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Latest comment: 9 days ago by Romaine in topic This Month in GLAM: June 2026

This Month in Education: March 2026

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Wikimedia Apps Newsletter – First Quarter of 2026

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Hello, and welcome to the first newsletter of 2026!

In this edition, we’ll walk you through the main updates, experiments, and improvements in the Wikipedia mobile apps during January, February, and early March.

iOS

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This quarter focused on scaling and improving the Activity Tab experience.

We released the Activity Tab to all users and continued refining it with:

  • New editing insights, including all-time impact, recent activity, and views.
  • Monthly highlights such as most viewed edits and contributions.
  • Improved onboarding and empty states for different user types.
  • Better navigation within reading history and timelines.
  • Continued survey collection (extended through April).

We also fixed several issues related to saved article syncing, timeline, and deleting items.

Results from scaling

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Our goal was to increase account creation by 5%. The results significantly exceeded expectations:

  • Account creation increased by 91% after scaling.
  • 25% of all new accounts were created through the Activity Tab.
  • 18.5% of new users saved an article, and 2.9% made an edit.

We also observed stronger retention among Activity Tab users:

  • 93.8% of logged-in users returned to the app.
  • 91.8% of logged-out users returned.
  • Compared to overall app return rates of 81.9% and 72.1%.

Learnings

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  • Personalization continues to drive account creation.
  • Users are more likely to engage in reading than editing.
  • Navigation changes need clearer communication.

Next steps

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  • Improve clarity around the History location in Search.
  • Add clearer messaging and guidance, especially for logged-out users.

The team also focused on preparations for migrating the app to Liquid Glass, planned for April. We completed a gap analysis and audit, and then triaged and prioritized tasks.

  • Adding “close all tabs” functionality.
  • Highlighting the active tab.
  • Introducing long-press previews.
  • iOS designs for the “Which came first?” game were completed.

As part of ongoing improvements:

  • History was moved into the Search tab.
  • Adjustments are being made to better support logged-out users and reduce confusion.

Other iOS Updates

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  • Integrated hCaptcha into account creation for test wiki.
  • Conducted Explore Feed audit and design groundwork.
  • Fixed multiple bugs, including issues with search, saved articles, and donation flows.

Android

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We began testing a new hybrid search experience that combines keyword-based and natural language search.

  • The experiment is now available in beta for Greek, English and Portuguese Wikipedia.
  • Users can opt in or out of the experience.
  • This is part of Phase 1 of the Information Retrieval project.

Other Android Updates

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  • Continued work on hCaptcha integration for account creation on test wiki.
  • Improved donation clarity by adding ISO currency codes.
  • Updated image handling to match MediaWiki standards.
  • Ran an A/B test for the Google Play product page (Japanese users).

We also fixed several issues, including:

  • Background re-login issues.
  • Incorrect article titles in Year in Review.
  • Reading list syncing problems.
  • Translation and UI inconsistencies.

Cross-Platform

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Across both apps, we continued design and research work to rethink the Explore experience, with the design principles of:

  • Retention before depth: reasons to come back matter more than any single deep read.
  • Discovery through remixing: snippets and previews lead into articles, never replace them.
  • Transparent personalization: "Because you follow..." not a black box.
  • Calm, trustworthy browsing: productive and credible.

Design work continued on improving the Explore feed:

  • Two visual directions were developed and wireframed.
  • Different onboarding approaches were explored.
  • User testing is being prepared.

Our current hypothesis is that a more personalized and structured feed will help users better understand its value and increase daily usage. User testing will help determine the direction to move forward.

  • Both teams shared results on the Year in Review project pages (Android, iOS).

The Apps team has started conversations with communities to explore how editing should work on the mobile apps.

The goal is to better support both new and experienced editors, and to guide users toward the right editing tools.

Community input is welcome, and discussions are ongoing.

Looking Ahead

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This quarter focused on scaling successful features, especially the Activity Tab, and continuing foundational work on Search and Explore feed.

We’re seeing strong signals around personalization, engagement, and new ways to guide users through reading and editing.

Thank you for following along, and stay tuned for the next updates later this year.


~~ARamadan-WMF11:46, 6 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

This Month in GLAM: March 2026

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This Month in Education: April 2026

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This Month in GLAM: April 2026

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This Month in Education: May 2026

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Error in the 2025 Wiki Loves Monuments winners article

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Hello Ed / @The ed17, I'm writing this message in response to your article. The picture at the fifteenth place was not taken at the Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone but directly at the center of Cyrene, a few hundred meters north. You can compare the coordinates of the picture and the ones on the wikidata item of the sanctuary to verify. Thank you for the article, because it gave me ideas for my future creations. Sincerely, TTSolitaire (talk) 00:42, 7 June 2026 (UTC)Reply

@TTSolitaire: Thanks for reaching out and sorry for my delay in responding while I was out on leave! The photo caption specifies that it was taken at the Temple of Demeter. Are you saying that's separate from the sanctuary? Ed WMF [talk] 15:16, 10 June 2026 (UTC)Reply
No problem at all. I don't know what that « temple of Demeter » is. Maybe it is refering to Cyrene's second Temple of Demeter inside the city's walls but that's highly hypothetical from me. The only thing I'm sure of is that the picture was taken inside the city's walls while the extramural sanctuary was outside. On this website you can see a map of the city : the extramural temple of demeter is at number 17 on the map while the picture (you can see the place by scrolling a little bit on the page) was taken to the left of number 16 (see exact location on this google image). TTSolitaire (talk) 20:17, 12 June 2026 (UTC)Reply

This Month in GLAM: May 2026

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Headlines
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This Month in Education: June 2026

[edit]

Wikimedia Apps Newsletter – Second Quarter of 2026

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Hello, and welcome to the second Wikimedia Apps newsletter of 2026!

