ARamadan-WMF
Wikimedia Apps newsletter – Fourth quarter of 2024
editHello, 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!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 1
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Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Conversation with the trustees: Speak directly with the Wikimedia Foundation trustees about their work at the next Conversation with the Trustees on January 30 at 14:30 UTC.
- Community Resilience and Sustainability: Join the conversation hour which will discuss Trust and Safety, the Universal Code of Conduct, Committee Support, and Human Rights on January 30 at 20:00 UTC.
- Annual Planning: Shaping Wikimedia Foundation’s 2025–2026 annual goals: Key questions for the Wikimedia movement.
- Central Asia Wikicon: Submission for sessions is open until March 22.
- Wikipedia is turning 25: We just celebrated Wikipedia's 24th birthday, and are already planning for next year's big milestone! Share your thoughts on what you have in mind to mark the silver jubilee of Wikipedia.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikipedia App: iOS App users worldwide can now access a personalized Year in Review feature, providing insights based on their reading and editing history on Wikipedia.
- Design System: Codex – Year 2024 in Review: Key Milestones and Innovations.
- Tech News: The CampaignEvents extension offers organizers features like event registration management directly on-wiki; The Single User Login system is being updated over the next few months; Administrators can mass-delete multiple pages created by a user or IP address using Extension:Nuke. More updates from tech news Dec 16, Jan 13, and Jan 21.
- Wikifunctions: Wikifunctions shares their Quarterly planning for January-March 2025.
- Admin Research Report: The Research Team published their final report on administrator recruitment, retention, and attrition patterns among long-tenure community members in moderation and administration roles.
Annual Goals Progress on Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Distribution of Funds: Next steps toward the creation of the interim Global Resource Distribution Committee.
- Wikipedia Library: What’s new in The Wikipedia Library? (Oct-Dec 2024).
- Conferences: Your Sneak Peak into the 9 approved Wikimedia Conference Proposals for 2025.
- Wikimania: Road to Nairobi: Travel Essentials & Tips.
- Wikisource Loves Manuscripts: Meet-up in Bali: Strengthening the manuscript preservation ecosystem.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: Watch the latest showcase which looked at Reader Attention and Curiosity.
- Resource Support Pilot: Join the discussion about shaping a pilot project on the English Wikipedia that would fund small resource requests (like books) to support editors in improving content.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Global Advocacy: Wikimedians will promote cultural preservation and knowledge diversity at RightsCon 2025. Tune in!
- Mis- and disinformation: Training on misinformation and disinformation prevention for communities in Indonesia: A recap.
- December's Global Advocacy Newsletter: For quarterly insights into the internet governance and policy work the Foundation is doing, subscribe to our Global Advocacy Newsletter. You can see our latest December edition here.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board of Trustees: The Wikimedia Foundation welcomes community-and-affiliate selected trustees and the Board appoints Lorenzo Losa its Chair-Elect.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · other newsletters:
- Topics: Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library
- Wikimedia Projects: Milestones · Wikidata
- Regions: Central and Eastern Europe
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wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 2
edit Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- 2025 reflections: Reflections on 2025 from the Wikimedia Foundation's Executive team.
- Annual Planning: How can we help more contributors connect and collaborate?
- Let's Connect: The next Learning Clinic will be about WikiLearn Essentials for Course Creators: Building Community Skills Online Part 2 on February 13 at 16:30 UTC.
- WikiCredCon 2025 will take place on February 14–16 in San Francisco, USA.
- Wikisource Conference will take place on February 14–16 in Bali, Indonesia.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Future Audiences: Watch the recording for lessons from the short video experiments. A new Discord bot experiment as a way to interact with Wikipedia, the Future Audiences Discord server and future plans for experiments around how to use gamification.
- WikiProjects: Bridging Knowledge Gaps: Rethinking Collaboration through WikiProjects and Campaigns.
- Wikifunctions: The newest sister project now has 2000 functions.
- Tech News: Editors who use the “Special characters” editing-toolbar menu can now see the 32 special characters you have used most recently, across editing sessions on that wiki; The Data Platform Engineering team has added a couple of new fields to MediaWiki History dumps to support the Temporary Accounts initiative. More updates from tech news week 05 and 06.
- Product & Tech Advisory Council: The council looked at data, needs and trends to make a recommendation for the Foundation's annual plan. They recommended that improving mobile contribution experiences has the greatest potential to bring in new and unheard voices onto Wikipedia and sister projects, and improve the experience of readers and contributors most widely. They are requesting feedback and discussion.
