Wikimedia Apps/Synced Reading Lists

Saved Pages on iOS
For several years the iOS app has had a Saved Pages feature which allows users to bookmark articles for reading later, and also saves those articles so they are available offline. Users can save articles to their Saved Pages libarary using the Bookmark icon available on all articles, and in many other places throughout the app. These articles are saved in a flat list (no folders or user metadata), and stored only locally to device.

Reading Lists on Android
In early 2016 the Android team updated their existing Saved Pages to a new feature called Reading Lists. Reading Lists allowed users to put saved articles into folders and to label and make a basic description for their folders. The original feature design included the ability for logged in users to sync their lists across devices, using the list storing capabilities of the Collections extension. For reasons unrelated to the apps and their user's needs, these plans were paused. In early 2017 the Android team made a number of improvements to the Reading Lists feature, to make them easier to manage for users and solidify the offline saving elements, based on research identifying offline saving as a major area of focus for serving New Readers.

User Interest
Number 2 most requested feature for iOS users (for lists and syncing lists) and number 1 complaint from Android users is that reading lists don't sync across devices, and that getting a new device often means losing carefully curated personalize reading lists.

% or number of users that save pages (iOS and Android)

distribution of number of saved pages

commercial Wikipedia apps offering reading lists that sync

User Survey
We are currently finalizing a survey which will run in-app. This survey will ask specifically about use cases and motivations for the existing feature as well as proposed capability, such as cross-device syncing.

You can follow the progress of this research on this task: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T164770

Personas and Stories
Michaela Sandeep
 * Create and sync
 * Multiple devices
 * Device upgrade/transfer
 * Create and download
 * Multiple devices
 * Understand and manage bandwidth and storage for local lists

Privacy and Data Storage
Storing any user data is something the Foundation takes seriously and treats cautiously. Given our deeply held values around user privacy and desire to minimize the amount of information we track and retain about users, we plan to take everypossible step to guard that privacy while still being able to serve our readers desire for lists which can live on more than one device.

In addition to a Foundation Legal review of the terms and prvacy statements to ensure they are accurate and clear around these issues, this feature will require:
 * Only logged in users will be able to sync their lists, and information will be stored based on user account, not device or personal identifiers
 * Users who want their lists to sync will have to "opt-in" through a clearly worded onboarding. No users reading lists will be stored on our servers without the user explicity choosing to do so.
 * Users will have the ability from the app to delete their stored lists. This deletion will be permanent, and not require them to delete or disable their Wikipedia account.

Note on Larger Lists Project
Reading lists are also similar in concept and technology to Offline Compilations, and even the existing Watchlist function. This feature is being designed and developed within a larger context which is described and documented here.