Wikimedia Mobile engineering/Features

This page is intended as a whiteboard for collecting feature ideas and taking a first step at organizing them. Please no deletion here.

All features below are general, although some may be more relevant to an app, and some more to the mobile site. The intention is to bring all forms of mobile access up to an optimal level of functionality and usability.

= Potential features by category =

Most mobile features fall into the following categories:


 * UI and usability - Otherwise known as user experience, there is great room for improvement in both the mobile site and smartphone apps.


 * Participatory features and apps - There are many ways to make mobile Wikipedia editing-friendly and more engaging, in ways that really make sense on mobile devices. These features are among the most groundbreaking in the Mediawiki world - help our mission of retaining and growing the editor user base!


 * Carrier solutions - Wikimedia staff are actively engaging carriers around the world in groundbreaking projects such as WIkipedia Zero, which gives mobile users in developing countries free access to Wikipedia.


 * Languages on mobile - The issues around language are in several areas: rendering fonts to read content, the UI of devices and apps, input languages and keyboards, and Wikipedia content across languages and in search.

UI and usability

 * Slideshow of photos in article
 * Could also be used with Featured Pictures, Related Pictures, see below


 * Wikipedia menu
 * Turn icon into Home link
 * Intermediate step to Athena UI
 * Slides on and off the screen on smartphones
 * Include Random and inter-language links
 * Some menu items are general Wikipedia features, some are specific to the article
 * Account features such as login
 * 31399


 * Featured Pictures
 * Could be part of Wikipedia menu, among general Wikipedia items
 * 32269


 * Related pictures
 * "Wikimedia Commons has media related to..." in many articles
 * Could be part of Wikipedia menu, among items related to article


 * Language prefs in inter-wiki links
 * Tiering languages so most likely languages are at the top of the list, or save most recent languages visited
 * Could be based on country detection
 * 32254


 * Show English search result if none in other language
 * Falls back to English Wikipedia only
 * High priority for many languages
 * 32541


 * "Did you mean" corrections for search
 * Just surface from form
 * Possibly use full-text search as well when word matching ends - already implemented
 * 29560


 * Articles trending on landing page
 * Could be combined with country-specific landing page, above
 * Nimish has manual process for doing this by country


 * Access map link in articles
 * Little-known attribute of many place-related articles
 * Use Open Street Maps in mobile-friendly way
 * Could be part of Wikipedia Menu, among items related to article


 * Saving content for offline reading
 * Android and iPhone apps have or will have this
 * Can we use printable version and PDF?
 * HTML 5 options
 * Kiwix app is a proof of concept
 * 32270


 * Contact us page needs better formatting


 * Merge search icon into search bar
 * Requires new graphic
 * 31934


 * Augmented Reality with articles near me
 * like Wikitude app


 * Donation mechanisms
 * One idea is to provide versions of the iOS and Android apps that "cost" money
 * In-app purchase for donations
 * Could be part of Wikipedia Menu


 * Font sizes preference for mobile site and iPhone app
 * Preset sizes, maybe pinch and zoom later
 * 19921


 * Horizontal scrolling - mostly done
 * Enabled when content exceeds screen width, typically photos or tables
 * 32123 now closed, related to bugs 31931, 22187, 31892
 * 33688 remaining for RTL languages in some Android browsers


 * Improved photo handling 1 - mostly done
 * Scale photos to screen width or nearest standard size in the main article view
 * When a photo is clicked and the photo is larger than the screen width, allow horizontal scrolling
 * mostly done except RTL languages in some Android browsers
 * 31931


 * Improved photo handling 2 - mostly done
 * Filter info page to show a subset of information
 * Allow click to open to show original image at screen width but user can use zoom and scroll as supported natively
 * 31933


 * Turn off GPS when moving away from Map view
 * When using the Nearby feature to find Wiki articles near my current location, the GPS device stays on even after I have exited the app. This will cause severe battery drain if left on. Can you update it to shut down the GPS when you have moved away from the map view either by closing the app or by selecting an article or pressing back on the device.


 * Show links in Wikipedia app on Android
 * When using browser, Android Intents can surface our app

The following three ideas are really for the main site and mock-ups were created by Nishank, Vishvwamitra, Maharshi and Sumit from BITS:


 * Related Random using links
 * As opposed to general random, how about related random using links, both from and to
 * Results in more focused discovery
 * 32542


 * Show relationship
 * Two terms, like names of famous people
 * Show links that connect the terms, including the sentences the terms appear in
 * 32543


 * Ranked related links
 * Show from and to links, sorted by various ranking methods, such as:
 * Number of page views
 * Ratings (Article feedback)
 * Last edited
 * Relevance (not currently defined)
 * 32544

Participatory features and apps
Most of these features rely on mobile login, which has been deployed.


