Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/Communication

Background
In February 2021, the Android team released the first iteration of talk pages in the app itself. This effort served as Phase 0 of a year long endeavor to improve communications capabilities through the Android app to expand accessibility for mobile device users. The epic for the original work is available at T252556.

This project page will be updated as we take an audit of the limitations of communication through Android and ensuring community conventions are followed as we make optimizations for a communication experience for mobile devices.

How to follow along
We have created T273253 as our Phabricator Epic to track preliminary improvements to the talk pages on Android experience prior to our full evaluation. We encourage feedback as we are iterating on the first release and plan to conduct an in-depth audit of communication through Android devices April – June 2021 in order to make improvements through next year.

2 February 2021 - Release of watchlist and talk pages
We're excited to present our latest release of the Wikipedia Android app, available now on the Google Play Store (or as a standalone download for devices without Google). Here are the major highlights from this update:

* Watchlists: Your watchlist is now accessible from the main screen when you are logged in. Tap the "More" menu at the bottom and select "Watchlist." If you have multiple languages selected in the app, the Watchlist screen will merge your watchlists from those language wikis. You can also choose which languages to show by tapping the language icon in the toolbar at the top. Tap any of the items in your watchlist to see a detailed diff screen for the selected change. And of course, to add any article you're currently reading to your watchlist, tap the top-right menu in the toolbar, and select "Add to watchlist."

* Talk pages: Article talk pages and User talk pages are now presented natively. When reading an article, the corresponding talk page is accessible by scrolling to the bottom and selecting "View talk page." User talk pages can be accessed from various places where user interactions might occur, including your watchlist, various push notifications (e.g. messages left by other users on your talk page), and other users' and article talk pages.

In addition to these major updates, this release has plenty of bug fixes, design refinements, and performance optimizations. Check it out, and as always, we welcome your feedback! We are asking for Watchlist feedback on Phab task T273254 and talk page feedback on T273253. You can also leave feedback on this talk page.

Special note: This release is dedicated to the memory of our late colleague and friend Bernd Sitzmann, a brilliant developer and a wonderful person, without whom the app wouldn't be what it is today. He will be missed.