Wikimedia Apps/Team/Wikipedia Year in Review/Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
[edit]What is the Year in Review?
[edit]The Year in Review is a feature on the Wikipedia Mobile Apps that leverages locally stored data and publicly accessible data to show you insights on your relationship with Wikipedia over the year. This feature adheres to the Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy, and was designed with your privacy in mind.
What time period does it cover?
[edit]The data referenced in the 2025 edition of Year in Review covers the time period of - . Some insights cover a shorter time frame.
How was this calculated?
[edit]- If you are logged-in, Year in Review shows insights that are personalized to your device and your Wikipedia account. Some insights require being logged-in to your account to view.
- Each time you view or save an article in the app, the article and related metadata is stored locally on your device. This information allows us to show you your “History” within the app, and make relevant reading recommendations. This metadata also allows us to calculate reading insights for Year in Review.
- Your reading insights are calculated from the data on your current device, and therefore will not include any articles you've read on different devices, or articles you have cleared from your History.
- Your reading history is not shared or stored on servers to create the Year in Review.
- Editing insights related to your username are sourced from publicly accessible editing and pageview records.
| Insight | How it works | Time frame covered |
|---|---|---|
| Minutes reading | Each time you view an article in the app, the app records the duration of how long you spent on the article locally on your device along with other metadata, so we can suggest other articles based on what you’ve read. We total this for the year to show your total minutes reading. | For iOS users: May 2025 - November 2025
For Android users: January 2025 - November 2025 |
| Total articles read | Each time you view an article in the app, the article title is stored locally on your device along with other metadata, and shown in “History”. Year in Review totals the number of articles currently in “History” this year on your device. This includes articles read in all languages. | January 2025 - November 2025 |
| Your top articles | Based on articles currently stored in your “History”, we select up to 5 articles that you have read this year, with the most frequently visited articles shown at the top. This includes articles read in all languages. | For iOS users: January 2025 - November 2025
For Android users: April 2025 - November 2025 |
| Reading patterns | Each time you view an article in the app, the app records a timestamp locally on your device, so we can place it correctly in your “History”. We use the timestamp to calculate additional insights like your favorite time to read, favorite day to read, and month you did the most reading. This includes articles read in all languages. | January 2025 - November 2025 |
| Your most interesting categories | Each time you view an article in the app, the app records any categories associated with that article locally on your device. We select up to 5 categories that you have visited articles within, with more frequently visited categories at the top. Categories with shorter names have been filtered out, to improve the experience. | May 2025 - November 2025 |
| Articles you read are closest to | Each time you view an article in the app, the app records any geographic coordinates associated with that article locally on your device. We look for the biggest cluster of articles nearby a single country. | For iOS users: January 2025 - November 2025
For Android users: April 2025 - November 2025 |
| Articles saved | This is the total number of articles your account has saved to reading lists within the app during the year, across all languages. Articles that have been unsaved are removed from the total. | January 2025 - November 2025 |
| Total edits | This is the total number of edits you have made this year across all projects. The total includes reverted edits, and edits made outside the article namespace (user, talk, etc). | January 2025 - November 2025 |
| Views on edits | This is the total number of views that articles you've edited have received in the past 2 months. We calculate this using your username, and the Growth Tools Special Impact Module. It includes articles that you've edited in your last 1000 edits. The pageviews are from the previous 60 days before you access Year in Review, and not limited to a single calendar year.
These views are only for edits made on the language Wikipedia you have set as your primary language in the App. |
The prior 60 days |
| Contribution status | When you make a donation using the App, standard information is recorded by Wikimedia Fundraising so that your donation can be processed, according to the Donor Privacy Policy. The App also stores limited information locally on your device to remember that you made a donation. No personal details or payment information is stored locally on the device. Year in Review recognizes that you have recently donated, and can show you a Thank You message. Your status as a donor is not associated with your Wikipedia username on the App at any time. | January 2025 - November 2025 |
How can I turn on the custom app icon?
[edit]-
For Android devices, navigate to Settings and turn it on under App icon. -
For iOS devices, turn the icon on from the Year in Review, or in Settings > App theme > App icon.
Why can't I see the custom app icon?
[edit]The custom app icon is available to those who have made edits in the past year, and those who have made in-app donations. Contributions made on other platforms or other devices will not be registered. If you are having difficulty, please reach out to our support emails at iOS-support@wikimedia.org, and android-support@wikimedia.org.
How does the Year in Review reading list work?
[edit]The Android App is offering a trial Year in Review reading list this year. If you opt-in to create the list, the app will gather a reading list with up to 25 articles. These articles will be the ones you spent the most amount of time reading during the past year. Once the reading list is created, you can delete or modify it at any time like a normal reading list. Each time you view an article in the app, how long you spent on the article is recorded locally on your device. This information and your most read articles are never shared or stored anywhere other than your device.
How can I remove personalized insights from Year in Review?
[edit]- If you would like to hide the Year in Review and clear all reports associated with it, navigate to Settings > Year in Review, and turn off Year in Review. You may still turn it back on, and your insights will be recalculated. If you would like to clear the data that the insights are based on, complete the instructions below first before turning off Year in Review.
On the iOS App
[edit]-
Open the ‘Year in Review’ item within Settings. -
Turn off the toggle to disable the feature and clear reports.
On the Android App
[edit]-
Turn off the toggle in Settings to disable the feature and clear reports.
- You can also take these steps to further remove the data that Year in Review is based on
- Clear reading insights about total articles read, and day of the week: At any time, you may clear your reading history using the "Clear" option in "History".
- Clear saved reading list insights: Open Settings > Article storage and syncing, and “Erase saved articles”. This will remove saved articles from your device, and from all devices if you have syncing turned on.
- Clear editing insights: Editing insights cannot be permanently cleared, as they are sourced from publicly and permanently accessible data. If you log out, your total edits will no longer be visible on your device within Year in Review.
- Clear donation insights: At any time, you may clear your device's local donation history using the "Clear donation history" option in Settings. Please note that this only clears the device's local donation history for donations made using the Wikipedia App. Information about past donations is still retained by Wikimedia Fundraising according to the Foundation Donor Privacy Policy.
Collective Insights
[edit]If you are logged-out, Year in Review shows insights about the wider world of Wikipedia and the free knowledge movement, including how many times app users as a whole have viewed articles, or how many edits have been made by iOS app users. Readers with English Wikipedia as a primary language will see information from the Wikipedia Year in Review website, and blog about the top read articles on English Wikipedia. You can learn more about that data.