- Structured Tasks: The "Add an Image" structured task is being tested on a representative sample of Wikipedias which allows users to add an image and an appropriate caption to a Wikipedia article.
- Talk page improvements: Usability improvements are being deployed on remaining wikis.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Language Preservation: Empowering the Next Generation to Preserve Indigenous Languages through WikiKata.
- Resource Distribution: Call for candidates for the interim Global Resource Distribution Committee (GRDC) is opened. Apply until Feb 25.
- WikiLearn: A new edition of WikiLearn News highlights how Wikimedia affiliates are leveraging this online learning platform to support the movement.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy Medium blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Diff policy articles
- Global Advocacy: The Wikimedia Foundation has officially joined the TAROCH (Towards an Open Cultural Heritage Recommendation) Coalition, a campaign run by Creative Commons that aims for UNESCO to release an official recommendation to improve open access to cultural heritage. The team also discussed how media freedom, Wikipedia, and AI connect at the United Nations (UN) Forum on Business and Human Rights; read more monthly updates from the Global Advocacy team.
- Banner & Logo Policies: Help us collect examples of community discussions to run banners or make temporary logo changes.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Welcoming new affiliates: Recognition of Inari Saami Wikimedians User Group.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
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translating Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/Rabbit Holes
editHello, congrats to the results on Rabbit_Holes experiment, and so exciting to put your update into Japanese, learnt a lot. That said, would you kindly see to it that segment T:60 needs to be broken up to several pieces, maybe max 3 dots per a segment grouped between <translate>-</translate> tags ? It is because translators on languages applying grammars non Subject-Verb-Object are helped a lot to work on. (A kind of selfish wish I am aware... /: )
Like in Japanese, the verb comes to the very end of a sentence, and in this example above, I wish your comparisons and contrasts on objects met/unmet is conveyed to our readers: the figures are very intriguing IMHO, and wish ja readers/users will keep their eyes on! Kindly, -- Omotecho (talk) 02:22, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hello, @Omotecho,
- I’m really glad to hear that you found the update insightful and enjoyed working on the Japanese translation.
- There have been adjustments to segment T:60 to improve readability as you highlited, and I hope this makes things smoother for translators.
- Let me know if there’s anything else that could help!
- I really appreciate your feedback and the effort you put into making the content accessible to Japanese readers. -- ARamadan-WMF (talk) 12:22, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 3
edit Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Wikipedia as a digital public good: Wikipedia has been recognized as a digital public good by the UN-endorsed Digital Public Goods Alliance.
- Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) Connect: The first edition of this regional community call for 2025 will be held on February 22.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: The next showcase will be about "Wikipedia Administrator Recruitment, Retention, and Attrition" and will take place on February 26 at 17:30 UTC.
- Celebrate Women 2025: The Gender Organizing community in the Wikimedia Movement hosts an annual campaign every March called Celebrate Women. Conversation hours to learn about some exciting tools that can support your efforts at closing the gender gap will be held on February 25 at 14:00–16:00 UTC.
- Outreachy: Wikimedia Foundation is participating in Round 30 of the Outreachy program that runs from June – August 2025. The deadline to submit projects is March 4 at 16:00 UTC .
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Growth features: The new Community Updates module is a new feature to facilitate the connection between wiki editing initiatives and newcomers.
- Simple article summaries: The Web team at the Wikimedia Foundation has introduced Simple Article Summaries project on select Wikipedias. It aims to display article summaries that would be easy to digest for readers.
- Language and internationalization: Five new languages added to Wikipedia as part of the future of language incubation initiative. Read more on the latest edition of the Language and internationalization newsletter.
- Tech News: Communities using growth tools can now showcase one event on the Special:Homepage for newcomers. More updates from tech news week 07 and 08.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Community Insights: The Community Insights 2024 report captures new insights on newcomers (who are more likely to be younger), their motivations (97% liked that their contributions help others), and how for the first time, more than half of respondents (51%) agreed that the Wikimedia Foundation communicates well about its projects and initiatives.
- Let’s Connect Learning Clinic: Watch the recording of WikiLearn Essentials for Course Creators: Building Community Skills Online session 1.
- Global Resource Distribution Committee (GRDC): Are you interested in improving how funds are distributed across the Wikimedia Movement? Apply to be part of the interim GRDC by February 25.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Public Policy: How Wikimedia projects advance a positive vision for the internet's future through the public domain, the digital commons, and digital public goods.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise has partnered with Ecosia, a Berlin-based search engine.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Wikimedia Brasil: Wikimedia Brasil becomes the newest Wikimedia Chapter!
