Wikimedia Blog/Drafts/Share a Fact

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

POSTED Apr 2 2015

Title ideas

  • Share a fact with friends on the Wikipedia Android app

Summary

A brief, one-paragraph summary of the post's content, about 20-80 words. On the blog, this will be shown in the chronological list of posts or in the featured post carousel on top, next to a "Read more" link.

  • Community members submitted 266 innovative ideas to address gender disparity on the Wikimedia projects. Read about the campaign and its highlights, and learn about the next steps in this process.

Body

You can now easily share facts from the Wikipedia Android app. Watch this video for a quick preview. You can also watch it on YouTube or Vimeo. Video by Victor Grigas, freely licensed under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en CC-BY-SA-3.0.

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Have you ever won an argument by finding a fact on Wikipedia? Or maybe you love sharing Wikipedia articles with your friends and family?

If that sounds like you, there’s a new feature on the Wikipedia Android app you might enjoy! Now, you can easily and quickly create Wikipedia fact cards -- images overlaid with whatever text you choose from an article -- that can be shared with anyone via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.), email, or text message.

Anyone can generate and share fact cards from the official Wikipedia Android app developed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Simply choose your favorite article, select some text, and then click the “Share as image” option. The app will pull the main image from the article and apply selected text on top. This card can then be shared with your friends, family, and the world on your communication channel of choice. You can also choose a text-only option if you prefer.

Quick guide

Step one: Choose and highlight text.

Share a fact

Strasbourg Wikipedia article with highlighted text to be shared.

Image by Dan Garry, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo by Jonathan Martz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Step two: Click share.

Share a fact2

Share options for card creation. Image by Dan Garry, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo by Jonathan Martz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Step three: And the card is created!

Share a fact3

Card to be shared on media channels.

Image by Dan Garry, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo by Jonathan Martz, CC BY-SA 3.0. This is just one of many other existing features available on the Android app. Other recently added features include: • Read more feature at the end each article, to encourage further exploration
• Lead image at the top of each article, to engage readers in the topic
• Image gallery that lets you swipe left or right through all of an article’s images
• Nearby articles that suggest content related to your location
• Saved pages that allows you to read articles while offline

What do you think of this new feature? Let us know in the comments here -- or share your own Wikipedia fact cards with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Dan Garry, Product Manager, Wikimedia Foundation

Notes

Ideas for social media messages promoting the published post:

Twitter (@wikimedia/@wikipedia):

(Tweet text goes here - max 117 characters)

*Did you know you can now share facts directly from @Wikipedia with friends via the @Android and @Apple app?

* Let the sharing begin.

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Facebook/Google+

  • Let the sharing begin.
  • Reading Wikipedia is now a shareable experience you can have with your friends. You can now share facts with images directly from Wikipedia via the Wikipedia Android app.