Wikiwand 0.8

If we’re to be honest, students nowadays are most likely to be thanking Wikipedia and Google when they graduate rather than the schoolbooks they had during the year. In the age of the Internet, that’s how everyone gets their information.

One annoying thing about Wikipedia is that the website still looks a bit outdated, despite all the updates it received over the years. Last year, Wikiwand was launched, a tool that turns the Wikipedia website into a place you’ll actually love visiting, adding a table of content-type of bar to the side and generally prettying it all up.

Going mobile

Now, the browser app is stretching its legs and has landed on mobile too. The iOS Wikiwand app turns browsing Wikipedia into a pleasurable experience.
The tool has a simple interface that focuses on the Wiki content. It’s extremely easy to navigate and just as easy to figure out. After you launch the tool you’ll see a simple page with a search bar where you can type in whatever you’re looking for. The side menu can be accessed from here too, by tapping on the three dots at the top left corner. There’s also a way to see articles about things that are nearby your physical location, although you’ll have to allow the app access to your GPS for this.

The app makes various suggestions as you type whatever it is you’re looking for. When you locate the article you’re interested in, you’ll be able to find out a lot about it from the very top. You can check out the location, images, as well as various information that you normally find in the graph card on the side. These are all arranged in cards you can swipe through. For a city, for instance, you’ll see the country it pertains to, the coordinates, when it was first attested, who the mayor is, the area, elevation, population, and so on.

The best part

Then, you just have to scroll to check out all the info about this particular topic. If you want, there’s a way to navigate it a lot easier by tapping on the little arrow at the bottom of the screen, which will reveal the table of contents. By tapping on any of the sections, you’ll be taken to the location immediately.
There are some extra buttons at the top of the page too. The search bar allows you to search for another topic, while the yellow button helps you look for specific words within the article.

Sharing the article can be done via Facebook, Twitter, text message and email, as well as via other apps you have installed. If you want to read the article in a different language this can be arranged to.

All in all, the Wikiwand app is pretty great and it offers pretty much the same ease of checking out Wikipedia as the browser tool does. This is an app that you should definitely have on your phone if you often look for Wikipedia articles. 

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