• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 6 hours ago

Marketers who sent emails via Gmail over the past few days may have lost some responses, especially if their messages contained pictures. 

Users of the Gmail App saw flickering screens on tablets and foldable devices, and even blank pages.Text was illegible.

“If you’re facing issues with the Gmail app flickering on your Android tablet, you’re not alone, and you don’t need to schedule a visit with your ophthalmologist,” Android Authority writes. 

The problem, which apparently dates back to last weekend, is especially prevalent on Samsung devices.  

Google has suggested workarounds, but had not yet come up with a complete fix at deadline.  

“When I try to open an email it flickers and makes it unreadable,” said one user on the Google support page.

“I have used the force stop, I have cleared the cache and I have restarted my tablet," this person added.  "Have also updated. Nothing has worked."

"Does anyone know if it can be fixed or what I need to do.”

User Kimiya Kitani suggested the following: 

If you are using a foldable smartphone or a tablet, please try the following first:

Switching screen orientation (the easiest user-reported workaround): With email open in portrait mode, rotate the device to landscape mode. Confirm that the screen displays correctly, then rotate it back to portrait mode. 

Several users have reported successfully preventing screen flickering and text disappearance by performing this admittedly inconvenient procedure until the next update is released. 

If that doesn't work, or if rotating the tablet is difficult, Gmail users should try updating their Android System WebView. 

That’s the best thing we’ve seen at this time. As for marketers, they should wait until this clears up a little, then resend. Hopefully, Yahoo and Outlook are facilitating robust engagement.