- Wikimedia Community User Group South Sudan: Recognition of Wikimedia Community User Group South Sudan.
- Affiliations Committee: Insights about the future of the movement organization ecosystem from Affiliations Committee Strategy Retreat 2024.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 4
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Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Annual Planning: Help shape our early-stage thinking around our Product & Tech work and provide feedback before budgets and measurable targets are committed.
- Global Trends 2025: As part of annual planning, we identify a list of global trends that will impact the Wikimedia movement, such as changes in how and where people search for and contribute information online, the rise of misinformation and disinformation in online spaces, and evolving regulation of online information providers.
- Wikimania 2025: Apply now to speak at Wikimania 2025 whether to lead a workshop, host a panel, present a poster, or showcase a tool demonstration. Submit your session by March 31 anywhere on earth. If you're interested reviewing proposals for Wikimania 2025 and helping shape the program, you can fill out a short form to apply to be a program reviewer by 17 March.
- WikiConference North America 2025: Scholarship applications are now open until April 4. This conference will take place in New York City from October 16–19, 2025, under the theme “Wiki’s World Fair".
- Wikimedia Enterprise and Global Advocacy at SXSW 2025: Wikimedia Enterprise is coming together with Creative Commons on March 9 for a day of conversations and panel discussions at SXSW 2025 that tackles the challenges of AI and the preservation and ethical development of open data. Global Advocacy is participating on a panel on March 8, diving into conversations about the future of the internet.
- WikiCauserie: The online bi-monthly meeting aimed at bringing together the French-speaking member communities of WikiFranca will be held next on March 21 at 18:00 UTC.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Datacenter Switchover: All wikis will be in read-only mode for a few minutes for a datacenter server switchover on March 19 starting at 14:00 UTC for up to 30 minutes.
- Tech News: The wikimedia.org portal has been updated – and is receiving some ongoing improvements – to modernize and improve the accessibility of our portal pages. It now has better support for mobile layouts, updated wording and links, and better language support. More updates from tech news week 09 and 10.
- Wikimedia Recommendation API: We will be removing the recommendation API from the current offerings after March 31. This API is no longer used by newer versions of the Wikipedia Android Mobile application, which was its sole user.
- Wikifunctions: We deployed and tested one of our main milestones for this quarter: the ability to get the right Lexeme given a Wikidata Item, or, put simpler, to get the right word from a thing.
- Wikimedia Apps: We are inviting users to help improve Wikipedia mobile app's reading and editing experiences in offline or limited internet use. We will organize focus groups to discuss these experiences in more detail. Share your thoughts and help improve the app by joining the discussion.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Women’s History Month: Wikimedia Foundation is running a campaign to spotlight some of the Wikimedians working to close the gender gap on Wikimedia projects. The campaign, Knowledge is human. Knowledge is her., is aimed at reaching external audiences in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: "Gender Gaps" will be the featured theme for the next research showcase taking place on March 19 at 16:30 UTC.
- Global Resource Distribution Committee (GRDC): The call for candidates is being extended until March 31.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Privacy and Transparency: Finding the balance between privacy and openness to stay safe in an open movement.
- Legal Victory: The Wikimedia Foundation has won a legal victory in Germany’s courts that sets a legal precedent defending the Wikimedia projects and volunteers against "forum shopping", choosing a court in a jurisdiction whose laws might be more favorable to them.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise and French AI startup Pleias have joined forces to show that structured, machine-readable knowledge can drive AI innovation while upholding openness, verifiability, and ethical development.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Ombuds Commission: Announcing the 2025 Ombuds Commission.
- Universal Code of Conduct: Wikimedia Foundation has chosen to appoint Jacob Rogers, Associate General Counsel, to the Foundation advisory seat on the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C).
- Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: The Board met virtually on 11 December to hold its quarterly business. See the most recent corporate actions taken on the Board Noticeboard.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
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For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Translation tagging issue
editHi, I would appreciate it if you could refrain from marking pages for translation. Adding unrefined <translate>...</translate> tags to the pages like this and marking them for translation like this make it difficult for translators to translate. Shirayuki (talk) 08:11, 23 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hello @Shirayuki,
- Thank you for your message and for pointing this out.
- I understand the concern, and I’ll be more careful moving forward. I appreciate your feedback and the work you do to support translations. ARamadan-WMF (talk) 10:06, 26 March 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 5
edit Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Wikimania 2025: Program submission is still open until March 31. Apply now to speak at Wikimania 2025.
