Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/AppEditorTasks

What is this project?
The Android team are working on a feature that will suggest small contributions that editors can make via their mobile devices.

We used to call it App Editor Tasks, but have decided to call it Suggested Edits instead, because that's just what the feature does: suggest small, quick, but extremely useful edits that you can make right in the app!

Version 1.0, released 23 April 2019, enabled users who have previously made 3+ good (i.e., not reverted) Wikidata description edits through the app to access a feature that suggests articles that are missing Wikidata descriptions in their language, and allow them to add these missing descriptions.

For users who have made 50+ good edits, we suggest Wikidata descriptions that they can translate from one language into another.

Version 2.0, released 8 August 2019, enables users who have previously made 3+ good image caption additions to add structured captions for images that are used on-wiki, but currently lack structured captions.

Users who have added 15+ good structured captions will be prompted to translate captions from one language to another if they have multiple languages set in the app.

Version 3.0, released 25 November 2019, gives users basic statistics on their editing activity within the Suggested Edits feature, moves the feature to the bottom navigation for convenient access, and will pause or disable the SE feature in case of poor edit quality. This has also enabled us to experiment with removing the previous edit requirements.

Future phases of development will enable other types of contributions, for example suggesting low-ORES scored articles to review and edit, or reviewing depicts statements on images.

We welcome your suggestions on other types of edits that we can enable using this workflow! You can reach us on the Talk page for this project, or on Phabricator.

What's the rationale for doing this?
Our readers mainly read the wikis on mobile phones; our editing tools are focused on desktop and keyboards.

This will be a problem for us: Wikipedia became a big thing because everyone who read it could add information.

If this is not true in the future, we’ll have a harder time getting new editors.

The developers are working on a number of different solutions, including, of course, trying to make the kind of typical content creation that we’ve always done easier on mobile.

However, we’re also looking into whether there are specific tasks that could be especially well-suited for mobile users.

With this feature, we want to:


 * Extend usage of existing micro-contribution tool. The (Wikidata) title description editing feature on Android has proven successful in encouraging micro-contributions.


 * Extend app knowledge of multilingual users.


 * Increase Android app editor retention. Based on previous launch of editing Wikidata descriptions, and through previous community consultations, it is our hypothesis that providing more micro-contributions to the Android app will lead to an increase in in-app editor activity and retention.

Won't this lead to spam or vandalism?


Based on the outcomes of the release of Wikidata description editing in 2017–2018, we don't think so.

There are several safeguards in place to prevent spam and vandalism:


 * Users must be logged in through the app (no IP editing is allowed through the feature).


 * Access to the feature will be paused, and the will be directed to information on how to edit effectively in case a higher than normal percentage of their edits get reverted.


 * Access to the feature will be completely revoked if too many of the user's edits get reverted.

As you can see from this graph of the revert rate on Suggested Edits 1.0, the safeguards seem to be working - the revert rate is usually 0%, and with only two exceptions, is below the background rate of reverts for edits made through the Android app.

Suggested Edits 1.0 - Add/translate Wikidata descriptions (released 23 April 2019)
This feature enables users who have previously made 3+ good (i.e., not reverted) Wikidata description edits through the app access to a feature that suggests articles that are missing Wikidata descriptions in their language, and allow them to add these missing descriptions.

For users who have made 50+ good edits, we suggest Wikidata descriptions that they can translate from one language into another.

You can follow the development process we went through on Phabricator.

You can also read the FAQ on the Wikidata project page.

Check out the designs below to get an overview of how things work (in this case, adding a new Wikidata description to an article that doesn't have one):

Suggested Edits 2.0 - Add/translate structured image captions for Commons (released 8 August 2019)
The latest version of Suggested Edits displays images that are missing structured captions on Commons.

Editors are prompted to enter a caption in their own words or to translate a caption from another language they speak.

(We don't allow editors to copy-paste text within the Suggested Edits workflow.)

The images suggested by the feature are used on one or more articles in the target language, but lack structured captions - so we anticipate that by allowing editors to add high-quality structured captions in a quick and easy way, the Structured Data project, app editors, and users who view the captions will all benefit.

Check out the designs below to get an overview of how things work (in this case, translating an English structured caption into German):

Suggested Edits 3.0 - Improved Suggested Edits Homescreen and Feature Pausing (released 25 November 2019)
The new Suggested Edits v3 homescreen gives Android app users basic statistics on their editing activity within the Suggested Edits feature. Moving the feature to the bottom navigation for logged-in users now allows convenient access to the feature.

Access to the Suggested Edits feature will now be paused for a user for one week the first time their edit quality drops below a certain threshold. They will be given information on how to improve their edits so that they can productively contribute once the feature is re-enabled.

The Suggested Edits feature will be permanently disabled for a user in case of consistently low edit quality. The user's account is left unchanged - only the Suggested Edits feature becomes disabled. If the user's account is banned by an admin on either the Commons or Wikidata projects, the SE feature will also be disabled for the user.

Suggested Edits 4.0 - Tag Commons images to improve search
The newest version of Suggested edits, to be released in March 2020, will allow users to add tags to Commons images. This will make them easier to search for on Commons. More info and screenshots to follow very soon.

Push Notifications for editors
Beginning in around June 2020, we will begin working on push notifications. We think these will be useful to people who want to keep up with their watchlists and other editing-related notifications on the go, without continually needing to check the site. As with most other Android apps, we’ll be using Firebase for our push notifications, which requires users to have Google Play Services on their phone. If you prefer not to use Google Play Services, the app will continue to function as normal – you just won’t get push notifications.

We’ll continue to update this page as we get closer to implementation time. As with our other features, users who don’t want notifications at all will be able to opt-out entirely, or enable only the specific types of notifications they want, e.g., revert notifications or talk page mentions.

What will future development of Suggested Edits look like?
Here's what we're targeting:

2019-04-23 - Phase 1 released. This includes the ability to add and translate Wikidata descriptions

2019-08-08 - Phase 2 released. This includes the ability to add and translate structured captions for Commons images

2019-11-25 - Phase 3 released. This includes the new Suggested Edits homescreen, and the pausing/disabling of the feature for users with lower edit quality

 end of March 2020  - Phase 4 released. This will allow users to verify machine-suggested Depicts tags on Commons images

 FY 2020/21  - Explore extensions to the feature, such as suggesting low-ORES scored articles to review and edit.