RichText keeps a stale semantics label when only TextSpan.semanticsLabel or locale changes

Steps to reproduce

testWidgets('stale semantics label', (WidgetTester tester) async {
  final SemanticsHandle handle = tester.ensureSemantics();
  Widget build(String label) => Directionality(
    textDirection: TextDirection.ltr,
    child: RichText(text: TextSpan(text: 'hello', semanticsLabel: label)),
  );
  await tester.pumpWidget(build('first'));
  await tester.pumpWidget(build('second'));
  expect(tester.getSemantics(find.byType(RichText)).label, 'second');
  handle.dispose();
});

Expected results

The semantics label is second, so a screen reader announces the new label.

Actual results

The label stays first. The same happens when only locale changes (the LocaleStringAttribute keeps the old locale), and for semanticsIdentifier and spellOut.

TextSpan.compareTo only looks at recognizer for metadata changes, so it returns RenderComparison.identical and RenderParagraph.text returns early. TextSpan.== and hashCode also ignore locale and spellOut. Separately, the metadata branch of RenderParagraph.text doesn't clear _cachedAttributedLabels, so even a metadata result would keep the old label.

@ChandraChaan

@ChandraChaan Thanks for the report. I was able to reproduce this issue locally using the provided test case. Routing to team-accessibility for further investigation.

Logs

══╡ EXCEPTION CAUGHT BY FLUTTER TEST FRAMEWORK ╞════════════════════════════════════════════════════
The following TestFailure was thrown running a test:
Expected: 'second'
  Actual: 'first'
   Which: is different.
          Expected: second
            Actual: first
                    ^
           Differ at offset 0

When the exception was thrown, this was the stack:
#4      main.<anonymous closure> (file:///Users/suryakommana/StudioProjects/default_app/test/widget_test.dart:13:5)
<asynchronous suspension>
#5      testWidgets.<anonymous closure>.<anonymous closure> (package:flutter_test/src/widget_tester.dart:192:15)
<asynchronous suspension>
#6      TestWidgetsFlutterBinding._runTestBody (package:flutter_test/src/binding.dart:2068:5)
<asynchronous suspension>
<asynchronous suspension>
(elided one frame from package:stack_trace)

This was caught by the test expectation on the following line:
  file:///Users/suryakommana/StudioProjects/default_app/test/widget_test.dart line 13
The test description was:
  stale semantics label
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
00:01 +0 -1: stale semantics label [E]                                                                                                                                
  Test failed. See exception logs above.
  The test description was: stale semantics label
  

To run this test again: /Users/suryakommana/develop/flutter/bin/cache/dart-sdk/bin/dart test /Users/suryakommana/StudioProjects/default_app/test/widget_test.dart -p vm --plain-name 'stale semantics label'
00:01 +0 -1: Some tests failed.

Flutter Doctor Output

[✓] Flutter (Channel master, 3.50.0-1.0.pre-340, on macOS 27.0 26A428 darwin-arm64, locale en-IN) [2.6s]
    • Flutter version 3.50.0-1.0.pre-340 on channel master at /Users/suryakommana/develop/flutter
    • Upstream repository https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
    • Framework revision ef74a07661 (3 hours ago), 2026-11-02 03:14:25 +0000
    • Engine revision ef74a07661
    • Dart version 3.15.0 (build 3.15.0-101.0.dev)
    • DevTools version 2.62.0-dev.0
    • Feature flags: enable-web, enable-linux-desktop, enable-macos-desktop, enable-windows-desktop, enable-android, enable-ios, cli-animations, enable-native-assets,
      enable-record-use, enable-swift-package-manager, omit-legacy-version-file, enable-lldb-debugging, enable-uiscene-migration, enable-riscv64, enable-hcpp

[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 36.0.0) [2.4s]
    • Android SDK at /Users/suryakommana/Library/Android/sdk
    • Emulator version 37.1.11.0 (build_id 15917651) (CL:N/A)
    • Platform android-37.0, build-tools 36.0.0
    • Java binary at: /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/jbr/Contents/Home/bin/java
      This is the JDK bundled with the latest Android Studio installation on this machine.
      To manually set the JDK path, use: `flutter config --jdk-dir="path/to/jdk"`.
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 25.0.2+-15348964-b329.117)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 27.2) [2.4s]
    • Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
    • Build 27B52
    • CocoaPods version 1.17.0

[✓] Chrome - develop for the web [4ms]
    • Chrome at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome

[✓] Connected device (2 available) [5.9s]
    • macOS (desktop) • macos  • darwin-arm64   • macOS 27.0 26A428 darwin-arm64
    • Chrome (web)    • chrome • web-javascript • Google Chrome 156.0.8078.76

[✓] Network resources [715ms]
    • All expected network resources are available.

• No issues found!

From triage: Look like there is a draft PR for this issue already!

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RichText keeps a stale semantics label when only TextSpan.semanticsLabel or locale changes #195755

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RichText keeps a stale semantics label when only TextSpan.semanticsLabel or locale changes #195755

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suryaKommana2662 commented on Nov 2, 2026

hannah-hyj commented on Nov 4, 2026

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