User talk:Greg (WMF)
Add topicWikimedia Apps newsletter – Fourth quarter of 2024
[edit]Hello, and welcome to the app's final newsletter of 2024! In this edition, we’ll highlight the key updates and progress made during October and November 2024!
iOS Updates
Personalized Wikipedia Year in Review
In November, we released the first iteration of the Personalized Wikipedia Year in Review to users in Italy and Mexico, covering Italian, Spanish, and English Wikipedia! This experimental feature offers personalized insights based on reading, editing, and donation history for iOS app users for 2024. If this initial version is successful, we hope to improve upon it and make it available to everyone within the iOS app in January 2025. For more information on how your data is used and how to access your Year in Review, please visit the project page, or watch a short video demonstration of the feature.
The alternative text experiment concluded on November 4, and we are currently analyzing the results. The edits are being reviewed by accessibility experts and moderators active on the iOS app for additional feedback.
Preliminary results show that prompting users on an image they’ve just added leads to higher completion rates (18%) compared to unrelated images (6%). The overall revert rate for alt text edits was 3.4%, lower than the app’s average revert rate of 8.1%. We’ll decide next steps for this feature after completing the analysis.
We completed the first phase of our Navigation refresh, and released a new profile menu into the production version of the app. Our work was coordinated in this Epic: T373714
Android Updates
Private Donor Recognition Experiment
We launched an experiment in France and the Netherlands, exploring the impact of private donor recognition on current and prospective donors. Users who donated through the app will see an active badge on the contributions page, while those who haven’t donated will see a prompt to do so. The experiment will run for 20 days, after which we will evaluate the results. This work was coordinated under Epic: T376303.
The team began work on the "Rabbit Holes" experiment to increase retention among new readers. The experiment is designed to help users more easily discover and connect with content they are interested in. It is being coordinated under Epic: T378612.
The Recommended Content in Search experiment showed promising results. Personalized recommendations led to higher retention (86.5%) compared to non-personalized recommendations (64.9%), with positive feedback from users.
We added a launcher shortcut for quicker access to the "Places" feature in the app. (T375367)
Looking Ahead
As we close out 2024, we’re excited about all the progress made and the work ahead in 2025. Keep an eye out for more updates and improvements we hope will enhance your Wikipedia experience!
Thank you for being part of this journey, and don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter for the latest updates!
-- ARamadan-WMF 13:54, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
Wikimedia Apps newsletter – First quarter of 2025
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Hello, and welcome to the first newsletter of 2025! In this edition, we’ll walk you through the exciting updates, experiments, and improvements made to the Wikipedia mobile apps during December, January, and February.
iOS
[edit]Personalized Wikipedia Year in Review
We released the improved version of the Year in Review to all users, now available in multiple languages and for both logged-in and logged-out users. While donation rates were lower than our goal, we saw great engagement with the feature & it brought in a higher share of first-time donors and a higher average donation compared to banner campaigns.
Notably:
- 97.4% of survey respondents rated the experience as neutral or better.
- We saw a 74% increase in new accounts, with 368 new editors actively contributing as a result.
- Most users asked for more personalized stats and a better summary of their reading journey.
We’re excited by the results and are already thinking ahead about how to improve it further next year. Want more details? You can check out the full analysis on the project page on MediaWiki.
Alt Text Experiment Wrap-Up
Our 60-day alternative text experiment has ended. While users showed interest in the task, quality was a challenge—especially for newcomers. The experiment helped us understand how we can guide editors better when writing alt text and which improvements to focus on next.
Some key takeaways:
- Completion rates were decent (28% for newer editors), but the quality of the alternative text needed improvement.
- Many users wanted clearer guidance and better context for writing alt text.
- Many users expressed interest in a dedicated feed for image-related tasks.
We’re not making the alternative text suggested edit permanent at this time. If we decided to focus on this task again, we would invest in improved guidance for writing alternative text, and make improvements to the user flow.
We made significant progress in refreshing the app’s navigation. Highlights include:
- A more native iOS feel with system-standard navigation bars.
- New access points for the Profile menu across multiple screens.
- Ongoing A/B testing of a more prominent search bar in articles, available in Arabic, French, German, and Japanese.
