[Android] SafeAreaEdges stops working when `Scale < 1` is set on Grid and then animated

[paulober]

Description

When a Grid has SafeAreaEdges enabled (e.g., SafeAreaRegions.Container) and is initialized with a Scale value other than 1 (e.g., Scale = 0.8 for an entry animation), the SafeAreaEdges configuration stops working correctly on Android.

Unlike on iOS, where the Safe Area constraints are respected regardless of the view's scale transformation, Android seems to ignore the safe area insets once scaling is applied. When the element is animated back to Scale = 1, the content ends up positioned under the camera notch/status bar.

Visual Symptoms on Android:

• Content expands UNDER the camera notch/cutout (overlapping) when scaling up.
• The SafeAreaEdges constraints seem to get "lost" during the scale transformation.

Root Cause Analysis:
It appears Android fails to invalidate the layout or recalculate insets after a Scale transformation.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Setup a Grid with SafeAreaEdges="Container", Opacity="0" and Scale="0.8" (simulating an entrance state).
2. In OnAppearing, animate both properties:

await Task.WhenAll(
    ContentLayer.FadeToAsync(1, 200),
    ContentLayer.ScaleToAsync(1, 200)
);

3. Observe that on Android, the content now overlaps the Status Bar/Notch.

Link to public reproduction project repository

https://github.com/paulober/maui-android-safearea-opacity-bug

Version with bug

10.0.20

Affected platforms

Android

Did you find any workaround?

Yes, but it is extremely "hacky" and requires platform-specific code.

We found that we must manually force a layout invalidation after the animation finishes. However, simply re-setting SafeAreaEdges to the desired value (e.g., Container) does not work because the internal property setter probably checks for equality because then it skips the update if the value hasn't changed.

To make this work on Android, we have to "toggle" the value to something else to force the system to react.

The "Dirty" Workaround:

await ContentLayer.ScaleToAsync(1, 200);

#if ANDROID
// HACK: Force layout invalidation on Android.
// We must change the value to something DIFFERENT than the current state 
// to bypass the property equality check and trigger an update.
ContentLayer.SafeAreaEdges = new SafeAreaEdges(_initialRegions == SafeAreaRegions.Container
                                                      ? SafeAreaRegions.SoftInput : SafeAreaRegions.Container); 
ContentLayer.SafeAreaEdges = new SafeAreaEdges(_initialRegions); 
#endif

Why this is problematic:

1. iOS behavior: On iOS, we want the correct SafeAreaRegions.Container set right from the start (initialization).
2. Android behavior: On Android, keeping that correct value causes the bug. We are forced to write platform-specific logic to toggle the property back and forth just to wake up the layout engine.

We shouldn't need to toggle properties to dummy values to get the Safe Area to respect the notch after a simple Scale animation.

[paulober]

Could we please look into getting these UI issues addressed in the upcoming service release? The disparity between iOS (where it works perfectly) and Android is currently a major blocker for us.

Context: We are developing production apps for Government clients. While we are big fans of the .NET ecosystem and XAML, the current instability on Android is making it increasingly difficult to justify sticking with MAUI compared to more mature frameworks.

Regarding a PR: I would genuinely love to contribute a fix myself. However, setting up the MAUI source build environment has proven difficult and tends to destabilize my primary .NET installation needed for daily work. Right now, I unfortunately don't have the time to set up a dedicated clean machine and to get into the MAUI source, as I need to focus entirely on finding workarounds to keep our project timeline on track.

[Ahamed-Ali]

This issue has been validated in Visual Studio Code 1.108.0 with MAUI versions 10.0.0, 10.0.20, and 10.0.30. It is reproducible on the Android platform up to MAUI version 10.0.20. However, it works correctly in the latest Maui version 10.0.30. I have attached the video for the reference

10.0.30

Screen.Recording.2026-01-16.at.12.24.50.PM.mov

10.0.20

Screen.Recording.2026-01-16.at.12.16.31.PM.mov

[paulober]

10.0.30 did solve the issue.

[paulober]

Though I now need UseInterpreter=true to be able to start the app in debug mode in the simulator as the xarmarin jit init otherwise crashes.

[paulober]

@PureWeen Your latest hot fix release kind of thing with PR #33753 broke this layout calculation on Android again.