News & Updates

August 22, 2019: Introducing a New Home Feed Experience

[ETA: Updated with new information and details on November 20, 2019.] 

Hi Wattpadders -

It's an exciting day for all of us here at Wattpad—today we are pleased to share that the new Home feed experience is now available on all devices (desktop, iOS and Android) in all countries across the globe! This new Home feed was designed and built for you—the members of our diverse, creative, and passionate community—and we can't wait for you to explore it for yourselves.

But before we get into how we will launched it, we want to provide a 'behind-the-scenes' glance at the inspiration and planning that has gone into our new Home feed thus far and share our long-term vision for what we want the new Home feed experience to be.

Let's go back in time several months...

We heard from many of you (through Support tickets, in-person interviews, surveys, Google Play Store and App Store reviews, threads on our Wattpad Community forum, social media comments, and much more) that Home wasn't working for you. A few of the challenges you were facing:

• Content you don't want to see: Many of you told us that you were seeing stories you didn't want to see or that made you feel like you didn't belong on Wattpad. There was also a feeling that only 'popular' stories were surfaced to Home.

• Content freshness: We heard from many of you that you struggled to find new or undiscovered stories. When you browsed Home, you were greeted with the same repeated stories. Not helpful when you're seeking hidden gems.

• Lack of control over the content: We also understood that you felt you had very little control over the stories that appeared in Home. You wanted a way to dismiss or indicate your disinterest in certain stories or entire genres.

• Missing context: You told us the way Home presented stories to you was downright confusing. Why were you seeing certain stories—and what was causing the recommendations you were seeing?

This feedback was incredibly helpful for us. It highlighted where we weren't honoring our values—including our belief that Wattpad is a place of belonging, that diversity in storytelling and storytellers is important, and that Wattpad is where writers can share their voices and find their audience. To all of you who provided this feedback: a heartfelt thanks from our team.

Our mission was clear: we had to revisit our Home experience. In diving into the technical components, it became evident that our best option was to create a new Home from scratch. At the time, the current Home was too rigid and complex in its build to allow us to meaningfully address the concerns listed above.

So, we decided to start over. We started by asking ourselves: what would a new Home experience—one where everyone feels like they belong and anybody can have a voice—look like? Could we create a place where discovering new gems, and seeing the content you actually want to see, was a reality? Where community members could learn what's new at Wattpad, and where we could foster a better sense of connection? In other words: could we create a Home feed that felt more like coming home?

We believed we could do all of this—and more. Our vision for this new Home experience is to enable our community to feel seen, appreciated, and a part of the Wattpad community. Because stories power Wattpad, and community is built through those stories.

Which brings us to the present day.