react / react/react-native

[Android] Element with position: absolute is incorrectly marked as not visible to the user if it's rendered outside of parent

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Issue: Author Provided Repro Platform: Android
Dominant language
C++
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 23h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description

When using UI automation suite like Maestro, on Android it uses AccessibilityNodeInfo isVisibleToUser method to determine if the element is visible to the user and clickable.

Despite an element rendered with position: absolute and no overflow: hidden on the parent being visible on the screen, the isVisibleToUser flag is incorrectly set to false if the element is outside of the bounds of the parent, causing E2E test to fail (mobile-dev-inc/maestro#1609)

Steps to reproduce

Clone the repro repository first.

To reproduce the issue:

  1. Install the packages with yarn or npm
  2. Open Android emulator
  3. Run yarn android / npm run android
  4. Make sure the app is visible
  5. Press on the dropdown to open it

Then:

  1. Install maestro locally
  2. Run maestro -p android test maestro.yml and see the test fail
  3. Run maestro hierarchy and see that the dropdown items are not visible in the output

See details

React Native Version

0.79.2

Affected Platforms

Runtime - Android

Output of npx @react-native-community/cli info
System:
  OS: macOS 15.4.1
  CPU: (12) arm64 Apple M2 Max
  Memory: 166.94 MB / 32.00 GB
  Shell:
    version: "5.9"
    path: /bin/zsh
Binaries:
  Node:
    version: 20.13.1
    path: ~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/20.13.1/bin/node
  Yarn:
    version: 1.22.22
    path: ~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/20.13.1/bin/yarn
  npm:
    version: 10.5.2
    path: ~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/20.13.1/bin/npm
  Watchman:
    version: 2025.04.28.00
    path: /opt/homebrew/bin/watchman
Managers:
  CocoaPods:
    version: 1.15.2
    path: /Users/matyas/.asdf/shims/pod
SDKs:
  iOS SDK:
    Platforms:
      - DriverKit 24.4
      - iOS 18.4
      - macOS 15.4
      - tvOS 18.4
      - visionOS 2.4
      - watchOS 11.4
  Android SDK:
    API Levels:
      - "33"
      - "33"
      - "34"
    Build Tools:
      - 30.0.3
      - 33.0.0
      - 33.0.2
      - 34.0.0
      - 34.0.0
    System Images:
      - android-33 | Google APIs ARM 64 v8a
      - android-34 | Google APIs ARM 64 v8a
      - android-36 | Google Play ARM 64 v8a
    Android NDK: Not Found
IDEs:
  Android Studio: 2023.2 AI-232.10300.40.2321.11668458
  Xcode:
    version: 16.3/16E140
    path: /usr/bin/xcodebuild
Languages:
  Java:
    version: javac 17
    path: /Users/matyas/.asdf/shims/javac
  Ruby:
    version: 3.2.3
    path: /Users/matyas/.asdf/shims/ruby
npmPackages:
  "@react-native-community/cli": Not Found
  react:
    installed: 19.0.0
    wanted: 19.0.0
  react-native:
    installed: 0.79.2
    wanted: 0.79.2
  react-native-macos: Not Found
npmGlobalPackages:
  "*react-native*": Not Found
Android:
  hermesEnabled: Not found
  newArchEnabled: Not found
iOS:
  hermesEnabled: Not found
  newArchEnabled: Not found
Stacktrace or Logs
(no stack trace)
MANDATORY Reproducer

https://github.com/d4rky-pl/PositionAbsoluteBug

Screenshots and Videos

The app
Image

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the mandatory PositionAbsoluteBug reproducer and inspect Android accessibility output for the dropdown rendered outside its parent. Trace how AccessibilityNodeInfo.isVisibleToUser is determined for this case, then verify that the dropdown items appear in maestro hierarchy and the Maestro test can interact with them without overflow hidden.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
android, react-native
Domain
accessibility, mobile
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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