Hello,
The Wikipedia iOS app team is excited to announce the first beta of our next big update. TestFlight users should be able to install this update now. If you'd like to join our beta test group (please!) sign up here:
==What's New?==
This is a major update chock-a-block with new and improved features:
- New Places tab lets you find Wikipedia articles near you or across the globe. Use maps to find the most interesting articles next door, or anywhere your curiosity takes you.
- Quick search box on the Explore screen lets you get right to search for the answers to your burning questions.
- Improved "In the News" design, to make it easier to learn more about whats happening in our world.
- Updated Explore design to make discovering interesting new content even easier. Add "infinite" scroll so you can catch up on what you missed just by scrolling down.
- Clear app cache from the Settings menu, to reclaim storage the Wikipedia app takes up on your device.
==A Note About Places==
The Places feature currently uses the iOS provided Apple MapKit library and Apple maps. This is not a decision the team made easily, but after much feedback and research, we believe this is the only option for now. A couple important notes:
- This is only used in the Places tab, as a means of search and discovery. These maps are NOT used in the encyclopedia itself, and do not replace, prevent or circumvent work by editors to add open maps to articles on wikis.
- Our users' privacy is preserved. We don't share what articles you're reading with Apple, and Apple has put significant technical and legal oomph into preserving privacy for their built-in maps library.
If you have concerns or questions, please check out the page we wrote explaining the situation in much more detail[1]. We also welcome your addition to the Discussion either on wiki, on the task request to replace Apple Maps[3] or via email.
Thanks,
Josh Minor
PM, Wikipedia for iOS