@JTannerWMF, can you provide screenshots demonstrating the context in which you see the problem, along with the actual links you are using?

@Dbrant will share more context and I will move this to tracking to keep an eye on it

I just tested this out. For me they don't even show up as blue links. They are just plain text when you preview.

This is not only during previews. Take https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_Russia#Deforestation_and_logging and in the app view it shows "Center for Russian Environmental Policy" as plain text instead of a red link. I guess a design argument could be made for that, when consumed by non-editors / general public that this is desirable for readability purposes, but for seasoned editors with some experience it definitely is strange, and I'd argue that even for non-experienced editors this SHOULD show at the very least when previewing an edit.

<a rel="mw:WikiLink" href="./Center_for_Russian_Environmental_Policy?action=edit&amp;redlink=1" title="Center for Russian Environmental Policy" class="new" typeof="mw:LocalizedAttrs" data-mw-i18n='{"title":{"lang":"x-page","key":"red-link-title","params":["Center for Russian Environmental Policy"]}}' id="mwOQ">Center for Russian Environmental Policy</a>

class="new" indicates the redlink here.

Red links transform into plain text in mobileapps, check the code here. This functionality has been implemented 3 years ago in this commit, so probably, handling red links can be reconsidered now.

yes lets handle it please

This appears to be a generalized mobile view problem, not just an apps problem. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand&oldid=1250330772 for an example (I am using Firefox for Mac OS on a computer, clicking the Mobile link at the bottom of the page). The nonexistent "Template:ISBN)" shows as blue, as do all of the nonexistent article links in the succession boxes at the bottom of the page (Roger Gillot, Jehan Faulquier, etc.)

This is a big problem for editors attempting to use templates, since nonexistent templates are forbidden, at least on en.WP.

Red links are fundamental to Wikipedia. Am I missing something? Is this something that can be fixed in the mobile skin(s) somewhat easily?

In T315347#10223096, @Jonesey95 wrote:

This appears to be a generalized mobile view problem, not just an apps problem. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand&oldid=1250330772 for an example (I am using Firefox for Mac OS on a computer, clicking the Mobile link at the bottom of the page). The nonexistent "Template:ISBN)" shows as blue, as do all of the nonexistent article links in the succession boxes at the bottom of the page (Roger Gillot, Jehan Faulquier, etc.)

This is a big problem for editors attempting to use templates, since nonexistent templates are forbidden, at least on en.WP.

Red links are fundamental to Wikipedia. Am I missing something? Is this something that can be fixed in the mobile skin(s) somewhat easily?

Hey @Jonesey95 the mobile site has always shown red links - in fact if you click them it prompts this dialog:

Do you perhaps have a gadget installed that is interfering with this visual / behaviour? I am not aware of any bugs that would have recently effected display of red links on mobile web.

{F57640754}

In T315347#10260910, @Jdlrobson wrote:

Do you perhaps have a gadget installed that is interfering with this visual / behaviour? I am not aware of any bugs that would have recently effected display of red links on mobile web.

This bug report is from 2022. It is not recent, but it is still happening. The reason that I found it is that I was alerted to this rendering problem in a conversation on my talk page after I reverted another editor for leaving a red-linked template on a page. The editor reported that nonexistent templates do not show up in red on mobile, and I was able to verify the problem.

I can see through some testing that the templates do indeed show in red when I am logged out, using the same link above. I have a lot of CSS installed and various preferences enabled, but I don't know which one(s) would cause a nonexistent template to show up as a blue link. Whatever it is, it is probably enabled for the OP and for the person who posted on my talk page.

Yeah, there's clearly something config-dependent going on here with mobile-web, because this is what I see while logged in using the above link:

Here's a screen shot from my browser on the linked page, with relevant inspector information highlighted. I am logged in, in mobile mode, in Firefox for Mac OS. Logged out, I see red links. Where could the blue color be coming from? I don't know enough about the CSS to know where load.php is pulling this color from.

I looked through my preferences and saw a few gadgets that adjust link color, and I guess if I have to turn them off in batches to see what fixes it, I could, but any clues would be helpful.

In T315347#10261554, @Jonesey95 wrote:

Here's a screen shot from my browser on the linked page, with relevant inspector information highlighted. I am logged in, in mobile mode, in Firefox for Mac OS. Logged out, I see red links. Where could the blue color be coming from? I don't know enough about the CSS to know where load.php is pulling this color from.

I looked through my preferences and saw a few gadgets that adjust link color, and I guess if I have to turn them off in batches to see what fixes it, I could, but any clues would be helpful.

It's coming from your user CSS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jonesey95/common.css#L-286 - common.css loads on all skins including mobile and will override any existing rules. You'll need to revise it.

In T315347#10261564, @Jdlrobson wrote:

In T315347#10261554, @Jonesey95 wrote:

Here's a screen shot from my browser on the linked page, with relevant inspector information highlighted. I am logged in, in mobile mode, in Firefox for Mac OS. Logged out, I see red links. Where could the blue color be coming from? I don't know enough about the CSS to know where load.php is pulling this color from.

I looked through my preferences and saw a few gadgets that adjust link color, and I guess if I have to turn them off in batches to see what fixes it, I could, but any clues would be helpful.

It's coming from your user CSS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jonesey95/common.css#L-286 - common.css loads on all skins including mobile and will override any existing rules. You'll need to revise it.

Thanks. Removing that line works around the issue, but it doesn't explain why Vector 2022 shows red links just fine (not overriding existing rules, apparently) and the mobile skin shows blue links where it should not.

Also, User:Srich32977, who said that they could not see red links as red on mobile, does not appear to have any CSS settings in their account.

This is potentially related to the parser rendering pipeline and we will discuss with the Editing the team before proceeding, for now moving to tracking.

Thanks. Removing that line works around the issue, but it doesn't explain why Vector 2022 shows red links just fine (not overriding existing rules, apparently) and the mobile skin shows blue links where it should not.

I'd assume just different specificity of the rules setting colors between the different skins, resulting in your CSS being specific-enough to override one and not the other?

Something has changed recently, even in Vector 2022. Yesterday, red links were showing as red for me, even with this code in my personal CSS:

a {
    color: #0645ad
}

Today, red links were showing with the above blue color, and I had to add this to my personal CSS to get them to show as red again:

a.new {
    color: #d73333
}

It would be nice if these changes were announced in Tech News so that those of us who have had to work around various unfixed problems with Vector 2022 would have links to code changes. The Vector 2022 skin CSS has gone through a series of changes in the past month or two that have changed the way my CSS fixes for the skin's shortcomings work. I recognize that I am responsible for any customizations that I make, but what appear to be silent skin changes are frustrating.