We also began tracking where article views come from (e.g., from Places, History, or Explore), which will help us understand user behavior better.
Tabbed Browsing Begins
We kicked off discovery and design work for adding tabs to the iOS app—one of the most requested features! Based on user feedback and inspiration from other apps, we’ve created a prototype and started user testing. Stay tuned as this exciting feature continues to evolve!
Bug Fixes & Developer Contributions
Thanks to volunteer contributions and internal efforts, we fixed several bugs including:
- Search results overlapping with the status bar.
- Crashes while editing specific articles.
- Incorrect day shown in “In the News.”
- Improved handling of italics and language variants.
Android
[edit]We released the Wikipedia Game to production in German Wikipedia and began work on WikiTrivia using “On this day” content. User feedback from initial testing is helping shape both features.
Private Donor Recognition Experiment
We wrapped up our donor recognition experiment in France and the Netherlands. While overall donations were lower than expected, user feedback was clear:
- 81% of surveyed users want the dashboard to exist on multiple platforms.
- 39% of users who saw the donor icon feature chose to personalize their app icon.
- Many users prefer automatic updates to their donor stats without manual input.
Rabbit Holes
To improve reader retention, we tested two approaches: suggested articles in search and personalized reading lists. Results showed strong engagement:
- 93.3% of feedback was positive or neutral.
- Pageviews were significantly higher for users who engaged with the feature.
- Users preferred reading lists over suggested search results.
We've started migrating our Android layouts to Jetpack Compose to modernize the app and improve performance long-term.
Other Fixes & Enhancements
- Fixed bugs related to offline article loading, push notifications, and language variants.
- Enhanced language support in captions and local language display.
Looking Ahead
From improving editing tasks to adding new ways to discover content and expanding personalization—this quarter was packed with learning and progress. Your feedback continues to shape where we go next.
Make sure you’re subscribe to this newsletter to stay in the loop, and thank you for being a part of this journey with us!
~~ARamadan-WMF07:49, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Apps newsletter – Second quarter of 2025
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Hello, and welcome to the second newsletter of 2025! In this edition, we’ll walk you through exciting experiments, features, and improvements that took place in the Wikipedia mobile apps during March, April, and May.
iOS
[edit]Tabbed browsing is one of the most requested features, and we’ve made major progress this quarter:
- We finalized the designs for tabs and released the feature to Beta.
- An A/B test is planned in select languages and regions before a broader release.
- Usability testing results helped shape the experience. See our full testing analysis and interface feedback recommendations.
We launched a 30-day experiment on Chinese, French, Spanish, and Turkish Wikipedias to explore whether a centralized "Activity" space could increase user engagement.
The experiment shows the Suggested Edit “Add an image” feature to newcomers, and we hope to learn if it helps them activate and begin editing. We also hope to learn what users think about an early “Activity tab” prototype that summarizes their weekly editing, reading, and saving activity.
We’ll evaluate outcomes after 30 days.
Personalized Wikipedia Year in Review
We began backend improvements to support the next version of the Year in Review:
- The 2024 version showed strong engagement. We’re planning to integrate improved stats, collective movement insights, and recognition for donors.
- We added support for insights about reading time, link follows, and categories.
Navigation Refresh & Article Search A/B Test
We completed our test of a more prominent article search bar on four Wikipedias—French, Arabic, German, and Japanese.
- The A/B test showed a +23.8% increase in article-view search usage.
- While retention didn't shift significantly, the test gave us confidence to scale this UI improvement to all languages.
We released support for Temporary Accounts to Wikipedias where the feature is currently enabled. This helps protect IP addresses of unregistered editors.
Bug Fixes & Enhancements
Thanks to internal and volunteer efforts, we resolved:
- Incorrect date formats on Talk pages
- Alt Text keyboard overlap
- Inactive cursor on search
- Broken insert-link suggestions
Android
[edit]WikiGames & WikiTrivia Expansion
We expanded WikiGames and continued work on WikiTrivia:
- New enhancements: game archive, calendar view, score sharing, sound control to the game.
- 81.5% of players complete the game, and over half replay it on another day.
