A Relational Medium On Mobile
Helping build and maintain relationships with creators you love
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Last year in August, we announced our new mobile app and began rolling it out to a small number of beta users — a big step towards a more relational Medium experience that is oriented around following so that readers can have a deeper connection to their favorite writers, while writers and publications can more actively engage and grow their audience.
We’ve been iterating and refining this new app experience to address the feedback coming from you. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be rolling this new app experience to all mobile users on iOS and Android via App Store and Play Store updates.
Here’s what you’ll see:
First off, you’ll notice the new home screen experience.
At the top of the home screen, you’ll see topics that you are following. Tapping on any of these topics will take you to the topic page, where you can discover creators and stories within that topic. Following creators fills your home screen with their stories. As you explore new creators or find the ones you already know and love, follow them so you can stay up to date on what they’re publishing.
At the top right of the home screen, you’ll also notice two options for story presentation modes. Tap the options to change between small or large story previews.
Next up, you’ll see a shelf of creators you are following who have recently published. The badges on the creator icons indicate the number of stories the creators have published that you haven’t yet read. You can tap on the creator’s icons to visit their space.
We’ve also made some changes that result in a smoother and more seamless reading experience. See something you want to read? Tap right into it. The stories now expand in-line on the home screen, so you can jump directly into the story and begin reading. As you reach the end of the story, you can quickly scroll to the next story on the home screen.
On the Explore screen, you can discover more creators and dive further into your interests. You’ll also notice different topics than are on the home screen. In Explore, we suggest topics we think you might be interested in based on your reading history. The remainder of the explore screen is organized into shelves. Among these, you’ll notice “Recommended For You,” which recommends five new stories each day based on your interests, and “Who To Follow,” which recommends creators based on your reading interests.
We’ve also made it easier to navigate through the primary surfaces of the app. At the bottom, you’ll see four different tabs. The home screen, explore screen, reading list, and the You tab.
Feel like writing something? You can access the You tab by tapping on your avatar on the bottom right. Here, you’ll see a + button on the bottom right, which opens up the mobile editor. The You tab also shows the stories you have published on Medium thus far.
All new users will begin to see this update when downloading the app from the App Store or Play Store. If you already have the app, you’ll see these updates automatically over the course of the next week as we roll out the experience to all Medium mobile users.
We hope this experience helps you build meaningful relationships with creators and delivers a seamless reading experience. We are continuously improving and have many exciting updates on our roadmap. Please give the app a spin, and let us know what you think in the responses below.
