Wikipedia 2.0.110-r-2015-08-31
A collaborative effort to put human knowledge within anyone's grasp, the website is the largest online encyclopedia, featuring millions of articles in hundreds of languages. While the website is optimized for mobile use and can be enjoyed from any browser, having a dedicated app greatly enhances the user experience.
Clean interface with many features
Following the style of the website, the user interface is clean, without unnecessary bells and whistles, to let you stay focused on the content. Searching for an article is done via the bar at the top and, an improvement over the website, the search suggestions also include pictures (where available).
The articles are formatted for the smaller mobile screens and can be zoomed in and out using pinch gestures. The table of contents can be quickly opened via a button at the top or by swiping left from the right side of the screen, making navigation between the different sections of an article very fast.
A menu on the top right side of the screen lets you view versions of the article in other languages, search for text within the page, share the article with others or save it. From the left side menu, you can log in to your account, access your history and saved pages, view a random article and change the app's settings.
Save articles for later
One of the best things about the app is that it lets you save articles for later reading. Saved pages are downloaded to your smartphone, so you can enjoy them anytime without an internet connection. Moreover, if your mobile operator supports the Wikipedia Zero initiative, you won't pay a dime for the data traffic generated by the app.
If you like the serendipity factor, you'll be happy to know that the random article feature is also present in the mobile app, although its usefulness is still limited. It would have proven more useful if it had shown random articles only on a specific subject chosen by the user. it lets you highlight an interesting fact from an article and tap "share" in the overflow menu to create an image which can be shared to social networks and other platforms.
Search history and many more features
A nice thing to mention here is that when browsing the history of read articles, the random pages are marked with a special icon to differentiate them from the rest. The same happens for articles opened from another app, via the search function or by following a link. The app also caches pages on internal/external memory so that it would load them faster.
Moreover, the app gives you suggestions of articles for further reading at the bottom of each article and search results come with quick descriptions below them and it records the history of your searches when the search box is empty.
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0/5
Hits & Misses
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misses
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Bottom Line
Design / UI9
Wikipedia is about reading and the user interface is well suited for this purpose. |
Function10
Given its usefulness, the app should score the top mark just for that. Support for offline reading is a big plus. |
Security9
The only permission required is to access the internet, for obvious purposes. Furthermore, the code is open source, so you shouldn't have concerns regarding security. |
Battery9
Wikipedia consumes little battery power, so you can use it confidently. |
Price10
Free knowledge without ads. Can't beat that. |
Compatibility8
The minimum OS supported is Android 2.3.3, making the app compatible with most devices on the market. |
Specifications
- price:
- 100% Free
- current version:
- 2.0.110-r-2015-08-31
- reviewed version:
- 2.0.110-r-2015-08-31
- developer:
- Wikimedia Foundation
- category:
- SCIENCE & EDUCATION
- os version req.:
- Android 2.3.3 or later
- age rating:
- N/A
- in-app purchases:
- No
- hits:
- 783