- Bug fixes include language mismatches and game crashes.
We continued migrating our UI to Jetpack Compose, including:
- MessageCardView
- LangLinksActivity
- SearchEmptyView
- WikiCardView and more
This helps modernize the app and improves long-term performance.
Rabbit Holes & Personalized Reading Lists
We completed our Rabbit Holes experiment, and began work on a permanent version of Personalized Reading Lists, tracked in this Epic ticket.
Early designs aim to make suggested reading lists more useful, personalizable, and persistent.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
We addressed:
- Talk page crashes
- Search-related language issues
- OATHAuth hyperlink bug
- On This Day incorrect year
- Samsung Galaxy S25 editing toolbar bug
- UI bugs with Picture of the Day
- Language display issues
Other Updates
- A 50-edit requirement was added to use Article Descriptions on English Wikipedia.
- We fixed pageview analytics and updated reading list icons.
Looking Ahead
From long-requested features like tabbed browsing to smarter personalization and more engaging games, this quarter was packed with progress. Your feedback continues to guide our path forward.
Make sure you’re subscribed to this newsletter to stay in the loop — and thank you for being part of the journey!
~~ARamadan-WMF15:34, 14 July 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Apps newsletter – Third quarter of 2025
[edit]In this edition, we’ll walk you through the major updates, experiments, and improvements that took place in the Wikipedia mobile apps during July, August, and September.
iOS
[edit]- In July, we released the first iteration of Tabbed Browsing to all users.
- Our 30-day A/B test showed mixed but promising results: while logged-out user retention gains were modest compared to Android, survey feedback was overwhelmingly positive (93% rated the feature “Neutral to Very Satisfactory”).
- We continued improvements throughout August and September, including a design review for “More Dynamic Tabs,” a new tab controller, and bug fixes such as inconsistent tab sizing on iPad mini and tooltip issues.
- Work continued on Year in Review upgrades, with spikes exploring features such as sharing entire reviews, custom app icons, and showing which geographies users read about the most.
- We also began preparing overall app data to share richer collective insights.
- We improved code behind the History tab and recent searches to prepare for future navigational changes.
Other iOS Updates
[edit]- Released several app versions (7.8.1 through 7.8.3), with smoke tests completed.
- Resolved numerous bugs including crashes (tooltips, gestures, search), iPad layout issues, and visual problems with captions, Quick Facts, and images in Dark Mode.
- Added a new REST endpoint for remote configuration and upgraded fundraising configurations to support A/B testing.
- Verified continued compatibility with multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Android
[edit]- In August, we launched the Customizable Donation Reminder experiment in Italy. The reminder will allow users to decide if they want to be reminded to donate, and how often.
- By September, we finalized core modules, onboarding, instrumentation, and validation tasks needed for the A/B test of the new Activity Tab against the Edit Tab.
- This marks a major step toward testing whether an Activity space can improve multi-day engagement and retention.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
[edit]- Fixed crashes with image gallery long-press, saved article syncing for Chinese, edit previews, and special links.
- Addressed rendering and Dark Mode issues affecting math tags, GIFs, and citation numbers.
Other Android Updates
[edit]- We released a new beta and conducted multiple regression tests to ensure stability.
- We added a general-purpose remote configuration REST endpoint, aligned with iOS.
- Continued technical debt cleanup, including removing allowMainThreadQueries and adding suspend to DAO functions.
- Upgraded fundraising configuration to support A/B testing.
Cross-Platform
[edit]- Both apps upgraded fundraising A/B test support and created a shared remote configuration REST endpoint.
- We began tracking Account Vanish events on iOS and Android for privacy features.
Looking Ahead
[edit]This quarter marked a big step forward on Tabbed Browsing, Activity Tab, and Year in Review — three projects aimed at making Wikipedia more personal, navigable, and engaging. We also advanced donation experiments and backend improvements to support future flexibility.
Make sure you’re subscribed to this newsletter to stay in the loop — and thank you for being part of the journey!
ARamadan-WMF 02:12, 14 October 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Apps Newsletter – Fourth Quarter of 2025
[edit]
Hello, and welcome to the final newsletter of 2025!
