Summary

The author of the article expresses discontent with Medium's decision to remove writing and editing features from its mobile app, transforming it into a purely reader-oriented platform.

Abstract

In a recent update, Medium has revamped its mobile app to focus on reading, removing the ability to create, edit, or customize profiles on mobile devices. The author, who relied on the app's writing functionality, was caught off guard by this change and views it as a step back from Medium's original vision of being a two-way platform where anyone can easily publish content. Despite improvements in topic filtering, story navigation, and publication story previews, the author argues that the essence of Medium was its mobile writing convenience, which allowed for spontaneous content creation and editing. The decision to limit the app's functionality to reading contradicts previous statements from Medium's CEO, Ev Williams, about making Medium a place where writers can regularly share knowledge and build an audience.

Opinions

The author is upset and surprised by the removal of writing features from the Medium mobile app.
The author believes that the mobile app's writing functionality was a core feature that defined the platform's ease of use for content creation.
There is a perceived discrepancy between Medium's stated goals of empowering writers and the recent changes that limit the app's capabilities for writers.
The author questions the rationale behind

Dear Ev, Please Don’t Do This

Medium’s mobile app should not be made into a magazine

Photo by Becerra Govea Photo from Pexels

One of the original ideas behind Medium was to give people an easy and beautiful place to publish, even if they weren’t full-time writers or committed bloggers… Our goal is to create the best of both worlds: An open and simple platform where anyone can publish — once or occasionally — that also allows for deeper connections between readers and regular writers. — Ev Williams (CEO of Medium)

My phone pinged to show I had a notification.

It was from the play store informing me that some of my apps needed to be updated. I clicked Update All, as usual, thinking nothing of it.

It turned out to be a mistake.

While on the bus to work, I opened my Medium app to continue editing a story I was working on and saw the notification in the screenshot above.

What’s new

We’ve made a number of changes in this new update focused on a faster, smoother, and more consistent reading experience:

· Improved topic filtering in your home feed

· Easier story navigation

· Publication story previews that highlight authors

We’ve also made the difficult decision to remove story creation, story editing and profile customization features from our native apps. These features will continue to be accessible from our desktop web app at Medium.com.

I screamed Oh no! like a petulant child.

I never saw this coming at all. I never thought I’d see the day when Medium becomes a magazine app. So, we are expected to use the app as a reader. Nothing more.

And, increasingly, Medium is the place where writers and experts in their field can share their knowledge regularly, build an audience, and — if they choose — get paid for it… The web was meant as a two-way medium, where every reader is a writer and every thinker has a home.

Let’s make it that way again — Ev Williams

These are your words when you announced the more relational Medium model in 2020. If the thinker does not make a handy mobile home, how would they share their knowledge regularly?

Not taking anything away from the fact that:

We can now view our chosen topics on the home feed and click to see stories with those tags.
We can now see the name of the publication that published a story in its header.

All the above is great but the mobile version of Medium is so important because of how easy it was to:

Write an idea from something we have just witnessed
Develop a story we had started, on the go
Put finishing touches to story ideas with a handy device.

Removing the writing feature from the mobile app is like yanking life from it.

What then are we to do with the app?

Look at it?

Dear Ev Williams, was there a defining moment that made your team take this decision? What was it, please?

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