WYSIWYG

We’re approaching the ten year mark since Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. That device has ushered in the era of true mobile computing, and as it develops along with the iPad and yet-to-be developed products our experience of communications will get even more mobile, even more seamless.

It’s surprising to encounter areas of the web that haven’t yet adapted to the iPhone or the mobile first world. One of those surprising areas is WordPress.

I’m extremely fond of WordPress and its open source ethos. It’s a fantastic company, community, and ultimately platform. But WordPress has for whatever reason been extremely, frankly embarrassingly slow when it comes to mobile development. In 2014 the WordPress iOS app saw only 17 updates, and most of them focused on things like stability improvements and bug fixes.

There’s evidently a lack of mobile product vision. A small but telling example of that persists in the fact that the iOS app lacks even a basic rich text WYSIWYG editor. I can’t recommend this app to normal people, because it can’t be used for normal writing.

I’m at a loss in terms of what to expect from WordPress in terms of its mobile experience. But for the sake of open source development, I hope Automattic gets serious about user on boarding and their mobile experience for the sake of those who support the platform.

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