Feature summary (what you would like to be able to do and where):

Currently, the Wikipedia Android app sometimes shows the Discover feed after startup and sometimes the article one has read previously before closing the app. I never know which it would be when starting and why. Now I tested it and if one closes the app with an article open it reopens it at the next start of the app. Please enable the user to configure it so that always the Discover feed shows or alternatively simply always open that after app launch.

Use case(s) (list the steps that you performed to discover that problem, and describe the actual underlying problem which you want to solve. Do not describe only a solution):

Opening the article one has read previously is a problem to privacy when opening the app around others (I most commonly do that when I want to look at the Places map in the app together with others) because:

• one may want to not reveal one's username to others one knows or has contact with in real life – depending on the article if they looked up the article shown accidentally at app launch, if they know or suspect you're a Wikipedian they could find out your username (eg if there's just one author of that article and it's your interest)
• it can be embarrassing and/or easily misunderstood (eg if a user looks up "The Bible and homosexuality" or whatever)

In this context, note that it can be a long time since one has last opened the app and one may have forgot which article one had last opened (actually even after just 1 day probably most don't immediately know which article they had last open when just wanting to quickly look sth up in a sec).

Furthermore, one can't even return quickly to the Discover feed by pressing the back button once if one opened a chain of articles. It then goes through the same series of articles one has opened. This means one can't even just quickly hide the last opened article if one does not want other to see it for privacy protection or the first article is not a problem but the one afterwards etc.

I don't want to think about this or about whether other people I show the Places map in the app could identify me via the article I'm reading in the app or whether the article I'm reading would give people wrong ideas about me if they saw that I'm read that of all articles – I'd like to feel safe in my privacy being protected in the app where I don't have to worry about such things.

• That pressing the back button once or several times is required also means opening the homefeed takes time and is confusing. It's not self-explanatory and there's no self-explanatory button at the bottom for example to go there with a tap, one just has to figure out that maybe the back button gets one to there. And I still don't know if pressing back there closes those articles or leaves them open in tabs. I'd just like to go to the Discover feed quickly and not change any of then open tabs so I can resume them when I'd like to. But pressing back seems to close tabs.

Apparently it sometimes goes through many open tabs to close them when trying to get to the main feed. One way to go there may be pressing new tab and then pressing back to get there. This is truly horrible UX – other apps at worst case have an expectable always-present button to back to the familiar main home page/feed with a tap.

Also this inconsistency where one needs to press back once sometimes, sometimes not at all, and sometimes often, just makes it hard to use. Additionally, some users would simply prefer to have a consistent starting place in the app. And some users may simply prefer the Discover feed at launch instead of any other place.

Benefits (why should this be implemented?):

Protection of privacy. I can't emphasize this enough. It's really important. Also the other things described above.

Other info:

Ideally, the default option would be showing consistently always the Discover feed and having options to change this to 'last article(s) opened' or 'Wikipedia main page' or 'Places map'. This would warrant a separate issue but I'll leave things as they are as it's only important or much more important to protect users' privacy by not showing last open article(s) where options to configure which is shown at launch would just be the optimal solution.

Also related to T416795: Customizable items in bottom quick panel in Wikipedia app (to readd Places button) because if both of these issues are implemented, one could always very quickly go to the Places map when opening the app which is very useful for the Places-specific applications (e.g. quickly checking if there's something interesting nearby while on the go).