To start, no matter how much of a Wikipedia fiend you are, it might seem like it doesn’t quite make sense to use its official Android app when the web version adapts perfectly well to mobile screens. But actually there’s nothing further from the truth: the new version of the official Wikipedia app includes loads of exclusive features, in addition to a full facelift and a new reading system that avoids loading several tabs when you jump from entry to entry.
This change revolves around the appearance of pop-up tabs superimposed over the entry when you click on a link that takes you to another text, which displays an extract and options to hide that entry or open it in full. This saves you the hassle of having loads of tabs open when jumping from place to place looking for information.
This feature is added to a handful of existing exclusive ones for the mobile version, such as the pull-out menu with all the sections for the entry you’re viewing and the search mode based on your geographic location, as well as the practical offline reading mode that lets you save a page locally to read later when you’re offline. All this, together with the inevitable Material Design facelift, makes the Wikipedia app an indispensable tool that resoundingly answers the question that opened this post: Is it worth it to install the app when you can check the web version? YES, DEFINITELY.
