If there is WMF support / development of an iOS, I think there should be at least as much support / development for the Android app. That is because (probably) a much larger share of users and especially contributors is using Android vs iOS, fairness, and that Android is more open source than entirely closed-source iOS. Issue in the Android app repo is here.

I believe iOS devices default to HEIF file format which can be patent encumbered: T211745

I would really like to have such a functionality. I would not use it for my own uploads but I would like to have it as a Wiki Loves contest organiser. From that perspective there are some very important features:

• Support for UploadWizard campaigns that people can participate at the contests directly from the app (with the possibility to configure different user right requirements in the campaign)
• Having a map of objects with filter for Wikidata items missing photos and filters for certain topics (e.g. cultural heritage monuments) and liking certain map views to campaigns

As Commons admin I would also like to have the user right required to use this as community configuration for fast and easy changes if needed.

@Prototyperspective: Please move "WMF should..." talk to forums. It's off-topic for this task. Thanks.

Aklapper: Please move your comment to forums, thanks. Also you misquoted my small relevant good-intentioned friendly ontopic comment.

In T390302#10688976, @Prototyperspective wrote:

If there is WMF support / development of an iOS, I think there should be at least as much support / development for the Android app. That is because (probably) a much larger share of users and especially contributors is using Android vs iOS, fairness, and that Android is more open source than entirely closed-source iOS. Issue in the Android app repo is here.

Hey @Prototyperspective, this task doesn't represent a decision to prioritize iOS over Android. We have the idea to prototype an upload flow for iOS at the hackathon because members of iOS team are going to Hackathon, and because we were recently talking with volunteers about their ideas around an iOS Commons app and the lack of any native app upload capability for iOS users. We often pick one app to focus on first when building something new, because building things in a staggered way across the apps allows us to release & learn before investing more in the other app. Would you use this type of feature if it was in the iOS app or Android app?

In T390302#10689365, @Commander_Keane wrote:

I believe iOS devices default to HEIF file format which can be patent encumbered: T211745

Hi @Commander_Keane great flag, that will need to be a subtask for the prototype. My understanding is we could use APIs to perform file conversion to JPEG and PNG, or UIKit has some methods we could leverage.

@HNordeenWMF Thanks for explaining. That's very understandable and I was not suggesting that it seems like you'd prioritize iOS over Android or anything of that sort. As I linked this issue at the meta wishlist proposal about an iOS I thought I should at the same time also leave a note about the Android app.

On the question: I probably would not use it for uploading or contributing but, while photos is not the kind of content Commons still has many gaps on, I think many people nowadays don't have a desktop computer anymore so giving them a native app ability to upload things from their smartphones seems very due. I'm more interested in the use of such apps to browse content – either for discovery in a similar way as people use the YouTube app or for specific applications (e.g. currently I'm looking for a way to browse and listen to spoken Wikipedia audios within the app).

Thanks @GPSLeo for your feedback and support. I'm combining your thoughts & @Prototyperspective's above into some user stories (a way to notate motivations for features) to add to this task. Please both let me know what you think - if these are accurate or not.

User stories that I think could be served with a iOS native upload flow:

• As a Wikipedian who primarily uses Mobile, I want to be able to upload a photo from my phone to Commons quickly & easily, so that I can add an image from my phone to an article lacking an image.
• As a Wikipedian walking around a city, I want to be able to discover which articles are lacking images on a map, so that as I pass by a place of interest, I can take a photo and upload it to Commons, and then add it to the article.
• As a Wiki Loves contest organizer, I want people to be able to easily upload files from their phones to Commons and have it associated with the campaign, so that I can see increased participation and impact from my campaign.

User stories I see fitting better for a standalone iOS Commons App:

• As an experienced Commons contributor, I want to increase the discoverability of the videos, images, and audio files on Commons and make them easier to browse, so that a larger audience can view & reuse the content on Commons.
• As a Commons contributor walking around a city, I want to be able to discover which Wikidata items are lacking images on a map, so that as I pass by a place of interest, I can take a photo and upload it to Commons.

In T390302#10690267, @GPSLeo wrote:

As Commons admin I would also like to have the user right required to use this as community configuration for fast and easy changes if needed.

@GPSLeo The Apps have not yet integrated with community configuration, but I'll add this to the task & it can be revisited if we get to a point where we're moving forward with the prototype.

I would look at the story for Wiki Loves contests from the participant side:

• A reader of Wikipedia sees that there is a campaign on a certain topic running. They click on a link to participate create an account and upload photos in the app. In the best case there is a map where they can find objects near them. (And then hopefully continue uploading photos or editing Wikipedia after the contest.)

In T390302#10700265, @HNordeenWMF wrote:

In T390302#10689365, @Commander_Keane wrote:

I believe iOS devices default to HEIF file format which can be patent encumbered: T211745

Hi @Commander_Keane great flag, that will need to be a subtask for the prototype. My understanding is we could use APIs to perform file conversion to JPEG and PNG, or UIKit has some methods we could leverage.

Added a comment in the above mentioned ticket.

FYI, there's a system UIKit component called PHPickerViewController (or SwiftUI-equivalent PhotosPicker) that provides UI to choose photos from your library. It may save you time on that part.

There's also an older UIKit component called UIImagePickerController that allows you to both choose from your photo library and take a picture.

I created a colaborative branch for the hackathon, please open PR's to the hackathon/commons-prototype branch instead of main.

If you're curious about the UI progress, check here https://github.com/wikimedia/wikipedia-ios/tree/hackathon/commons-prototype-ui - still WIP

One comment on filename, caption and description:

Please do not make filename and caption the same. It is very common to include the date, counters or other identifiers in the filename they do not belong in the caption.

I would just drop the description or make it the same as the caption like the UploadWizard does. Files with descriptions they do not fit into the caption are very unlikely to be uploaded from mobile.

Thanks for the recommendation @GPSLeo , I was following the logic of the Android Commons App, which sets the first language's caption to the filename. Updated the description: we can include a required filename field, required caption field, and an optional description field.

In T390302#10746545, @Nylki wrote:

In T390302#10700265, @HNordeenWMF wrote:

In T390302#10689365, @Commander_Keane wrote:

I believe iOS devices default to HEIF file format which can be patent encumbered: T211745

Hi @Commander_Keane great flag, that will need to be a subtask for the prototype. My understanding is we could use APIs to perform file conversion to JPEG and PNG, or UIKit has some methods we could leverage.

Added a comment in the above mentioned ticket.

About jpg and png - better is webp.

It would be good if someone update this page:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Mobile_app#iOS

In T390302#10944252, @Nemoralis wrote:

It would be good if someone update this page:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Mobile_app#iOS

Hi, I can do that. Could you please let me know what information to be added

Could you please let me know what information to be added

Probably information about this project and prototype? I checked to see if there were any pictures from the showcase at the Wikimedia-Hackathon-2025, but there weren't any. Maybe we can use this?

Hey @Nemoralis & @Dev ! We didn't present this work at the showcase because one of our team members got sick & we didn't have something ready to present. I think a good update for the page would just mention that some progress was made on a prototype for a native Commons upload flow for the iOS Wikipedia App at the 2025 Hackathon. It's possible this work could continue, if prioritized in this year's annual plan.

@Nylki it might be good to update that page with notes about your prototype as well.