Community Wishlist Survey 2021/Mobile and apps/Welcome page on mobile app should respect dark mode setting

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Welcome page on mobile app should respect dark mode setting

  • Problem: When using the mobile app with the dark theme enabled, when creating a new tab, the Main Page is shown but is not in dark theme
  • Who would benefit: Mobile app users who use the dark theme
  • Proposed solution: Since the mobile website does not support dark mode, the app should not show the website when creating a new tab. It should either render the Main Page like any other article (hence respecting the dark theme), or show something else.
  • More comments:
  • Phabricator tickets:
  • Proposer: Caph1993 16:38, 17 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

  • @Caph1993: What are you using for dark mode? There is no native dark mode in MediaWiki. Also, what is the "welcome page"? Please provide links where possible. Thanks! MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 17:27, 17 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    Sure. I should have written dark theme instead of dark mode. To reproduce the problem: open the mobile app; open any article; tap the theme button located at the bottom; set the theme to the darkest. You will see light text on dark background everywhere, including the home of the app (very nice). But now, if you are reading an article and open a new tab, you will be presented with Wikipedia's home page that has white background.

    Notice the distinction between the app home view and the Wikipedia home page: The home view is dark, and it is presented when you open the app for the first time or every time you use the back arrow until you can no more. The Wikipedia home page is light and can only be accessed by opening a new tab (which is weird). — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Caph1993 (talk)

    @Caph1993: I believe I understand the issue. The Main Page is being shown through the web browser, and the web site does not support dark mode. We attempted to add dark mode following the #2 wish in the 2019 survey. Unfortunately we had to abandon that effort due to some technical challenges and conflicts with other teams. You can learn more from reading our status report. That said, the other solution of course is for the app to just show something else than the mobile Main Page (which I agree is weird). I'm going to boldly reword your proposal to be about this. If I've misunderstood you, please let me know :) Thanks, MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 16:01, 7 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wait, what? There are tabs in the app? Is that Android-only, or a new feature I haven't upgraded to? Pelagic (talk) 05:17, 16 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Voting