- Research Fund: The 2025 Wikimedia Research Fund is launching, inviting proposals from researchers aiming to advance free knowledge through Wikimedia projects. Submit your proposal before April 16.
- Central Notice Training: Learn more about updates to the Central Notice Guidelines by joining a Central Notice Requester training on March 26 at 14:00 UTC.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Design System: Learn more about Wikimedia’s Codex design system and how to use it while designing for Wikimedia projects.
- Tech News: The improved Content Translation tool dashboard is now available in 10 Wikipedias and will be available for all Wikipedias soon; on Wikimedia Commons, a new system to select the appropriate file categories has been introduced. More updates from tech news week 11 and 12.
- P&T Annual Planning: The Product & Technology department publishes its plans early in the annual planning process, which is on Meta-Wiki and open for feedback. These objectives and key results are not a list of projects, but instead, a set of directions for problems to solve and impacts to achieve over the course of the year. We look forward to engaging with the community on this plan.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Resource Support Pilot: The pilot project on English Wikipedia to fund small resource requests (like books) to support editors in improving content has moved to the next phases of the discussion.
- Wikisource Conference: Some highlights from the Wikisource Conference 2025 in Bali.
- ESEAP Hub: Future plans for the ESEAP Hub one-year pilot project.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Litigation review: Read key points of the Wikimedia Foundation's legal work last year to protect free and open knowledge broadly, and the Wikimedia volunteers and projects in particular.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Affiliations Committee: Announcement of the 2025 Affiliations Committee Appointments.
- Wikimedia MKD: Recognition of Wikimedia MKD User Group.
- Wikimedia Community User Group Burundi: Recognition of Wikimedia Community User Group Burundi.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 6
edit Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Progress on the Annual Plan: Six-Month Snapshot.
- Global Trends: A message from Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees on global trends and strengthening Wikipedia’s neutral point of view.
- Wikimedia Hackathon: The registration to attend the Wikimedia Hackathon is still open until midnight April 13.
- Central Asia Wikicon: The Central Asian WikiCon 2025 will take place on April 19–20 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Infrastructure: How crawlers impact the operations of the Wikimedia projects.
- Tech News: The CampaignEvents extension will be released to multiple wikis (see deployment plan for details) in April 2025; The Editing team is working on a new Edit check: Peacock check. This check’s goal is to identify non-neutral terms while a user is editing a wikipage. More updates from tech news week 13 and 14.
- Wikifunctions: Read the latest status updates.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Wikipedia Library: What’s new from January to March 2025.
- Let's Connect Learning Clinic: Missed the last Learning Clinic on "Safe Spaces, Strong Voices: Advancing Inclusion through the UCoC"? Recording is now available.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Transparency report: The Wikimedia Foundation’s publishes its latest Transparency Report covering the period from July to December 2024. View highlights from the report.
- Global Advocacy: Read the latest developments on public policy advocacy from Wikimedia Foundation's Global Advocacy team.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise Partners with ProRata.ai to Champion Sustainable Search Engine Practices.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Elections Committee: Wikimedia Foundation Governance Committee has appointed a new Elections Committee.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
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
editPersonalized 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
editWe 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!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 7
edit Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Annual Planning and global trends: Join one of the many conversations happening over April and May about how Wikimedians around the world are responding to global trends and help shape the Foundation's annual plan.
- CEE Catchup: Join the upcoming global trends workshop for the CEE communities organized together with the CEE Hub on April 23 at 16:00 UTC, to discuss AI, NPOV, Wikimedia communities and more.
- Neutral point of view: More information and an update about the work to strengthen Wikipedia's neutral point of view.
- Wiki Workshop 2025: Register for the 12th annual Wiki Workshop taking place on May 21–22. It brings together researchers and scholars from around the globe who are interested in or actively engaged in research and development on Wikimedia projects.
- Learning Clinic: The upcoming Let’s Connect Learning Clinic is focusing on "Understanding and Navigating Conflict in Wikimedia Projects (Part 1)" and will take place on April 29 at 14:30 UTC.
- Community Resilience and Sustainability: Quarterly Conversation hour taking place on April 24 at 18:00 UTC to discuss Trust and Safety, the Universal Code of Conduct, Committee Support, and Human Rights.
- Wikimedia Hackathon: The Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 will take place on May 2–4.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikifunctions: Wikifunctions is now integrated with Dagbani Wikipedia. It is the first Wikimedia project that will be able to call and integrate functions directly into Wikipedia articles. Read more weekly updates on Wikifunctions.