In this edition, we’ll walk you through the major updates, experiments, and improvements in the Wikipedia mobile apps during October, November, and early December.
iOS
[edit]Throughout October and November, the team made final updates to the Year in Review feature, preparing it for its early December release.
Key improvements included:
- Updating the Total Edits slide to represent global edits across all Wikimedia projects.
- Running usability tests, which showed strong user interest in personalized slides—especially reading patterns, top articles, categories, and geo insights.
- Preparing the A/B test that will allow some logged-out users to view personalized content.
We also added fundraising banner suppression for users who donated in the past 250 days, so that users who may have donated from the Year in Review do not see a banner.
We continued work on the New Tab Experience and ran the A/B/C test for recommendations within the tabs overview.
The experiment concluded on November 18 and showed:
- Recommendations increased pageviews and new tab openings. However, they did not improve multi-day usage or overall retention.
- “Because you read” recommendations performed better than “Did you know.”
- Group C had slightly higher satisfaction and lower dissatisfaction.
Next steps:
- Scale the new tab experience, including “close all tabs,” to all users.
- Do not scale recommendations yet until after further investigation.
Work continued on Activity Tab V2, preparing to test it against the existing History tab. Updates included:
- Integrating learnings from Android’s successful Activity Tab experiment.
- Building new onboarding, instrumentation, and module behavior.
- A first version was released in early December.
Other iOS Updates
[edit]- We ran a survey on the Explore tab launched to gather user feedback.
- OAuth adoption was explored by engineering and design.
- Bug fixes for login with 2FA, search in Saved, and other regressions.
- Compatibility testing completed for m. subdomain removal.
Android
[edit]By October, the Activity Tab experiment delivered strong results:
- Return rate for logged-in users increased by 11.6% compared to the previous Edit tab.
- Experiment had no negative impact on overall retention.
- Only 0.7% of users turned the feature off.
In November, we made several improvements, and then scaled the Activity Tab to all logged-in users.
Year in Review 2025
[edit]The team finalized core implementation, prepared for the December release, and:
- Updated the Total Edits slide to reflect global edits across projects.
- Prepared the A/B test for the Year in Review Reading List, which will offer a personalized reading list to some users.
- Conducted final usability reviews.
We began development of the second donation reminder experiment, planned for December–March.
This experiment:
- Targets users who click “Maybe later” on fundraising banners.
- Tests a fully customizable reminder flow versus the current “Maybe later” behavior.
- Allows users to adjust reminder frequency, article-count triggers, and manage their reminder settings.
Other Android Updates
[edit]- We ran a survey on the Explore tab launched to gather user feedback.
- OAuth adoption was explored by engineering and design.
- Fixed issues with “Forgot your password” in Chinese, dark-mode rendering problems, punctuation-based errors, and navigation bugs.
- Added ISO currency codes to donation forms.
- Updated several settings and entry points to prepare for the fundraising season.
Cross-Platform
[edit]Release of Wikipedia Year in Review 2025
[edit]- Both Android and iOS teams released their Year in Review features on December 2, 2025!
- They were met with positive interactions on social media, and from the press.
- There were 2 articles written about the feature by The Verge and by Vice.
Looking Ahead
[edit]This quarter brought major progress across Tabs, Activity, Year in Review, and Donation Reminder work.
As we close 2025, both apps now support a richer set of personalization features, clearer navigation paths, and more user-controlled donation experiences.
Thank you for following along, and stay tuned for our next newsletter in early 2026!
~~ARamadan-WMF16:17, 17 December 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Hackathon Northwestern Europe 2026
[edit]Hello! I came across your name on a previous Wikimedia hackathon participant page, so I thought you might be interested in this.
We're organizing the Wikimedia Hackathon Northwestern Europe 2026, taking place on 13–14 March 2026 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. It's a two-day, in-person hackathon for technical Wikimedians from the region.
Since you've attended a hackathon before, you already know how valuable these events can be for collaboration, learning, and getting things done together. We'd love to have you join us!
Apply here – registration closes mid-January or when full.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Hope to see you in Arnhem! Daanvr (talk) 14:44, 12 January 2026 (UTC)