the 'Share' option back to the draft screen—sharing before completing a preview is counter-intuitive.
See if you can spot the issue in the video below!
Following Overrides DM Settings.
Problem: Following someone automatically enables DMs from them, bypassing your DM preferences (e.g., 'None' or 'Paid Subscribers Only').
Why It's an Issue
Users receive unsolicited messages (thank-you notes, post links, etc.) after following writers.
Managing unwanted DMs creates overhead, especially when following multiple people.
What Substack Should Do
Disable DMs by default for follows.
Seek explicit permission to receive DMs when someone follows you.
I hope these tips help! What do you consider a win or a miss?
Reminder: You can pin posts only after publishing! Use the ellipsis (…) menu.
Two additional long-standing misses:
1) App does not honor publication post typeface and background color.
2) Post preview on desktop is missing dark mode preview mode. Can cause images that should have transparent backgrounds to be overlooked before publishing.
Great roundup! I thought I was the only one going bonkers from the live video notifications -- I had that turned off in my settings. I am NOT a live video person (which is why I'm on Substack).