Wikimedia Apps/Android FAQ

General info

 * What is the difference between the Android app and the mobile web version of Wikipedia?

The Wikipedia App provides an optimized and streamlined experience for searching and reading Wikipedia content. Being a native app, it allows articles to load faster, and with less data usage. It also delivers a more responsive interface that is more consistent with other Android apps that you love. It adds features that are not available (or not possible) in the Web version of Wikipedia, such as saving pages to the device for later reading, and sharing content and images from articles to your favorite social media apps.

Of course, the app is still under development, and does not yet have some of the features that are available on the Wikipedia mobile website, such as watchlists, collections, and notifications.

Our app works on all Android devices, from the current version of Android (version 5.2, Lollipop) all the way back to version 2.3 (Gingerbread).
 * Is my device supported?

The most recent changes to the app may be found in the Play Store listing for the app, or here.
 * Release notes

What features are available on the Android app?
Tap the "Search Wikipedia" bar at the top, and type your search term. The app will give you a list of Wikipedia articles based on your search query. The app automatically searches articles based on their title, as well as their full text, to provide the best possible match. Searching Wikipedia is performed only in a single language which, by default, is set to the language of your Android device. To change the Wikipedia language, go to the main app menu (top left) and select "More", then select "Wikipedia language". From the top-right menu (three dots), select "Find in page". You will be able to type text to search within the current page, and the search results will be automatically highlighted and scrolled into view. From the top-right menu (three dots), select "Read in other languages". This will show a list of languages in which the current article is available for reading. When you long-press on the text within an article, you can highlight portions of the text, then use the buttons in the top menu to "copy" the selection to the clipboard, or "share" the selection. If you select "share", you will be able to share the selection as plain text, or an image card that contains the text printed on top of the most relevant image from the article. From the top-right menu (three dots), select "Save page" to save the current page for later reading, even when you're offline. You will be able to access your saved pages by going to the main app menu (top left) and selecting "Saved pages". Go to the main app menu (top left) and select "Nearby" to see Wikipedia articles about places near you, based on the GPS location of your device. We do not store or track your location over time. Tap on the "pencil" icon next to section headings in an article to start editing. Note that Wikipedia articles are formatted using MediaWiki formatting.
 * Search for articles
 * Set/change Wikipedia language
 * Search within page
 * Read in different languages
 * Share interesting facts to social media
 * Saved pages
 * Nearby
 * Editing

Offline reading and data
From the top-right menu (three dots), select "Save page" to save the current page for later reading, even when you're offline. You will be able to access your saved pages by going to the main app menu (top left) and selecting "Saved pages". If your mobile carrier supports Wikipedia Zero, the app will automatically access Wikipedia for free, and it will notify you when you are within a Zero-rated network. If you do not see a notification about this in the app, you may be charged for accessing data from Wikipedia. No, we don't (intentionally) track you and we don't use your data. The app automatically collects certain sanitized user statistics, but this can be disabled by going to the main app menu (top left), selecting the "More" option, and unchecking the "Send usage reports" checkbox. //Can we add a sample report of extracted data? Melamrawy (WMF) (talk) 16:10, 13 May 2015 (UTC) The reports for usage statistics of various features within the app contain IP hashes and device details and may contain usernames, user agents, visited URLs, unique ID of your own installation of the app. Some details are available. For example, it records the average delay between typing a search term and receiving search results, or the number of times the Share button is clicked, or whether the font size was increased or decreased. This is all used to better understand user engagement, and guides us to improving and enhancing the features that the app offers. When you click Nearby, the app then gets instant access to your geolocation, and offers you a list of articles that are near your location. Nearby doesn't track your location or store your geodata.
 * Can I save articles for offline reading?
 * Can I access Wikipedia for free with your app?
 * Does your app track me? Do you use my data?
 * What information does the usage report contain?
 * How does Nearby work?

Readability and adjustments
From the top-right menu (three dots), select "Font and theme". This will allow you to increase or decrease the text size, as well as switch between a Light and Dark theme.
 * Can I change font size and background color?