- Edge Uniques: Introducing Edge Uniques, a technical approach which consists of privacy-preserving first-party cookies that will enable usability testing of features through A/B testing, more accurate counting of site visits, and a way to stop distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) with better precision.
- Tech News: The Design System Team is preparing to release the next major version of Codex (v2.0.0) on April 29; Last week, the default thumbnail size was increased from 220px to 250px. This changes how pages are shown in all wikis and has been requested by some communities for many years, but wasn’t previously possible due to technical limitations. More updates from Tech News week 15 and 16.
- Outreachy: Celebrating the excellent contributions from both interns and mentors in Round 29 of the Outreachy internship program.
- Developer Satisfaction Survey: The results of the Developer Satisfaction Survey (2025) are available. Thank you to all participants. These results help the Foundation decide what to work on next and to review what they recently worked on.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki · WikiLearn
- Wiki Loves Monuments: Celebrating the winners of Wiki Loves Monuments 2024.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: Watch the latest research showcase featuring the theme of "Motivation of Wikipedia Editors".
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Digital Rights: Wikimedians leading conversations at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum 2025 (DRIF25).
- Community Resilience: To better support community members when they are facing challenges while contributing to Wikimedia projects, the Trust and Safety team worked with the Arbitration Committees to create Project Maps of communities.
- RightsCon 2025: Key takeaways on advocacy and inclusion.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 8
edit Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Marking a transition at the Wikimedia Foundation: update from CEO Maryana Iskander.
- Annual Planning: We published the draft Annual Plan for the coming fiscal year (2025-2026) which prioritizes work to respond to global trends. Feedback welcome on the talk page and many other places.
- WikiForHumanRights: Join the information session for the 2025 WikiForHumanRights Campaign on May 9 at 16:00 UTC.
- Youth Conference: Wikimedia Youth Conference 2025 will take place on May 16-18 in Prague.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- AI Strategy: Our new AI strategy puts Wikipedia's humans first.
- Tech News: Event organizers who host collaborative activities on multiple wikis, including Bengali, Japanese, and Korean Wikipedias, now have access to the CampaignEvents extension. Also, admins in the Wikipedia where the extension is enabled will automatically be granted the event organizer right soon. More updates from Tech News week 17 and 18.
- Abstract Wikipedia selected as a grant finalist: Abstract Wikipedia has been selected by the MacArthur Foundation as one of five finalists for their 100&Change competition. The winner will be announced in late 2025.
- Language and Internationalization: Read some key highlights from the April 2025 edition of the Language and internationalization newsletter.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- Wikimania: Wikimania 2025 will be held in the Nairobi neighborhood of Gigiri and will host a special one-off preconference day for users with extended rights.
- Learning Clinic: The recent Let's Connect Learning Clinic was about "Exploring Diff Blog: Sharing your story, & understanding Technical Implementation" and took place on May 6 at 12:00 UTC.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Data privacy: Arguing for data privacy and safety of internet users worldwide: Our amicus brief in the Snap v. Pina lawsuit.
- World Press Freedom Day: We will be advocating for Wikimedia's model and speaking about "Information as a Public Good in the Age of AI" for UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day event in Brussels.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Risk preparedness: We shared the Foundation's approach to risk preparedness as part of the annual plan.
- Financial Report: Takeaways from the Wikimedia Foundation's Form 990 for fiscal year 2023-2024.
- Annual Report: The Foundation published the Annual Reports for both the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia Endowment. These reports highlight the impact of work done by our global community of volunteers, staff, and donors over the past year.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board and Board committee updates: The Board met in in March to hold its quarterly business meeting and joined other meetings as part of the Wikimedia Foundation's annual strategic planning. See the most recent actions and updates on the Board Noticeboard.
- Wikimedians of Chicago User Group: Recognition of Wikimedians of Chicago User Group.
- Affcom News: Read the latest issue of AffCom News (January-March 2025), the newsletter that distributes relevant news and events about the work of Wikimedia's Affiliations Committee.
- Elections Committee update: Review and comment on the 2025 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees selection rules for the upcoming 2025 selection process. The deadline is May 15 at 23:59 AoE.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 9
edit Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Global Trends Community Workshop: Join Foundation staff and trustees on May 28th from 16:00 UTC for an online community workshop about global trends impacting Wikimedia. This workshop is part of continuous conversations aimed at connecting the movement and collaborating on the Foundation's annual plan.
- Wiki Causerie: Wiki Causerie call with a focus on discussing the global trends to help shape the Foundation's annual plan will be held on May 23.
- ESEAP Summit: The ESEAP Strategy Summit 2025 will take place in Manila, Philippines on May 23–25.
