We want to ship the Image Browsing feature—specifically, the image carousel + detail view elements—as a permanent part of the mobile web reading experience on all wikis, replacing the existing MobileFrontend image viewer with a new Vue/Codex based viewer in MultimediaViewer (MMV).
Design Mockups
Designer: @JScherer-WMF
Background
In Q2 FY25-26, the Reader Growth team tested an image browsing prototype on logged-out mobile readers across six wikis (ar, cn, en, fr, id, vt). The carousel achieved 7-8% CTR against a 3% target, and retention guardrails were met. Based on these results, we are scaling the carousel and detail view components to production. See the WE3.1.3 Experiment Report for full results.
Architecture
Per the Technical Recommendations (T415712) and Rollout Plan, the production Image Browsing feature will include the following components:
- Carousel built in MinervaNeue (or potentially also in MMV – exact location to be confirmed), with server-side container injection to avoid layout shift. Displayed at the top of article pages with 3+ images on mobile web.
- Detail view built as a new MMV beta viewer module (mmv.ui.beta), using Vue 3 and Codex. Implements the same interface as the legacy MMV viewer class so the bootstrap module doesn't need changes.
- The new beta viewer replaces the existing MobileFrontend mobile image viewer entirely. MobileFrontend's ImageCarousel, ImageGateway, and overlay code will be retired.
- Desktop MMV is unchanged for now; eventual convergence is possible but not blocking. Over time we expect to cherry-pick other features from Desktop MMV and may perform some behind-the-scenes refactoring to share code where necessary.
MVP Scope
- Image carousel on articles with 3+ images, mobile web, all wikis
- Detail view at feature parity with current MobileFrontend viewer (license/author metadata, error handling, loading states)
- Respects existing image exclusions (noviewer class, etc)
- Page-level opt out (controlled by community – via Community Configuration or some other means)
- Logged-in reader opt-out in Preferences
Potential fast-follows
- Pinch-to-zoom and touch gesture support
Links
- Technical Recommendations: T415712 and https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yZNzkNsZfH9I6Ii4gKfi5UwdFeKYOXUiaNwIkT-F8FI/edit?usp=sharing
- PoC patches: Beta MMV UI | Gesture support
- Rollout doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R25Ltc9E28Hz1RA_1UQp4B_Pyjv9LXMQZlikRIiln7Y/edit?usp=sharing
- Usage analysis report
- Figma specifications