Hello again mobile wikimedians,
This morning the 5.0.0 update to the Wikipedia Mobile iOS app went live on
the App Store[1]. As previously described on list[2], and on wiki[3], this
is a major overhaul to the app, focusing on making a great browsing, search
and reading experience for app users.
Features include:
- New Explore feed for browsing and discovering content
- Simplified and touch friendly navigation, including 3D touch shortcuts
- Convenient multilingual search, and integration with iOS Spotlight
- Clean and modern visual design and reading experience
For more, check out this WMF blog post[4] or watch this short demo video on
Commons[5].
We've also been getting very positive press in many tech news outlets,
including:
- Venture Beat [6]
- Engadget [7]
- The Next Web [8]
5.0.0 is just the beginning of a new road to making an iOS app Wikipedians
and can be really proud of, and readers will love. We know we have
longstanding needs like text size adjustment and find-in-page that are
still missing. We also need to get better at accessibility. And, sadly, our
editing features remain minimal. But,we think this is a solid foundation we
can build on.
This was truly a team effort by the WMF iOS team, and many other staff
(particular thanks to Communications, Research and Analytics). And of
course thanks again to our code contributors, translators and beta testers.
Feedback can be sent from in the app (open the Settings, then tap "Write to
us"), chat us on freenode IRC at #wikimedia-ios, or talk on our team's
MediaWiki page[9].
[1] -
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikipedia-mobile/id324715238?mt=8
[2] -
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mobile-l/2015-December/010011.html
[3] -
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/Why_5
[4] -
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/03/10/new-wikipedia-app-ios/
[5] -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Wikipedia_Mobile_5.0_fo…
[6] -
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/03/10/wikipedias-new-redesigned-ios-app-ful…
[7] -
http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/10/wikipedia-ios-app-redesigned/
[8] -
http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/10/wikipedias-new-ios-app-focuses-on-discover…
[9] -
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Apps/Team/iOS
Cheers,
Josh Minor
Product Manager
Wikimedia Foundation