 * Articles near me missing photos - part of the Weekend of Code challenge
 * Weekend of Code submissions
 * 19920 - Articles near me in mobile site
 * Android bugs are details relating to current function in Android app: 31891, 31954, 31956, 31957
 * GPS API and parameters for articles missing photos in process


 * Photo upload
 * Depends on improved photo handling, see UI
 * Improve current Upload Wizard for mobile screens (will not work on iOS)
 * Possible tie-in with articles near me or a known article (some way of identifying photos for certain articles)
 * Here is the page for recent feedback on the Upload Wizard from Wiki Loves Monuments: Upload Wizard Feedback
 * Weekend of Code submissions
 * "Share with Commons" app:
 * On Android Market:
 * On github:
 * The application adds a "Share with Wikimedia Commons" option to the "Share with" menu that's available in the Android Gallery app. That is, when you're viewing a picture on your phone, you can easily upload that particular picture to Commons through the same process that's used for Picasa and other websites. It doesn't prompt for categories and the license selection is basically just a template field, but it gets the job done. Images uploaded using the app are added to this category:
 * 33428 - Smooth upload workflow starting with article
 * 31979 - Android app
 * 32286 - Mobile Web
 * 31978 - HTML5 Support
 * 24387 - Login
 * 32292 - Notifications system - jeblad prototype and notes
 * Possible staging area for uploads with curation method, or just part of normal workflow on Commons initially
 * Photo upload solution for iPad, such as making the main uploader functional or a link from normal site to iPad app
 * Prompt users to add a photo when browsing photos with empty place and text, "Add your own"


 * Add GPS coordinates within a location-related category
 * Needs some API support
 * Link up with desktop to refine
 * 32271


 * Create article stubs offline
 * Like Evernote app
 * Could leverage New Article Creation tool


 * Share or "e-mail to friends"
 * For mobile site (already in Android app and shortly in iPhone app)
 * Prefill email, or SMS
 * 24359
 * Ankit


 * Watchlists - keeping track of watchlists on mobile devices
 * 32290 - Main
 * 24387 - Login
 * 32292 - Notifications system


 * Proofreading and simple editing on mobile
 * Annotate articles to edit later, such as typos and simple fixes, requires login
 * 32329 - Main
 * 24387 - Login
 * 32292 - Notifications system
 * see Brainstorm and Wikignome


 * Article feedback
 * "Did you find what you were looking for?" (Y/N or comment)
 * Project page
 * Live API search on "articlefeedback"
 * 32293 - Main
 * 32292 - Notifications system


 * Moodbar and comments - seeing Feedback Dashboard and writing comments
 * Feedback Dashboard mock-up
 * Feedback Dashboard project
 * Possibly include some common links (including that user's feedback and the cheatsheet) in a drop-down list to make comments easier to make
 * The experienced editor could easily add that user's talk page to their watch list
 * API for submitting comments is done
 * 32304 - Main
 * 24387 - Login
 * 32292 - Notifications system


 * Moodbar for quick ratings
 * A version of user input for helping with rating the beta features of the mobile site


 * Add GPS coordinates within a location-related category
 * Link up with desktop to refine
 * Needs some API support on main platform
 * 32271


 * Custom map apps
 * Having custom maps that can be developed using GPS data as well as generated and shared via mobile devices could open up contributions to content-specific maps on Wikimedia sites. These custom maps could be incredibly useful to view with articles on places, treks on topics such as hiking in the Himalayas or Alps, tracing historic battlegrounds, or trekking though wildlife sanctuaries. Android recently released an open source app named CustomMaps to help build such apps. Check out Google custom maps.
 * 32274

Carrier solutions

 * Top 20 articles by country RSS feed
 * Requires trending articles analysis by country
 * Also regional if languages differ within a country by region


 * New WAP view
 * Change initial page into intro (of long but constrained length), simple infobox extract, and Table of Contents as simple links (this is a top request from the India and Brazil research)
 * 31714


 * SMS/USSD gateway for Wikipedia access (simple search at first)
 * Related to New WAP view 31714
 * Can push Featured Articles (possibly by carrier)
 * Virtual server on Labs
 * txtWeb sample app
 * 31614
 * Tata set up short code and USSD connection
 * Jeremy Thurgood, Praekelt - USSD app plus final output by SMS
 * txtWeb - enhanced SMS app (infobox, TOC, intelligent summary)
 * API for plain text needed


