Wikimedia Apps/Team/iOS/Notifications

About
Following the release of MediaWiki support for mobile notifications we are working to bring all Echo notifications and alerts to the iOS app. This update will make it easier for editors who use iOS devices to be notified about new messages and alerts that they have, without having to open the app, find the appropriate talk page, or open the mobile website. This is a vital part of our long-term efforts in “closing the editing loop” on the app and bringing the core Wikipedia workflows to iOS app users.

Plans
Our work on notifications comprises three core components:
 * System (iOS) native push notifications
 * In-app Notification Center
 * Ensuring notifications are actionable

These three components will allow iOS participants to know when they have a new notification without having to check Wikipedia’s website or check pages in the app, so that they can take timely action on their notifications.

The development of these components will be the primary focus of the iOS team in summer 2021 and will be included in the 6.9 version of the app.

Initial designs
Below are initial designs for each of the three component areas. Significantly more design details and background are available on this Phabricator ticket and subtasks.

OS level notification
Here you can see what some common Echo notifications will look like on a device's lock screen (subject to user opt-in as always).

Notification center
Below you can see the proposed notification center. Here the user will be able to read, search and filter their messages and notices, as well as perform basic “inbox” management such as marking items as read. Note that Alerts are given special visual treatment relative to other notification types.

Taking action
Here you can see the proposed designs for handling the actions and click-through destinations a user might need to further engage and understand the notifications they’ve received.

September 2021 update
The iOS team is finalizing its first internal build to include the basic features of Echo notifications delivered as native push notifications and a Notification Center for reading and managing them.

Below are examples of the current planned version 1, shown running on iOS 15.

Key features


 * iOS system level push notifications
 * Cross-wiki Echo notifications inbox
 * Filter your inbox by project, read/unread and message type
 * Take action with quick links from messages

Our next step is to do basic initial user testing of this design to ensure everything is unstable and intuitive for iOS users. From here we’ll iterate and expand our test audience. You’ll hear more from us on getting in on the testing soon.

Our design and engineering leaders are also doing very preliminary investigations on adding support for block messages, edit notices and other editor communication and feedback tools. We plan to incrementally address these, adopting solutions from the Wikipedia Android app where they have them, and fixing at least one in each version after our notifications release is stable (6.9.1).

Testing and feedback
Any feedback is very welcome on Talk:Wikimedia Apps. You’re welcome to become a beta tester.