- EduWiki Conference 2025: The EduWiki Conference 2025 will take place in Bogotá, Colombia on May 30–June 1.
- Wiki Workshop 2025: The 12th annual Wiki Workshop will take place online on May 21–22.
- U4C Call for Candidates: The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee 2025 elections are accepting candidates until May 28.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Content Translation: A decade of consistent improvements to the Content Translation tool yields over two million Wikipedia articles.
- Charts Extension: After successfully deploying the extension on Italian, Swedish, and Hebrew Wikipedia, we are moving forward with the next phase of deployment. Please consult our page to discover when the new Charts extension will be deployed on your wiki.
- Abstract Wikipedia: Where Abstract Wikipedia fits into the new Wikimedia AI strategy.
- Tech News: The “Get shortened URL” link on the sidebar now includes a QR code. Wikimedia site users can now use it by scanning or downloading it to quickly share and access shared content from Wikimedia sites, conveniently. More updates from Tech News week 19 and 20.
- Topical Lists: Read about the important role of topical lists in supporting campaigns and editing, as well as strategies for the future development, implementation, and sustainment of list-building support.
- Two-factor Authentication: From May 20, 2025, oversighters and checkusers will need to have their accounts secured with two-factor authentication (2FA) to be able to use their advanced rights. In the future, this requirement may be extended to other users with advanced rights. Read the announcement.
- Mobile Apps: The iOS app team is experimenting with an "Activity Tab" on Turkish, Spanish, French, and Chinese Wikipedias to see if inviting new editors to add images through Suggested Edits increases engagement. This insight will guide future improvements to the app experience.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- Learning Clinic: The next Let's Connect Learning Clinic will be about "Communication and Cultural Sensitivity in Conflict Resolution - Best practices (Part 2)" and will take place on May 27 at 13:00 UTC.
- The Wikipedia Library: An important milestone for The Wikipedia Library (TWL) has been reached. More than a million links have been added to Wikimedia projects by Library users.
- Wikisource: Watch the video celebrating the global Wikisource community in safeguarding our cultural heritage for future generations.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- India Legal Update: Good news from our legal team, the Supreme Court of India set aside the Delhi High Court’s order directing the takedown of the Asian News International v. Wikimedia Foundation English Wikipedia article. The Supreme Court’s verdict upholds the right to report and share information on matters of public interest, including legal proceedings in open courts.
- UK Legal Challenge: Wikimedia Foundation brings legal challenge to new UK Online Safety Act requirements.
- UCoC Updates: The Universal Code of Conduct 2025 annual review concluded, with community voting approving the proposed changes to the UCoC Enforcement Guidelines and U4C Charter.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 10
edit Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Wikimania: Register now to attend Wikimania Nairobi! Registration for the in-person event will be open until July 13 or while places remain. For joining virtually, you will be able to register at any time.
- Let's Connect: The next Let's Connect Learning Clinic will focus on "1Lib1Ref: Tools, Tactics and Innovation". The session will take place on June 5 at 15:00 UTC.
- U4C Call for Candidates: The voting period for Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee 2025 is open from June 3 to June 17 at 12:00 UTC.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: The Wikimedia Foundation will publish a hub for experiments to showcase and get user feedback on product experiments; The Moderator Tools team will launch a new filter to Recent Changes, starting at Indonesian Wikipedia. The goal is to help Recent Changes patrollers identify potentially problematic edits. More updates from Tech News week 21 and 22.
- Abstract Wikipedia: A community-wide discussion for the development of Abstract Wikipedia is now open on Meta: where to store the abstract content that will be developed through functions from Wikifunctions and data from Wikidata. The discussion is open until June 12 at Abstract Wikipedia/Location of Abstract Content, and every opinion is welcomed.
- Temporary accounts: Admins, bureaucrats, or stewards will be manually granting access to temporary account IP addresses to users without certain extended rights. Previously, these users were gaining this right automatically. The decision to change this was made by the Trust and Safety Product team after discussing with almost 20 large Wikipedia communities and Meta-Wiki. See the full message about the change. In addition, the team is finishing work which unblocks rollouts on large wikis. A series of deployments will be happening in June. See the latest project update to learn about the satisfaction survey, related changes to features and tools, and more.
- Wikifunctions: Wikifunctions is deployed on five Wiktionaries: Hausa, Igbo, Bengali, Malayalam, and Dhivehi/Maldivian. Users of the five projects are now allowed to call on Wikifunctions' functions freely from their user interface.
