Not everyone has short and snappy domains. Sometimes it’s not possible.

Whether it’s the exhaustion of the domain name space, or just the name of your organisation, long domains exist. Users don’t always need to type them, but in this world where the URL confers trust, users definitely need to see them, in full.

On Safari on iPhone, long domains don’t work. This is with the default settings, standard system font size. More text might be visible with a smaller font size setting, but it should work for everyone, it should be universal.

There is only a subtle indication that the domain doesn’t fit in the space, via a fade-out on the left hand side. It is not clear whether there is more text or it is the full domain.

If a URL isn’t seen in full, threat actors can create targeted malicious domains, that differ by a few letters, for device platforms that don’t show full domains by default.

You can tap on the address bar to see more of the URL, but it doesn’t just appear — you have to tap and move the cursor yourself, a finicky process.

Full domains should be visible, on all platforms, by default. Possible solutions for constrained displays and long domains could be to reduce the font size, run on two lines, a back-and-forth sidescrolling marquee and tap-and-hold to see the full URL.

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