Why are random lists coming up on my boards called things like “pleased platypus”

[Ben Holt]

When I add cards, new lists start popping up, with weird names. I am not adding new lists. Any help out there? 

[Sal]

Hey @Ben Holt,

My name is Sal, and allow me to shed some light on your and everyone's questions about these strange lists showing up on boards.

The TL;DR is that these lists are being created on your boards due to a recently added feature we shipped to the mobile version of Trello iOS. We designed this new feature to allow users to create new lists simply by double-tapping between existing lists or any blank space on the board, resulting in brand new lists utilizing pre-defined names, making the addition of new lists on boards more smooth and user-friendly.

But it backfired, and we caused more confusion to our users when they realized all those new lists on their board were using animal names. We're already aware of these reports, and we're collecting all the feedback from y'all and using them to start improving this new feature and ensure it won't cause more confusion to anyone when double-tapping on their boards. Hopefully, this should put y'all minds at ease, and if anyone has any feedback about this new feature, let us know. We'd love to hear your thoughts about it! 

[Annie]

Finally an explanation for what seemed like really confusing and strange behaviour.

I actually don’t want creating new lists to randomly happen every time I accidentally touch anywhere on the board. It’s disruptive and means I have loads of unwanted archived lists which is a bit irritating (as you don’t allow deletion of archived lists).

If you’re going to make it this easy to accidentally create lists, could you also make it easy to delete them please.

And could you please make this a feature you can toggle on or off? For me it just means I’m struggling to use Trello on mobile as this keeps happening accidentally.

[Sam]

It virtually makes it impossible to edit card names as you create cards without triggering those lists - which also shifts your screen in-app, and that is super annoying. Among other things, like messing with the process of creating a card by triggering on double tapping the add button. 

Hopefully, this bug is getting fixed in the next update. 

[richardkmiller]

I came here through a Google search, wondering the same thing. 

I thought this was a security issue. I had just disabled all my power ups and was getting ready to rotate my API keys. 

Now that I know this is intentional, I like the feature. It's nice to be able to create a new list between two other lists instead of scrolling to the far right of a wide board to create a new one. This is easy on desktop but not possible on mobile until now. 

If the new list were called "Untitled" that might have helped me know it was something I created. Or maybe a toast could appear saying "List created [from double tap]". 

Thanks for this update! I'm glad to know this wasn't an issue of a compromised credential. 

[Tushar Bhargava]

Just echoing the sentiments already expressed that the current implementation of this feature makes editing cards in other lists virtually impossible and endlessly frustrating. Hoping this gets fixed soon!

In general, announcing new features like this and making them opt-in would be a great courtesy and be much less disruptive (and alarming—I briefly thought my Trello Board had been hacked).

[Whitney Richey]

Same thing happened today to me- new lists appeared with strange names like Buoyant Box Jellyfish

[Monica Tremellen]

No but just saying same thing here

[Jed Merrill]

I’ve had the same experience.  Instead of archiving the animal lists, I created a new board called Spam Jail that I’ve moved over 100 such popup lists to.  Thought they might be someone’s way of spying on user boards and didn’t want them continuing in the background.  Thanks to Sai for the official explanation!  Agree the feature needs to be turned off or columns need to be fully deletable.

[Sam]

I have the same issue in the Trello iOS app, version 2023.6.

Those animal lists pop up when I double tap on either of the following: 
-An existing list name
-The blank space below cards of an existing list 
-The blank space between the existing lists
-The empty card name space, accessed via the "Add card" button 
-The "Add" button to submit a card name and create a card
-Any of the words in the card name during the process of editing, before actually creating a card.

In a private workspace/board, with no Power Ups enabled.

Tried turning off all of my automations, too, with no result.
Moreover, there's an activity log for automations, and when those lists pop up there are no mentions of any of them in the automation log. 

Instead, those triggered lists are found in the general Activity log of the board they pop up in. As if they were actually created by you, the user.

Evidently, a number of people are currently experiencing the same issue.

Hopefully, this Empowered Echidna is being addressed right now. 

[Annie]

Thanks for asking this, it has been driving me crazy 

[Alexander Neville]

I don’t know but I’m getting the same thing. Pleased Platypus, Tasmanian Devil, etc. I don’t believe I have any plugins enabled either. 

[Vongsawat]

..Maybe there's an automation enabled that triggers when a card is created, or something similar?..

I suppose a power-up or an extension could likewise be the culprit.. but such a bizarre thing to experience..

[Gavin Schultz]

agreed