- WikiGames: A daily trivia game called WikiGames is coming to the Wikipedia Android app. It invites users to test their knowledge by guessing which historical event happened first based on real events from Wikipedia's "On this day" content. The game's goal is to help new audiences discover a preferred destination for discovering, engaging, and building encyclopedic content. It has been gradually rolled out as an A/B test to 50% of users in English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish.
- Wikimedia Cloud VPS: We have introduced IPv6 to the cloud virtual network, enhancing the platform's scalability, security, and future-readiness.
- CampaignEvents extension: Two new features Invitation Lists and Collaboration List that allow organizers to promote events and WikiProjects on the wikis are now available.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- WikiLearn: Discover how online learning is helping develop Wikidata skills and the new courses coming up this quarter on WikiLearn News May 2025 edition.
- Youth Conference: Young Wikimedians gathered in Prague for the first-ever Youth Conference, created for young people and by young people.
- Gender Gap: Wikimedia Foundation Reflections on the Celebrate Women* Campaign 2025.
- Accessibility: In celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025, we would like to look back together and highlight recent improvements and progress to ensure that the Wikimedia projects are more accessible for everyone.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- India Legal Update: A victory for free speech, for Wikipedia and Beyond! The Supreme Court of India overturned a Delhi High Court order that had required the removal of an English Wikipedia article about an ongoing lawsuit.
- Mandatory 2FA: Checkusers and oversighters will need to have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled, otherwise they won't be able to use their tools. In the future, this requirement may apply to more user right groups. This is to increase the security of user accounts. See the full message.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board Election: Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2025 Selection & Call for Questions.
- Assamese Wikimedia Community User Group: Recognition of Assamese Wikimedia Community User Group.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 11
edit 
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: The Chart extension is now available on all Wikimedia wikis. Editors can use this new extension to create interactive data visualizations like bar, line, area, and pie charts. The Trust and Safety Product team is finalizing work needed to roll out temporary accounts on large Wikipedias. More updates from Tech News week 23 and 24.
- New Engagement Experiments: We're testing out WikiRun, a fun game that lets you race through Wikipedia by clicking from one article to another, aiming to reach a target page in as few steps and in as little time as possible! It's an experiment to explore new ways of engaging readers. Give it a try and let us know what you think on the talk page!
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- WikiCelebrate: How one librarian brought Wikipedia into the classroom and beyond: this month we celebrate Loretta.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: The next showcase will center around the theme of "Ensuring Content Integrity on Wikipedia" and will take place on June 18 at 16:30 UTC.
- Resource Support: Resource Support pilot project is now open to requests. This is a pilot project which aims to support Wikipedia content editors in obtaining resources that they need to improve content on Wikipedia.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Global Advocacy: Read important highlights on public policy advocacy from Wikimedia Foundation's Global Advocacy team.
- Global Advocacy: The Global Advocacy team will be representing the Wikimedia Foundation at several events in June and July – including hosting an edit-a-thon during UN Open Source week and running a booth at the Internet Governance Forum.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board Election: The call for candidates for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2025 Selection will be opened on June 17.
- Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand: Welcoming Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand as the Latest Wikimedia Chapter.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 12
edit 
Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Elections for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: Call for candidates is now open until July 2 at 11:59 UTC.
- Sister projects task force: The sister projects task force has started a community consultation about Wikispore and Wikinews.
- Wikimania 2025: Register now to join Wikimania 2025 virtually from 6–9 August.
- Neutral Point of View: This year's annual planning saw many conversations about the global trends that affect our movement including neutrality and the NPOV policies.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikimedia Hackathon 2025: Highlights from Wikimedia Hackathon, a place where everything is 'technically possible'.
- Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon: Reflections and insights from participants and mentors.
- Wikimedia API: The MediaWiki Interfaces team will be investing in Wikimedia web (HTTP) APIs to better serve technical volunteer needs and protect Wikimedia infrastructure from potential abuse.
- Tech News: The Editing team will release Multi Check to most Wikipedias. This feature shows multiple Reference checks within the editing experience. This encourages users to add citations when they add multiple new paragraphs to a Wikipedia article. More updates from Tech News week 25 and 26.
- Temporary Accounts: Temporary accounts were rolled out on ten large and medium-size Wikipedias, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Polish, Indonesian and more. Deployments on more Wikipedias will follow this week. Share your thoughts about the project.
- Mobile Apps: Mobile Apps team launched A/B test of Tabbed Browsing on the iOS Wikipedia App. Users in Arabic, English, and Japanese in select regions will see the test.
