20-day experiment - Measuring Oct 29 to Nov 18, 2025
Background
Until this year, the iOS app has not supported tabbed browsing. Our V1 of Tabbed browsing releasing in June 2025 focuses on the core functionality (T384758). We believe that if we further improve a core feature like tabbed browsing, readers will be even more likely to spend time in the App day after day, increasing retention.
Our hypothesis is 3.1.1 of the annual plan, If we A/B test an improved version of the Tabbed browsing feature, we’ll see a 5% increase in multi-day usage among Tabs users
How will we know we were successful
Key Results
- KR 1.1 5% increase in multi-day usage of the tabs feature among logged-out Tabs users in Groups B and C compared to Control, Group A.
- KR 1.2 1% increase in overall app retention among logged-out users users in Groups B and C compared to Control, Group A.
Guardrails
- GR 2.1 No more than 5% decrease in “new tab” events from the tabs overview (Compare groups B & C against Group A)
- New tab sessions = users who open a new tab from the Tabs overview using the "+" button, or from opening a recommendation in "Did you know" or "Because you read" in the tabs overview
- GR 2.2 No more than 15% of unique users turn off the article recommendations using the overflow menu
Curiosities
- CR 3.1 How many people take screenshots of the Tabs overview?
- CR 3.2 What tab experience do users prefer (B or C)? (survey satisfaction for each group, qualitative feedback)
- CR 3.3 What article content experience (Main page, Did You Know, Because you read Recommendations) receives the most engagement broken down by experiment group? (Which one receives the most clicks, and new tabs opened)
- For group B, which resulted in the most engagement/article views? (Main page, Did you Know, because you read)
- For group C, which got the most most engagement/article views? (Main page, Did you Know, because you read)
- CR 3.4 Which experience (B or C) leads to the most article engagement? (What is the average # of new tabs opened per unique user for each group?)
Must Haves
Create A/B/C test
- T398878 Set up more dynamic tabs A/B/C test
- T398885 Create new “New tab” view controller.
- T398888 Create new tab experience that has main page tab on first launch (Group B)
- T398890 Create new tab experience that has empty state on first launch (Group C)
- T398883 Create tab overflow menu
- T404796 Allow users to hide and show recommendations
- Compatible with Dynamic Type and Voiceover
- Compatible with iPad
- T404795 Create bottom module that shows Did You Know or Because You Read content
- T404658 Code cleanup from first attempt at more dynamic tabs
- T398882 Tabs overflow menu
- T398881 Close all tabs flow
- T405428 Update survey
- T405537 Highlight active tab
- Instrumentation T398895
Nice to Haves (priority order)
- T392651 Switch to tabs that are already open from search & external links
- T396157 Cleanup from V1
- T398880 Long-press on tabs in overview
- T392654 Custom transition between tabs and overview
- T392650 Animate tabs icon when tab is opened in background
- T398891 Open new tabs next to current tab
- Add more Settings for Tabs: Let users control
- How external links open
- Automatic closing behavior
- Support gestures to move between tabs (based on user testing)
Done
- T398884 Add “Did you know” to wikifeeds
Out of scope
- Save all tabs to a reading list
- Selecting individual tabs and closing them
User Stories
- As someone who opens articles frequently from a browser, I want a quick way to close all of my open tabs on the Wikipedia App so that I can keep them organized.
- As a student wanting to open a new tab to keep researching, I want to see suggestions for what I might be looking for, to help me save time.
Target Quant Regions and Languages
Users with an App primary language of English, Arabic, or German
Users with a device country of Germany, or within ESEAP or MENA regions
Designs
Figma (iPhone - variations B and C): https://www.figma.com/design/5gHmEo8IIFxlPfYM6bppzz/iOS---%3E-More-Dynamic-Tabs?node-id=1418-5420&t=lWe5qKi82ULeaqCp-4
Figma (key screens iPad): https://www.figma.com/design/5gHmEo8IIFxlPfYM6bppzz/iOS---%3E-More-Dynamic-Tabs?node-id=1484-5235&t=lWe5qKi82ULeaqCp-4
Video walkthough
Variation B: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mPExyXzmDlrw-Fpc9ewSpCl5KR5G5GZp/view?usp=drive_link
Variation C: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18_-AdtM_KjSR50WWPOkNNkOOfevKmGq_/view?usp=drive_link
Core Screens
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Testplan
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11InuKeHaFqXmUWDP54uu56d_xrBuaNnzkz97pCvJYHU/edit?usp=sharing
References
Project page: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/iOS/Tabbed_Browsing_(Tabs)