Commons talk:Mobile app

Archives 1, 2

Bot passwords

Tracked in GitHub
commons-app/apps-android-commons/issues/6714

Hello. Is it possible to use Special:BotPasswords to login into the app? I tried it and it says wrong password. Nemoralis (talk) 00:42, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

Interesting use case @Nemoralis. I am unaware of the app currently supporting it. Just to know, what's your use case? Kaartic ^{[talk][kindly ping me]} 17:11, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

To login when you have 2FA enabled. Also I don't want to login to the app with full permissions. Nemoralis (talk) 18:08, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

The app should already support normal login even if you have 2FA enabled. Are you facing issues with it?

The reduced scope login is interesting. Would you mind raising it as a feature request in the app's issue tracker [ref]? Kaartic ^{[talk][kindly ping me]} 18:19, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

@Kaartic, I use WebAuthn authentication, which is not possible with current app version: [1] Nemoralis (talk) 00:02, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

Ah ha. Interesting. Now it makes sense. We need to check if Wikipedia app already supports it. If so, it should hopefully be achieved easilt in Commons app also. Kaartic ^{[talk][kindly ping me]} 02:05, 8 March 2026 (UTC)

Looks like WebAuthn is yet to be supported in the API itself. There's much discussion but no specific conclusion.

Anyways, created a feature request for it: https://github.com/commons-app/apps-android-commons/issues/6714 Kaartic ^{[talk][kindly ping me]} 02:57, 8 March 2026 (UTC)

Enable opening Commons links in the app

I think the app would be most useful if you could open Commons links and pages in the app, e.g. when opening a Commons site in the mobile web browser or when opening a Commons file in the Wikipedia app by tapping "File page on Wikimedia Commons".

This is useful for example because Commons categories display much better in the Commons app compared to Web browsers and file pages still do not show categories.

Nearly all nonsmall apps allow users to open associated links in their app. For example, one can open YouTube links in the YouTube app and NewPipe app, Wikipedia articles in the Wikipedia app, and so on. Please make this possible also with the Commons app. I think this needs to be implemented in the Commons app (or mainly in it).

I've filed this wish in the Community Wishlist: W438: When opening a file in the Wikipedia app, enable opening it in the Commons app (voting open). If there is a GitHub issue about this too, please link it here or there. Prototyperspective (talk) 18:36, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

OAuth support

Hi! The MediaWiki Platform Team is working on improving support for mobile apps using OAuth. If you are interested in adding OAuth support to the app, this might be a good time to experiment with it as we'll have more time to respond to bug reports / feature requests (ideally via Phabricator, feel free to reach out directly though). Tgr (WMF) (talk) 19:33, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

Hey there @Tgr (WMF)! thanks for the update, that's great :) Please note however, that currently it's not possible to start experimenting with OAuth2 as the registration form still doesn't accept custom URI-schemes, which are needed for native apps. These are the relevant tickets I think https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T412542, https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T395459.

I could ping those once more, if that is okay, but I also don't want to add extra noise to the tickets. Nylki (talk) 07:52, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

It does accept custom schemes but they have to be in $wgUrlProtocols (which is used to allow/disallow schemes in wikitext). That's not really scalable but I think for something as prominent as the Commons app it's fine. We already use it for the Wikipedia apps. If you open a task with the name (and ideally light documentation) of the scheme, I'll add it. Tgr (WMF) (talk) 10:55, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the info and insight! Please note, that I am not directly developing on the Android Commons App myself and will leave it to the maintainers like @RitikaPahwa4444 to open a ticket if they wish to use OAuth2.

But I will open a ticket for the iOS Commons App (CommonsFinder) I am developing. It's certainly not quite as prominent as the Android Commons App, but perhaps an exception could be made? I would really like to use OAuth2 to move forward with letting the iOS app in more user's hands and getting a public App Store release this year. Nylki (talk) 12:34, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Can't fetch categories during upload. Achievents are not loading.

Hello, there are some problems with this version of app.

Alex Blokha (talk) 11:00, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

Suggestion

This app is extremely outdated compared to Wikipedia. The WP app is a work of art; it has tons of features and is modern. Whilst with commons, why is that app so outdated? The ui looks ancient. Don't get me started with the limited features too. Why can't it get an update? Or is there any information on this? - that's what I'm curious about. Or maybe WMF can finally do something about this Fortek67 (talk) 09:59, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

@Fortek67 The commons app is a work of volunteers and students. As clearly documented on the page. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:02, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

There is some existing discussion on UI modernization. You are welcomed to contribute if you have concrete ideas, mockup images, etc.

• https://github.com/commons-app/apps-android-commons/issues/6633
• https://github.com/commons-app/apps-android-commons/issues/6392

whym (talk) 23:17, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Cheers Fortek67 (talk) 07:20, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

Far as I see, the Foundation has made the WP App its own and applied heavy resources to it. Commons App seems to be as amateurish as Wikipedia itself, an idea that perhaps works less well for mobile apps than for editing an encyclopedia. Jim.henderson (talk) 06:38, 26 July 2026 (UTC)