Next-Level Android

It’s only been a few months since Medium for Android was released into the wild, and it has been quite a journey already. The reception by the Android community has been fantastic (4.5 stars! 100,000 downloads!), and we love our Android users, especially our thriving beta group.

Just a few weeks ago we launched Total Mobile Editing, and now we’ve got another slew of new features to share as part of Android 2.0.

Logos, fonts, and FABs

The first thing you probably noticed is that Medium has moved on from the classic black M and adopted a new logo that has both dimension and color. The Story Behind Medium’s New Logo explains the new direction and how we got there.

We’ve also freshened up our typography. Android users will notice that we’re using native fonts for buttons and navigation and saving the new elegant typefaces for stories. If you’re into typography (some people are really into fonts) then this piece from our design team is a must read.

We’ve simplified our navigation by both reducing the height of our action bar and the number of options. Bookmarks are still easily accessed via your drawer.

Have you noticed our new FAB? For those who aren’t material design geeks, an FAB is a “Floating Action Button.” Now that our writing tools can do everything you can do on the web, we’ve made this “New story” button much more prominent.

Explore

Explore is an exciting new area where we bring you the best stories from all of Medium. The stories in Explore will change on a daily basis, and the sections we feature will change based on what readers find to be the most compelling. Right now, we have a few favorites:

• Trending tags: Find new things to follow and rabbit holes to fall into.
• Debut authors: We feature stories by authors that are finding an audience.
• Conversation starters and Top responses: Stories that have generated a lot of conversation and responses.
• 5-minute reads: For times when you only have a few minutes.
• Top stories on Medium: Classic.

Highlights and quote responses

Highlights are a great way to show the author you liked a passage, but what if you have more to say? Now you can leave a response to a specific quote, and the author and your followers can see what you have to say without leaving the post.

Responses are indicated by a little green asterisk. Tap on it, or on the highlighted text next to it, to reveal the conversation. From here, you can see the responses recommended by the author and written by people you follow.

To respond to a passage, just highlight the text and hit respond. Draft and publish. Easy!

Responses on Medium are not like comments — they are full posts that can be recommended and responded to, and can appear in the stream and email digests of your followers. We intentionally bring the best responses to the top. You’ll always see the most recommended responses first, and only those from your network or recommended by the author are promoted.

Notifications

Notifications have long been part of our desktop site, but we’re excited to launch them in Android 2.0 as well.

Find your notifications in the drawer. The green ball means that there’s new stuff for you to check out.

Notifications are particularly handy for writers. Find out who has followed you and see every recommend, highlight, and response.

Mentions

Launching across Medium, you can now mention other Medium users directly. They’ll be notified and your readers will be linked to their profile. Peek into how we came to build mentions in the Inside Medium post “Hey Ev, what about mentions?”

Marshmallow and JellyBean support

And as if that isn’t enough, with 2.0 we’re expanding the versions of Android operating systems we support. Now anyone with 4.1 or above will be able to read, write, highlight, and respond on the Medium network.

If you haven’t downloaded the app yet, please head over to the the Google Play Store. If you are interested in always getting everything first, join the thriving beta group. Please feel free to pass along any other feedback to android@medium.com.