In this edition, we’ll walk you through the main updates, launches, experiments, and improvements in the Wikipedia mobile apps during March, April,May, and June.

Liquid Glass migration

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A major focus this quarter was the transition to Apple’s new Liquid Glass design system.

The team completed extensive design, infrastructure, and implementation work, culminating in the release of Wikipedia iOS 8.0.0 with Liquid Glass support. This represented one of the largest visual updates to the app in recent years and required coordinated work across navigation, interface components, theming, and platform-specific behaviors.

The Apps team plans continued modernization of the app’s design system and navigation patterns.

Following the successful rollout of the Activity Tab earlier this year, the team continued refining the experience based on user feedback.

One recurring theme was confusion around the relocation of reading history. Some users believed history had been removed or required an account to access.

To address this:

  • Additional guidance was added explaining that History is now available within Search.
  • Search from article view was updated to provide easier access to reading history.
  • Ongoing improvements were made to onboarding and user education.

Development continued on the new "Which Came First?" daily trivia game.

The game became available on 11 June 2026.

Other iOS improvements

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Additional work this quarter included:

  • hCaptcha instrumentation and rollout preparation.
  • Explore Feed Refresh design and infrastructure work.
  • Performance improvements and stability updates.
  • Resolution of numerous bugs affecting search, reading lists, login flows, article viewing, donations, widgets, and accessibility.

The Android team continued work on Hybrid Search, combining traditional keyword search with semantic search capabilities.

The experiment expanded to English, French, Portuguese, and Greek Wikipedias and completed its first MVP phase.

Results
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  • Increased search engagement.
  • Stable retention.
  • Strong signals supporting continued investment in semantic search experiences.

The experiment also generated valuable datasets and user insights that will guide future development.

Learnings
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One key learning was that users need clearer explanations of how hybrid search works. Existing onboarding and provenance indicators were not sufficient at larger scale.

Android introduced a new Games Hub, providing a centralized location for games and interactive experiences within the app.

The hub lays the groundwork for future expansion of game-based engagement features, including the upcoming trivia experience.

Cross-platform

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One of the largest initiatives this quarter was the rollout of Phase 1 of the Explore Feed Refresh on Android.

The redesign introduces a new Home experience built around two primary feeds.

Community Feed
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Community Feed

The Community Feed highlights curated Wikipedia and Wikimedia content, including:

  • Featured Article
  • Top Read
  • In the News
  • On This Day
  • Picture of the Day
For You feed
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For You Feed

The For You feed introduces personalized content through:

  • Article recommendations based on selected interests.
  • Because You Read recommendations.
  • Continue Reading suggestions.
Additional improvements
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Additional work included:

  • New onboarding flows.
  • Feed preference selection.
  • Redesigned settings.
  • Re-onboarding for existing users.
  • Improved feed controls and personalization transparency.

The redesign was released through a holdout experiment, enabling the team to measure its impact while continuing iterative improvements.

Early learnings
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  • Users respond positively to structured onboarding.
  • Topic selection can help personalize discovery experiences.
  • Recommendation quality remains a critical factor for user trust and satisfaction.

The Explore Feed Refresh was then released to 50% of app users before being fully released to all users starting on 15 June 2026.

The refreshed experience is planned to launch in the Wikipedia iOS app during July 2026.

Mock-up of the Wikipedia app Reading Challenge

This quarter we launched the Wikipedia 25th Birthday Reading Challenge across Android and iOS.

The challenge included:

  • Challenge enrollment experiences.
  • Daily reading goals.
  • Reading streak tracking.
  • Challenge completion flows.
  • Home screen widgets.
  • App Store and Play Store promotional events.
  • CentralNotice promotion.
  • Instrumentation and analytics support.
  • Translation support across target languages.

Following launch, the team implemented several improvements based on early feedback and usage patterns, while resolving onboarding and widget-related issues.

Early results showed encouraging participation, increased account creation, positive community reception, and opportunities for continued iteration.

Following the conclusion of the 2025 Year in Review experience, both teams completed a comprehensive analysis of the feature.

Key findings
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  • Both apps achieved an 86% return rate.
  • Account creation increased significantly year over year.
  • Approximately half of all new accounts during the campaign period were created through Year in Review.
  • User satisfaction exceeded targets, with over 95% of surveyed users reporting neutral or positive experiences.
  • Donations increased substantially, particularly among users exposed to personalized experiences.
Learnings
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  • Personalization significantly improves engagement.
  • Logged-out users benefit from receiving limited personalized experiences.
  • Account-gated personalization remains a strong driver of account creation.
  • Users continue to request richer insights, improved sharing capabilities, and cross-platform statistics.

The findings will help shape future iterations of Year in Review and other personalized experiences within the apps.

Looking ahead

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This quarter focused on launching major experiences while laying the groundwork for future growth.

The rollout of the Explore Feed Refresh, launch of the Reading Challenge, continued investment in Hybrid Search, and preparation for new games all reflect the team's broader focus on helping users discover, engage with, and contribute to knowledge in new ways.

We're excited to continue iterating on these experiences and look forward to sharing more updates in the next edition of the newsletter.

Thank you for reading!


~~ARamadan-WMF11:59, 29 June 2026 (UTC)Reply

This Month in GLAM: June 2026

[edit]




Headlines
Read this edition in fullSingle-page

To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.