A number of organizations within the Wikimedia movement including the Wikimedia Foundation publish official mobile apps for using Wikipedia on mobile device operating systems. All are available for free via the appropriate app store (e.g. Google Play, App Store, Windows Store). They can also be downloaded independently of any third party store, from the Wikimedia Foundation’s releases website, which also keeps old and beta versions.
Independent developers have also released many unofficial apps for reading Wikipedia articles. Some apps load content from the Wikipedia site and process it; other apps use the MediaWiki API. Some only display Wikipedia content, usually omitting some features such as categories and talk pages. Some allow editing.
Official apps
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikipedia apps from the Wikimedia Foundation are called “Wikipedia”.
- Android
- The Android app allows editing articles directly from the app. It has limited capability to show categories and talk pages. It is also available on Aptoide, Cafe Bazaar, F-Droid, GetJar.
- iOS
- The iOS app also provides a read and write version of Wikipedia, similar to the mobile web version. It allows users to share an article via Facebook and other social websites. It also allows users to find geotagged articles near their current location. It does not allow users to see categories or see the normal desktop version.
- Windows
- The Metro-style app provides a read-only version of Wikipedia, similar to the mobile web version. The app when used in Windows RT is incapable of showing moving pictures.
Kiwix
Kiwix has developed a number of offline apps based on Wikipedia content.
| Title | Description | Android | iOS | Windows | Other OS | Languages of content files by Kiwix | Website | Price | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kiwix | Free program to download a whole Wikimedia project and read offline. | yes | yes | Windows 10 UWP; Older Windows (x86) |
Linux, F-Droid Firefox Add-on, Chrome Extension, S60 3rd edition, feature pack 1 or later can show ZIM files via WikiOnBoard |
286 (wikipedia, wikivoyage, wiktionary, wikiversity, wikibooks, wikisource, wikiquote, wikinews, wikispecies) |
Website | Free | Yes |
| Medical Wikipedia (Offline) | Wikipedia’s Offline Medical Encyclopedia. Based on Kiwix and developed in collaboration with Wiki Project Med Foundation. | AR, DE, EN, ES, FA, FR, JA, OR, PT, ZH | EN | WikiMed UWP EN; Kiwix JS + in-app download of any WikiMed language |
only as content file (ZIM) in Kiwix or WikiOnBoard | AR, AS, BN, BPY, DE, EN, ES, FA, FR, GU, HI, IT, JA, KN, LO, ML, MR, OR, PA, PT, TA, TE, UR, ZH | Website | Free | Yes |
| Wikivoyage | Wikivoyage’s Offline. Based on Kiwix and providing a world mobile offline travel guide. A version for Europe exists too. | EN | DE | Wikivoyage UWP EN; Kiwix JS + in-app download of any Wikivoyage language |
only as content file (ZIM) in Kiwix or WikiOnBoard | DE, EL, EN, ES, FA, FI, FR, HE, IT, NL, PL, PT, RO, RU, SV, UK, VI, ZH | Website | Free | Yes |
Unassociated apps
These apps were mainly developed to display articles and are often used on platforms for which an official Wikipedia App was not formerly available, such as Windows Phone. Typical features include searching for articles, bookmarks, sharing, or enlarging images.
