New on the Wikipedia App for iOS: Tabbed Browsing (Tabs)

You asked. You waited. You stayed patient. Now it’s here:
Tabbed browsing is now available on the Wikipedia App for iOS!

For years, readers on iPhones and iPads have been asking for a way to open multiple articles at once, just like you can on Android. It’s one of our most requested features ever, and we’re thrilled to finally bring it to life.

• My suggestion is to add multiple tabs so that you can have multiple articles open at once…I like to have multiple topics open at a time and switch through them to read various sections at different times…
• Why don’t you add Tabs feature to iOS app in order to ease our access to many articles at the same time?
• Provide the app with tabs, like chrome or safari, so users can have multiple wiki pages open, again, to conduct meaningful research. One page open at a time is unusually limiting, compared to using wiki in a browser.

Tabs will let you keep more than one article open at a time, making it easier to explore complex topics, follow links without losing your place, and pick up where you left off. Whether you’re diving deep into a historical event or researching a science concept, the ability to open and switch between articles freely can make all the difference.

Here’s what to expect

• Open links in new tabs via long-press on an article link
• Preview content (title, lead image, text snippet) for each open tab
• Never lose your place: Tabs remember exactly where you left off in the article 
• Support for up to 500 tabs
• Access your open tabs throughout the app, across Explore, Search, History, and Saved views

Creating this feature aligned with the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2024-2025 Annual Plan to make it easier to browse and discover content on our platforms, so people don’t have to rely as much on outside search engines. Many reviewers mentioned that they preferred Safari or Google Chrome over the app, simply because the App didn’t support multiple tabs of Wikipedia articles.

Building Tabs Together

Every step of the way, we used user feedback to build tabs. Our designer categorized and drew recommendations from every iOS user who had written in requests to our support emails, app store reviews and in app surveys. We also drew inspiration from our Android users, who have given us rich feedback on the existing Tabs feature in the Android app. Below are a few examples of how user feedback shaped our work:

• A reader noted that Safari frequently refreshes their tabs, causing them to lose their place in the article. This input led us to require Tabs to remember a user’s last scroll position in the article.
• Many users lamented the 100 tab limit on the Android App. We added support for up to 500 tabs on the iOS app, and tested to ensure it doesn’t slow down performance of the app.
• Another reader noted that their workflow includes opening links in background tabs, so they can save things for later while still reading the current article. We built both options to open articles in a new tab and in a new background tab.

Once we had an initial prototype of the feature, we immediately put it into the hands of our users by running usability testing. We got even more actionable feedback from users trying it out, and incorporated that into the feature. 

Once Tabbed Browsing was ready for the world, we ran an initial A/B test with a limited audience. We saw 10% of users engage with Tabs, and the feature had a 93% satisfaction rate. 

Even after release, user feedback continues to shape the feature. We’ve seen positive feedback from users after release, and also requests to improve the experience for closing tabs. We’re addressing these issues in follow-up releases and a second A/B test within the feature. 

This feature wouldn’t have been possible without the persistence and clear feedback from our iOS readers. Your voices shaped this, and we are very grateful for the spirit of your collaboration that helped bring tabbed browsing to iOS. 

Do you want to learn more about tabbed browsing and how to use it? Check out the project page. If you have feedback on the feature, please share it with iOS-support@wikimedia.org.