WordPress has released version 2.0 of its Android app for mobile blogging, and as a WordPress for iOS user, I am jealous. The new app launches with a screen that covers just about every first action a mobile blogger needs. It’s arranged in correct order of priority, and it uses a big, easily tappable grid of buttons with an “action bar” over the top to handle the rest.
Other additions are catching up with WordPress for iOS, but they’re welcome. The post editor now has a formatting toolbar above the keyboard, and the app now has a tablet view. The app also adds post uploading in the background and gets a few other fixes. This is an open-source app, and it’s the best mobile blogging interface I’ve seen yet. What’s up with everybody else?
The last update for WordPress for Android was a bit of a me-too, following suit with the social craze and turning the app into something more geared towards reading blogs rather than writing them. Version 2.0 brings blogging – you know, the thing one presumably downloads WordPress apps to do – back into the spotlight.
WordPress for iOS is fine. Our Marshall Kirkpatrick finds it to be a knock-out, but that may be Stockholm syndrome. I use it, too, and it works, but it’s awfully hard to use compared to this new Android version. The Action Bar and Dashboard should become the standard. I love that it’s the result of open-source collaboration.
So, what’s up, blogging platforms? The world is mobile now, and helping us blog while we’re out is a surefire way to keep users engaged. WordPress for Android has pivoted back toward the light, but most of the pivots in this area have been toward social networking and away from writing posts.
Do you blog from mobile devices? What service do you use?