| Title | Description | Android | iOS | Windows 10 / Windows Phone | Website / Other OS |
Price (in US$) | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aard 2 | A free offline dictionary reader for Android and Desktop/Web. | yes | Website | Free | Yes | ||
| Articles | By Sophiestication Software. — Wikipedia reader for iPad, iPad mini, iPhone and iPod touch. | yes | Website | Free | |||
| Bing Wikipedia Browser | Bing Wikipedia Browser by Microsoft combines the content from Wikipedia with enhanced search, browse, and content recommendations based on the Bing Knowledge repository. | yes | Website | Free | |||
| Duovocal | An app that applies Wikipedia and Wiktionary resources to language learning. | yes | yes | Website | Free | ||
| EdgeWiki | A web app of wikipedia.org with a screen reader. Works on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, and the Surface Hub. | yes | $0.99 | ||||
| GeoSearch for Wikipedia | By Yunhe Shi — Search and view geotagged Wikipedia articles from an visible map region. | yes | Website | Free | |||
| Inquire by Tamper | A context-aware Wikipedia reader that brings you the most interesting and relevant articles based on your location. | yes (& Apple Watch) |
Website | $0.99 | |||
| Know Everything | Search by voice; for Pebble Watch. | Pebble | Free | Yes | |||
| LearnDiscovery | By XDiscovery. — Displays and saves mindmaps of Wikipedia. Correlations between topics are organized to make sense of new information by visualizing the context about a topic. Bookmarks mindmaps instead of articles, and shares them as visual references. | yes | Website | $5.99 | |||
| LoboWiki Reader for Wikipedia | All the links clicked are added to the reading queue, instead of being immediately opened to allow users to read articles in a distraction-free manner. | yes | Website | Free | |||
| Minipedia Offline Wikipedia | By Minipedia. — Access Wikipedia articles using iPod, iPhone or iPad without a network connection. | yes | yes | Website | Free | ||
| MiniWiki | Browse Wikipedia on an Apple Watch, see articles for nearby locations, and download articles for offline reading. | yes | Free | ||||
| Mnemo’s Library | An app that allows users to create, share, and review Wikipedia information and associated mnemonics/memory aids. | yes | yes | yes | Website | Free | Yes |
| motî | Offline & multi-lingual dictionary app for language learners, taking data from the English Wiktionary. | yes | Website | Free | |||
| onePedia | A Wikipedia client which allows the viewing and editing of articles on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, and the Surface Hub. | yes | Free | ||||
| V for Wikipedia | By Raureif GmbH. — Wikipedia app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. | yes | Website | $4.99 | |||
| WikiBOT | Continuous learning chatbot capable to provide answers to a wide range of questions as world capitals, real time weather info and more. | Website | Free | ||||
| WikiCompass | WikiCompass gets nearby Wikipedia articles and lets you view them in augmented reality. | yes | Website Archived 2018-06-26 at the Wayback Machine | $0.99 | |||
| WikiFlip | An app that turns Wikipedia images into a quiz game. Flip a picture and take a trivia quiz question from World of Knowledge, the ecosystem of multiple choice questions. | yes | yes | Website | Free | ||
| Wiki here | Shows nearby places from Wikipedia coordinate data on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, and the Surface Hub. | yes | Free | ||||
| WikiMaster | A game app that has over 330000 multiple choice questions on top of Wikipedia articles. | yes | yes | Website | Free | ||
| WikiNodes | By Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA). | yes | $1.99 | ||||
| Wikipanion | By Robert Chin — Easy, search, navigation and display of Wikipedia entries. Streamline your browsing with history grouped by visit date, and bookmarking for individual entries and sections within an entry. | yes | Website | Free | |||
| Wikipedia Nearby | Articles near current location; for Pebble Watch. | Pebble | Free | Yes | |||
| Wikipebble | Search by voice or keyboard; for Pebble Watch. | Pebble | Free | ||||
| Wikiwand | Made to allow easier navigation and search than the website or the site’s own app. | Currently invitation only | yes | Website | Free | ||
| Wikiweb | Wikiweb is a Wikipedia reader for iPhone and iPad that visualizes the connections between articles. | yes | Website | $4.99 | |||
| Wikiyarn | Wikiyarn is a Wikipedia explorer and reader with distinguishing features like related article recommendations, article comparison, category based search etc. | yes | Website | Free | |||
| Zimpedia | Offline reader for Wikipedia and other Wiki projects stored in a ZIM format. | Sailfish OS BlackBerry 10 | Free | Yes |
Related apps
A number of apps for Wikipedia’s sister projects exist. These include the Wiki Loves Monuments app, written for a 2012 photo contest, as an aid for Wikiphotographers. It shows a map of nearby national heritage register items, indicating whether Wikipedia had a photo for the site, and enabling quick and easy photo uploads for camera phones. It is not integrated with the official article display app.
There is an Android app for Wikimedia Commons which is community maintained. There is also an Android app for Wiktionary, although it is no longer supported and has not been updated since August 2013