Background
The Nearby feature allows users to see articles based on location. It is a feature that currently exists on iOS but was removed from Android (T228661). This was due to issues with OpenStreetMap. After receiving several requests to revisit adding the feature back to the app our team explored the feasibility to add Nearby back to the Android app. After collaborating with @MSantos we learned of improvements to WMF Maps. Once it became clear it was feasible to reintroduce the feature to the Android app. We then needed clearance to prioritize the work.

One of the goals of the Annual Plan is to:

Interested readers will discover and browse more content, measured via a 10% increase in internally referred page interactions in representative wikis.

We believe by reintroducing this feature it will increase interactions with Wikipedia articles, which gives us the runway to work on this project.

Validation

• KR: 1.1 10% increase in article page interaction as a result of internal app referral (Broken down by Article Previews and clicks through to article)
• KR 1.2: 30% of folks try the feature more than 1 day
• KR: 1.3: 3000 people save, share or watch an article as a result of feature
• KR 1.4 10% of users click through to article view from places

Guardrails

• KR 1.1: At least 70% of representative users that provide feedback about feature report satisfaction

Curiosities (nice to have)

• Do people who engage with Nearby have higher pageviews than those that do not
• What % of people open the feature as are result of the tooltip?
• How does engagement with Android Nearby compare to iOS?

Note we will compare folks that have updated their app vs those that did not

Target Quant Regions and Languages

South Asian Readers

Languages:
English
Bangla
Hindi
Urdu

Target Qualitative Audience

• Users that indicated interest in the feature
• Readers in South Asia

Must Haves

• Provide a Map View and List view when someone launches the Nearby feature
• Allow users to view articles on a map from article view and launch Nearby

Within Map View

• When a user clicks on a map marker, allow the users to read, save and share an article, as main actions
• In the overflow menu of a map marker, and allow users to save to watchlist
• Provide a search that allows users to search articles prioritizing articles near them
• Before a user types they should see recently searched articles
• Get a user's permission before going to their location
• Map should honor dark modes

Within List view

• Let users see how far away an article map marker is away from them

Nice to Haves

• If a user wants to get directions take them to their map app
• Support multiple languages in the search

Potentially out of scope

User Stories

• As a Wikipedia Android app user traveling to a new city, I want to know what articles are nearby, so that I can learn more about my surroundings.