Custom Domains, Mobile Editor, and a True Following Feed
Working towards an innovative product you can rely on
A big part of our work at Medium centers around earning and building trust with you, our readers, and creators. We want to be clear where we can and we want to build in public with you. In that vein, we have a couple of announcements to share.
Custom Domains are back for good
We first added the ability to add a custom domain to your Medium publication in October 2015. Then we removed the option in 2018. Then we added the option back in February 2021. Then we removed the option again in May of this year. No existing profiles or publications with custom domains were ever affected, but this back and forth isn’t the message we want to send.
You need to know that you can rely on the publishing tools we give you. So when something is experimental, we’re going out of our way to share that. A great example of that is Tips; everything we said about Tips is clear that this is not the final form of that feature. For the newest version of custom domains, I want you to know that they are here to stay and that you can rely on them.
Mobile Editor is also coming back for good
As I stated previously, we’re bringing back the mobile editor. It will be in the next version of the Android and iOS app, set to release next week.
This upcoming version is nearly identical to our old mobile editor. However, we have already started a future improvement list based on your feedback, such as allowing editors to accept/reject drafts in the apps. As we move forward, we’ll take your recommendations into consideration. This is your editor as much as it is ours, if not more so. We’re listening.
The Following Feed is now a true Following Feed
Many of you asked us for a simple, reverse chronological list of the content from the folks you follow. So we built it. And then we tested it against the older, algorithm-based feed. The true following feed worked, really well. Reading time from the following feed increased 110% (!!) as readers read from creators they hadn’t consistently seen in a while. Over the last couple of years we received and fixed a lot of bugs related to empty follow feeds and now we feel more confident knowing that if you follow someone who has written something, that content will appear in your following feed.
We know the work isn’t done and we’re thinking about how to build out additional filters to help you continue to control that feed, such as Muting support or hiding content you’ve read.
Membership Matters
We believe in the value of being a Medium member and identifying membership where it matters most. In the past, you may have seen a green halo around your avatar (or someone else’s) that indicated membership. We’ve got a new member icon that will replace that halo over time. If you’re a member, you’ll see that icon on your own avatar in the bottom left corner of most pages as well as on the avatars of members in Notifications and Responses. We also use it to call out Member-only content on post pages and in feeds.
Let’s keep talking! Have you checked out your unfiltered following feed? What’s the first draft you’re going to spin up while afk in the mobile editor next week? I’ll see you in the responses.
