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Latest comment: 1 day ago by MediaWiki message delivery in topic Tech News: 2026-17

Tech News: 2026-13

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MediaWiki message delivery 16:51, 23 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2026-14

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MediaWiki message delivery 19:26, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 6

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MediaWiki message delivery 22:04, 31 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

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


Tech News: 2026-15

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MediaWiki message delivery 16:19, 6 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2026-16

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MediaWiki message delivery 15:19, 13 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 7

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MediaWiki message delivery 22:10, 14 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2026-17

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MediaWiki message delivery 15:00, 20 April 2026 (UTC)Reply