 * J2ME app
 * This is clearly required in parts of the world where smartphones are not prevalent
 * One Indian operator requested keeping the article history in the app
 * 32700


 * Mobile data usage per person per month by country
 * To help operators define data usage caps per country or region


 * Android app icon co-branding
 * Bottom 20% of icon will be carrier's design
 * App name will be customized
 * 32763


 * Wikipedia Zero heading banner - almost done
 * Simple branded banner for an operator running the Zero program
 * To be added when we detect access from a limited number of known IP addresses
 * Includes basic text of operator name in limited font styles
 * Browser view is without images and WAP view must be supported
 * 32001
 * Abhishek


 * Wikipedia Zero warning - almost done
 * When the user selects to view images or an external link, the heading banner changes color to red and a warning message appears, similar to: "You have selected an action that requires a charge for data access, click to continue"
 * 32002
 * Abhishek


 * Wikipedia.org should detect mobile browser and locale - almost done in relation to Zero
 * A mobile-specific version of this page must be created, or country-specific landing pages
 * Squid layer, med difficulty, Ops support
 * Readers study says people often go straight to Wikipedia.org on mobile, as opposed to Google search, especially in Brazil and India - both quantitative and qualitative
 * Could also use MaxMind for country detection
 * 30389
 * Bob and Deval?
 * Requires opt-in until privacy policy is revised to include geolocation
 * Could be combined with selection of language preference


 * Country-specific landing pages - almost done
 * India in particular (English and links to other Indic language versions)
 * See Page views by country
 * Related to Wikipedia.org feature under UI and usability, above
 * Once implemented, instructions could be similar to: Mobile homepage
 * 28815
 * Ramakrishnan and Shashand


 * RSS feed of Today's Featured Article and other standard content types - mostly done
 * Questions around content types that are manually updated
 * Easy way to include Wikipedia in the carrier's portal
 * Should we make this like a "self-serve" option?
 * FAQ [|FAQ]
 * 32699

Languages on mobile

 * Universal language selector and keyboard
 * Arun's mock-up
 * 32539


 * Localize Android app - mostly done
 * Translatewiki
 * Multi-tiling input app on Android
 * 31467
 * Turkish and Russian done


 * Test Narayam on mobile
 * Will not work on phones that don't have jQuery support
 * http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Narayam
 * 32267
 * For input like Narayam extension? For output like the core MediaWiki LanguageConverter features for Chinese, Serbian, etc? Or something else?
 * For input, ideally working on WAP as well, needs more Indic language support


 * Transliteration input extension
 * Currently appears on Hindi Wikipedia
 * Works on iPhone
 * Manish / Mayur mayurdce at gmail dot com
 * Localization team made progress on this with Narayam


 * Dynamic fonts support or WebFonts
 * Android 2.3X and higher
 * Rendering engine required
 * 28515


 * QRpedia - currently exists as external project
 * Primarily used by museums
 * Detects phone language and directs to the appropriate language Wikipedia

Other possible features are shown below:

Other ideas

 * Browsing history across devices (Readers study), might require login and profile work, or is this search or bookmarks?


 * Native search, like on iPhone


 * "Find" function for Wikipedia Mobile 	20146	High - some UX, not too hard


 * Reformatting of Portals (multiple columns formatting too wide)	22187	High - not lock screen? not force squish, prototype


 * Support for collapsed infoboxes and tables in Mobile 	29504	High for featurephones, difficult but less than edit, Articles iPhone app research


 * Summaries - widget to scrape HTML 31612 High for featurephones - slider tool for Webkit scrapes HTML - marked as duplicate of New WAP view, bug 31714 above


 * Auto-complete based on history too 	31598 Low


 * Give projects the opportunity to add mobile specific JS/CSS 	22659	Medium - project-specific, get admin feedback, stylesheet per device


 * Add geolocation functionality to MobileFrontend to support Articles near me 	19920	Medium - HTML5 only, some UX and Open Streetmaps integration, new phones only, already in Android app


 * Support language variants (different language interfaces - same wikipedia) 	21806	Medium - do-able, related to inter-wiki language links


 * Display the categories 	22660	- UX, get feedback


 * Option to permanently see mobile frontend from PC render 	29503 	Medium - last part


 * Distinguish external links from internal links. 	30831	medium - CSS easy


 * Random button for Wikisource 	30902	low - easy workaround Namespace 0


 * Cleanup duplicate CSS for mobile devices 	31050	medium (good idea) - depends on the project for Admin CSS (see bug 22659 above)


 * Links to page history don't surface actual revisions 	29387 Medium - UX, same as edit history below


 * Keep home-random menu expanded after clicking random 	30842 Medium - test on devices