- WikiGames: The Android team launched Which Came First? — a fun, multilingual trivia game now available to all Android users in nine languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish). It's a new step in making Wikipedia more interactive and engaging for mobile users.
- Community Wishlist: Read results of the recently closed "Wishathon", our internal hackathon organized by Community Tech to help fulfil more wishes from Community Wishlist.
- Wikifunctions: Read Wikifunctions' July–September 2025 plans.
- CampaignEvents Extension: CampaignEvents extension has now been deployed to all Wikipedia, meaning that organizers on any language Wikipedia can now gain access to the extension features directly on that Wikipedia through the Wikipedia local admins.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- Let's Connect Peer Learning: A look into 3 years of Let's Connect and peek into what's next.
- Knowledge Equity Fund: How a Knowledge Equity Fund grantee and a Wikimedia affiliate collaborate on Human Rights.
- A Wiki Minute Videos: We published three new 'A Wiki Minute' videos about what it takes to run Wikipedia and more topics. All videos are recorded and captioned in Arabic, German, English, French, Brazilian-Portuguese, Spanish.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Legal: Administrative update to the Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use.
- Global Advocacy: Expanding tech policy knowledge at the first big UN Wikipedia edit-a-thon.
- Legal: We announced that a Wikipedia admin has joined our UK Online Safety Act lawsuit.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
Wikimedia Apps newsletter – Second quarter of 2025
edit
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
editTabbed 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
editWikiGames & 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!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 13
edit 
Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Wikimania Hackathon 2025: The Wikimania Hackathon 2025 is inviting you to submit your project idea.
- WikiWomen* Summit 2025: The WikiWomen* Summit 2025 will take place in a hybrid format on 5th August, the pre-conference day of Wikimania 2025. Register now.
- WikiIndaba 2025: The scholarship applications and program submissions are open until 23:59 GMT on July 20.
- WikiCon Brasil 2025: WikiCon Brasil 2025 will take place on July 19-20 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
- WikiConvention francophone 2025: The WikiConvention 2025 will take place in Cotonou, Benin, October 2-5. The call for submissions is open until July 15.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: Temporary accounts have been rolled out on 18 large and medium-sized Wikipedias, including German, Japanese, French, and Chinese; The CampaignEvents extension has been enabled on all Wikipedias. More updates from Tech News week 27 and 28.
- AbuseFilter: AbuseFilter maintainers can now match against IP reputation data in AbuseFilters. IP reputation data is information about the proxies and VPNs associated with the user’s IP address. This data is not shown publicly and is not generated for actions performed by registered accounts.
- Favorite Templates: A new feature related to Template Recall and Discovery will be deployed to all Wikimedia projects: a template category browser will be introduced to assist users in finding templates to put in their “favourite” list. The browser will allow users to browse a list of templates which have been organised into a given category tree. The feature has been requested by the community through the Community Wishlist.
- Wikipedia App: We have launched an A/B test of tabbed browsing in the Wikipedia iOS app. This feature allows users to open multiple articles in separate tabs, making it easier to switch between topics, explore, and return to previous reading spots. The test is currently running in Arabic, English, and Japanese in selected regions. We’re collecting feedback and plan to make the feature more widely available soon.
- MediaWiki: The MediaWiki Platform team has introduced a unified Built-in Notifications system, as part of MediaWiki 1.44, that makes it easier for developers to send, manage, and customize notifications across the platform.
Annual Goals Progress on Volunteer Support
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog · WikiLearn News · list of movement events
- Hubs: Personal, consistent and deeply human: How CEE Hub support the region organizations.
- Legal: Good intentions make for bad law in Utah, we argue in our amicus brief in the Netchoice v. Brown case.
- Wikimedia Organizations: The Wikimedia Foundation and a group of experienced co-authors with affiliate background have drafted the paper Towards a Healthy Ecosystem of Wikimedia Organizations. This paper aims to be presented as a proposal for the movement at Wikimania in August 2025 in Nairobi. Share your feedback before July 29.
- Advocacy: We have created The Wikipedia Test: a public policy tool and a call to action to help ensure regulators consider how new laws can negatively affect online communities and platforms that provide services and information in the public interest.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: The next showcase will center around the theme of "Examining the Impact of LLMs on Knowledge Production Communities" and will take place on July 16 at 16:30 UTC.
- Administrative Update to Our Privacy Policies: Following personnel changes, we are removing the name of our former point of contact serving the European Economic Area and the UK for questions and requests related to personal data in the privacy policy and donor privacy policy.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Affiliations Committee: New resolution from AffComm on User Group recognition interval period.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!