Dates
- Release into Beta: August 20, 2026
- Release into Production: TBD
- End of test: TBD - At least 30 days after production release
Background
Phase 1 of redesigning the Explore feed into a modern, 2-tab experience was completed on Android in May/June 2026. In Phase 2, the team will introduce new content sources into the feed: seeking more curation sources from the community, additional personalization, and engagement opportunities.
Usability testing with 9 readers ranked Personalized New Articles highest for return intent (avg. 1.44/5), making it the lead candidate for Phase 2 development.
User Story
As a Wikipedia reader, I want to see new articles related to my interests surfaced in my For You feed, so that I have a reason to return to the app each day to discover what's new in the topics I care about.
Requirements
- ✅ The module surfaces newly created Wikipedia articles relevant to the reader's configured interest topics
- ✅ Test against existing feed as an A/B test
- A: Control: no access to new articles module in feed or settings
- B: Variant: New articles module in feed & settings
- ✅ Feed order for experiment period: New articles in your interests Based on Your Interests · Because You Read · Continue Reading · Places of Interest · Discover · Random · Games Teaser
- ✅ Each day, randomly select up to 4 of their topics (one topic per slide in the horizontal carousel). Rotate which order the topics are shown in each day, and if they have more than 4 topics, which ones are shown.
- ✅ For each topic, display 4 new articles
- For English: articles must be marked as patrolled before surfacing, applied on top of interest-topic matching
- For all other languages: pull the 50 most recent new articles per day and select 3 randomly from the older half (articles 26-50), to increase the chances the article has been reviewed by other editors
- For all languages: prefer articles with images
- ✅ Each card displays: reason label (e.g. "New articles related to your interest [topic]"), card position indicator, three-dot more menu
- ✅ Tapping an article shows a link preview, with options to open in a new tab or read (acceptable to reuse existing view)
- ✅ The module refreshes daily with newly created articles. Avoid repeating from the previous day's module content
- Content must not repeat within the module on a given day.
- ✅ If the reader has not configured any Topic interests, the module is not shown
- ✅ Add module into settings screen "New articles in your interests"
- ✅ Subtitle: Recently created articles within topic areas you follow
- Upon daily or manual refresh, images in tiles should update to match what's currently in the article (avoid situation where image is deleted from article, but still appears in the app)
- Instrument the module to answer A/B test metrics in partnership with product analyst
[Nice to have]
- If a user has no topics selected, show a "empty state" slide with the ability to explore new articles by topic, and follow topics
How will we measure success
- KR 1: 5% increase in Home Feed second day return for treatment group vs control for eligible users (have at least one Topic interest)
- GR 1: No more than 2% of users hide a new article card
- GR 2: Average feed loading time does not exceed 5 seconds for control & variant groups
- GR 3: No more than a 50% increase in median feed loading time for users in experiment group compared to control
- Those in experiment group will naturally have more latency because of extra API calls, we want to make sure this doesn't cause an adverse user experience
- CR 1: Did we see movement in overall app 2nd-day retention for eligible users? (KR definition)
- CR 2: Did we see an increase in "For you" usage? Among users in the treatment group who returned to the app on a second day, is the rate of "For You" tab visits higher than among users in the control group who returned on day 2?
3-day latency check
- Pull average & median latency for control group and variant group.
- Decision matrix:
- If average feed loading time is more than 50% higher in the variant group, AND we are seeing a negative effect on overall app retention, the experiment should be paused again until Lazy Loading has been implemented: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T437372
- If the average feed loading time remains comparable to control, or less than a 50% increase over control and there is a negative effect on overall retention the experiment should run for the remaining 12 days.
Design
https://www.figma.com/design/VwBaV9KZ7LWfOY2dt1BJyQ/Explore-Feed?node-id=9087-47496&t=0MkneplBRX3mzlZU-1
prototype detailing interaction of first slide
Measurement Plan
Android Home Feed Phase 2 New Articles AB Test Measurement Plan T432385
