What Happened to Writing on Medium?
For better or for worse: yet another important change to the platform
Since the start of the new year, publishing on Medium has been growing at an accelerating rate. Coincidentally, Medium itself has been working hard to pump out new updates to the platform.
From the new audio feature to improvements to the algorithm, these updates have posed both issues and benefits to hard-working writers contending for popularity and earnings.
Whether these updates are something you should worry about is dependent on your interpretation. Without a doubt, you will continue to earn money for your content.
However, the amount you earn and your typical writing habits may have to change alongside the platform, as both limitations and new features are implemented.
What’s new
Just yesterday, Medium has made an update that focuses on improving readers’ experience on the platform. This includes improvements on basic features such as:
- Easier story navigation
- Improved topic filtering in your home feed
- Publication story previews that highlight author
- Better support for day and night modes.
But the most significant change of all is the removal of the writing feature on the Medium app.
Yes, if you’re used to writing on your phone or mobile device, that’s all gone. According to Medium, it was a “difficult decision,” and the specific details and reasonings for this are still unknown thus far.
Instead, they’ve asked writers to resort to the website to write.
So if you’ve just woken up and you’re wondering why you can’t write on your phone, this is the reason. Luckily, there aren’t any changes that would affect your earnings.
Better yet, the improved story navigation and author promotion will only give your earnings a boost.
If you’ve missed the previous updates as well, here are some other changes to Medium that occurred in the past weeks and months:
- Audio feature
- Removal of image formatting styles
- New app experience around following
- Claps bug + bug fix
- New digital and app format
- Changes to the algorithm
- Changes to writing on the Medium app
- Article classification for writers on Medium app
- Other minor tweaks
The audio feature, in particular, poses a serious concern for Partner Program earnings that has not been answered as of yet. I covered this topic in another article to little effect; no one had any answers.
If you happen to have any information on how listening time will be calculated in member reading time (or any answers to the concerns I expressed in that article), please let the community know.
Solutions
In regards to the inconvenience of not being able to write on the app anymore, the simple solution is just to write on the website from your mobile device.
Of course, it’s not as great as writing in the app, but on the bright side, you can add images on the browser. You can also write on another note-taking or document platform, then copy and paste it when you have access to a larger device.
In any case, make sure to keep up with Medium’s updates in case of any important changes in the future.
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