Insights on mobile web editing on Wikipedia in 2025 (Part I)

Editing Wikipedia through a phone’s browser has long been known to be more challenging than editing from desktop. Desktop editors have, and still carry the bulk of lasting contributions¹. Just 16% of clicks from Registered editors contributing from desktop using wikitext, produce nearly 60% of all visible edits on Wikipedia. Earlier this year, the recently established Product and Tech Advisory Council (PTAC) issued its first recommendation, calling for improvements to mobile editing as essential for the movement’s long-term sustainability.

The mobile editing experience involves additional complexities. Challenges vary depending on whether someone is registered or editing as an IP, and whether they use the Source Editor (wikitext) or VisualEditor.

Let’s look at three learnings about the people who edit Wikipedia through mobile web².

1. Most editing sessions start with mobile web IP users — but only a small proportion lead to published edits

Mobile web already accounts for the majority of Wikipedia readership — yet a much smaller share of contributions come from mobile web. This suggests an enormous untapped opportunity: if the editing experience on mobile were easier and more intuitive, many more readers might take the next step and become contributors to the movement.

Notably, a large share of edits from mobile web are made by users not logged into an account, typically recorded as coming from IP addresses and made using the wikitext editor (the default on English Wikipedia). These unregistered contributors may never receive a welcome message, build an editing history, or return — making it harder to support or retain them. Lowering the technical and social barriers to editing on mobile could help convert passing readers into sustained contributors.

2. The highest editor drop off number is by mobile web editors

When analysed as a funnel, the contributor journey is characterized by drop offs. The highest drop-off rate recorded at any stage in the funnel for editors across all profiles whether registered or not, desktop or mobile web, using source or visual editor, happens among mobile web editors. ~95% of IP mobile users editing via wikitext open the editor but make no changes at all.

Whether they are just curious and wanting to take a peek before committing to free knowledge or having faced some other barrier, this behaviour isn’t limited to IP editors; even registered mobile web users show higher rates of visiting the editor without attempting an edit.

Table 1.0 below breaks down the drop-off rates.

3. Mobile web edits are more likely to be reverted

Edits made on mobile web are reverted at higher rates than those on desktop. IP editors editing with the VisualEditor see 8.44% reversion of edits compared to 0.57% for their desktop counterparts. Even registered editors see their contributions reverted more often when using mobile. Overall VisualEditor shows higher revert rates compared to source — a pattern that may be linked to the lowered barriers of VisualEditor that make it easier for newcomers to contribute. Nonetheless, the overall pattern highlights mobile web as the greater friction point (See Table 1.0).

While these findings highlight important nuances and disparities in mobile web editing, they don’t fully explain why people drop off at different stages of the editing process. Many of the underlying reasons deserve deeper investigation. What this research does provide is a clearer picture of the patterns and pain points, helping us get closer to understanding the unique challenges of editing on mobile. This work is ongoing, as we continue to investigate the barriers and test product interventions that can make mobile editing more seamless, accessible, and rewarding for contributors around the world.

Note: Mobile Web Editing Research investigating the barriers and enablers to mobile web editing experience on Wikipedia is led by the Mobile Editing Working Group at the Wikimedia Foundation.

A deck on Contributor Journey Mapping: Mobile Web Editing (Jun ’25) is available on Wikimedia Commons for additional reading.

If you would like to learn more about ongoing research into mobile web editing, please visit the project’s page or email kstoller@wikimedia.org/stei@wikimedia.org

1.  Note: Data represents a sample of edit actions from May 1st to 15th 2025; Includes data from Enwiki; Excludes edits made by known bots; Edit reversion period is 48 hours ↩︎
2.  “Mobile Web” refers to using the web browser on a mobile phone to access Wikimedia projects, it does not include the Wikipedia Mobile Application. Data represents a sample of edit actions from May 2025 from English Wikipedia; Excludes edits made by known bots; Edit reversion period is 48 hours ↩︎