Yes! When an audio clip appears inside an article, tap on the "Play" button to start playing the audio. When an article contains a video clip, tap on the video thumbnail to start playing the video.
 * Can I listen to media or watch videos on the app?

Download and bug reporting
Please do. Our repository is available on github please check details for contribution.
 * I am an Android developer, may I fork your app?

Can I download an APK version to install the Android app without a Google Play Store account?

APK files (for both the beta and stable versions of the app) are available on release.wikimedia.org. Note that the app won't auto-update when installed this way.

Is the app available on F-Droid?

As of mid-2015, there is no official up-to-date F-Droid version (background).


 * Where do I report bugs?
 * If the app crashes, it will automatically display a dialog that asks you to specify what you were doing when the crash occurred. It will then automatically draft an email (in your preferred email app) that contains the report, which you can "send" when ready.
 * If you see another bug (and not a crash) or have a suggestion or feature request, you can send feedback [mailto:mobile-android-wikipedia@wikimedia.org here].

Editing
No. You can edit without creating a username or logging in, but note that your IP address will be associated with your edits, and will be visible to anyone who reads the page's history. Not yet. This is not yet supported in the app.
 * Do I have to be logged in to edit?
 * Can I upload pictures?
 * Can I view a page's history and talk pages?

App permissions
This permission is used for the Nearby functionality only. If you don't use it we don't request your current location. This permission seems a bit mislabeled by the Play Store. Even without this permission an app could read photos and media files. The app needs this permission to be able to write to external storage so it can temporarily save images for sharing them to other apps. Technically we wouldn't need it for the latest Android versions but we also support older Android releases
 * Why does the app need the Location permission (ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION)?
 * Why does the app need the Photos/Media/Files permission (WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE)?

General info
Wikipedia Mobile web application is accessible via any web browser, it provides different features than the app, such as the ability to create watchlists, collections, and receiving notifications. The iOS app provides a different reading experience optimized for iOS devices, the ability to see pages about things that are nearby, and the ability to save pages for offline reading—to name just a few.
 * What is the difference between iOS app and mobile web app?

Offline reading and data
To save an article for reading later, just tap the "heart" icon in the bottom bar while viewing the article. To view your saved articles, just tap on the W menu in the upper left corner, and tap "Saved pages". If your mobile carrier supports Wikipedia Zero, then please mark the option in settings for free browsing without data fees charging. No, we don't track you or give any personal information to 3rd parties. We do have event logging to help us figure if anybody uses features that we include in the app. User reports are only sent when you activate the option. It is enabled by default, but you can easily deactivate it from W menu. We also have crash reporting to help us fix bugs. If a crash is detected, you will be prompted with the option to send us the crash report if you like (Please say yes! It helps us a lot.). All collected data is anonymous. When you click Nearby, the app then gets instant access to your geolocation, and offers you a list of articles within your location. Nearby doesn't track your location or store your geodata. Mainly crash reports. //can we provide a sample of what this entails?
 * Can I save articles for offline reading?
 * Can I access Wikipedia for free with your app?
 * Does your app track me? Do you use my data?
 * How does Nearby work?
 * What information does the usage report contain?

Readability and adjustments
Yes, for reading options you can opt to either dark or white background, you can also change font size. Unfortunately, media is not currently supported on the app
 * Can I change font size and background color?
 * Can I listen to media or watch videos on the app?

Developing and bug reporting
Please do. Our repository is available on GitHub. Please see the README for information on how to contribute.
 * I am an iOS developer, may I fork your app?
 * Where do I report bugs?

Instructions on how to file a bug are here. Please include as much information about your device, the app version you're using, and screenshots if you can.

Editing
No. You can edit without creating a username or logging in, but note that your IP address will be associated with your edits, and will be visible to anyone who reads the page's history. No. The application doesn't currently support viewing history and talk pages
 * Do I have to be logged in to edit?
 * Can I upload pictures?
 * Can I view a page's history and talk pages?