 * Confirm deletion of bookmarks only (not creation)


 * Multiple tabs

Tablet app ideas

 * New main site UI (see Athena)
 * Main site photo upload wizard?
 * Photo upload, photo curation
 * New Page Triage tie-ins
 * Visual Editor tie-ins

Leading app UI
app overview
 * tabs
 * read later list
 * visual history using article graphics
 * find in page
 * font, brightness, color
 * arrange bookmarks in folders
 * wallpaper of latest 6 pictures of the day from Commons, see here
 * Articles app

Internal grab bag

 * New Page Patrol, possible tablet app for specific tasks
 * Article rating as entry into annotation and editing
 * Annotation, private or public, separate from discussions and as entry into editing
 * Simple comments or discussion, at minimum notify Talk-page participants of replies - see Brainstorm
 * Citation entry by photo of book - see Brainstorm
 * Voice input search, aka Apple demo (possibly no work required)
 * Wiktionary and WikiNews

India and Brazil research

 * Summaries - High for featurephones, see "New WAP view" above
 * More media - yes, but not heavy - see Featured Pictures above
 * Editing - or entry points into editing
 * Language detection - see above
 * Handset detection (already implemented)

App features wishlist
Mobile Projects/App Features & Roadmap

Qgil:
 * Share this – easy with Android Intents, maybe clickable links in browser on iOS
 * Patrol a new article, could be suggested by the app - complex, Brandon
 * Geotag an article
 * Upload and embed photos - comm apps POC Wikisnap exist, basic already in gateway
 * Add comment on discussion page – using newsection edit is simple, LiquidThreads integration longer term - complex
 * Community Portal – learn more about Wikipedia, Things to do, RSS feed of The Signpost - easy Hackathon
 * Editors near you - complex
 * Landing page - based on Last news + On this day + Featured article + Pic of the day + Media of the day - complex?
 * Related articles, leaving genuine links to external articles - External links - low
 * Limit searches and browsing to pages of certain quality - no good UI, not all languages - complex
 * Edit profile – auto-input from device info, insert user banners as gallery?, auto location update, auto update of “Pictures I have loaded from my device” - complex, no SSL concurrently

Ryuch:
 * Proofreading mode, could be similar to or same as annotation - not so complex if simple text, get feedback

Other:
 * SuggestBot to suggest a mobile task - comm dev, based on past contributions
 * LiquidThreads integration

Wikimedia services

 * Bookmark for device pre-install - in progress
 * Search API
 * Share API for upload to Commons - part of upload
 * Accounts and OAuth API - and OpenID, both require SSL on mobile - Medium

Mobile site wishlist

 * View edit history - time, username, edit, then diff (basic diff appears now), clear workflow to see edits
 * Community – Signpost, Village Pump, Article trending, meetups near me - hackathon
 * API usage data and traffic through large mirrors like Facebook (open RFP) - platform, tokens, not so complex but time-consuming

Mobile site testing feedback
Mobile_site_rewrite/Testing


 * Move “Mobile View” to top - UX needed
 * Reduce line-height - CSS percentage, test across devices, UX
 * Keys for navigation - not complex, some UX
 * Content lists non-touch - ?
 * Thumbnail to screen width, or inline if screen is more than 300 pixels wide - UX, store in some standard sizes
 * Mobile editing UI - complex, Trevor, Ines, Brion
 * Change table.metadata to metadata - 31510

iPhone app

 * Feature parity with Android app
 * Disable the automatic download of the featured article when launching Wikipedia Mobile for iPhone?
 * Why this would lose utility for no clear benefit.
 * When you clear the history and immediately exit the app and close it (by opening multitasking, holding the icon and tapping the cross), the next time you open the app the history is still there.
 * PhoneGap-based app has no facility to clear history.
 * Also not really a bug (I think), but a bit annoying nonetheless: the homepage gets added to the history as well. Could you consider not doing this anymore? I thought this was the behavior in old versions.
 * Could consider it... ...no actually that would mean you'd lose the main page from back/forward behavior and restoration from previous run. Seems like that would be negative?
 * App crashes on launch with iOS 4.2.2 (need to check)
 * Old app or new app? New app is unrelated, so any crash won't be the same. New app may or may not be able to run on iOS 4.2 at all; currently requires web browser features new in iOS 5.0.
 * If you change the language from Dutch in to English the problem is gone the app is working, when you go back to Dutch the app is not working (iOS 5.1)
 * Old app or new app? Such problems in old app presumably would not transfer automatically to the new app. New app needs to be tested to ensure that localization works.

India Hackathon
See the archive.