[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. 

On Thursday, August 22nd 2019, we began launching Version 1 of a new Home feed to a small, randomly selected group of Wattpadders on web (desktop + mobile) and Android. Our goal is to ensure this is being rolled out in a thoughtful and careful way to ensure everything works as it should without overwhelming our platform. In other words, we don't want to break anything. 

Version 1 launched to 30% of users in the following geographies: Philippines, Australia, UK, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, and India. The 30% of Wattpadders who saw this new home were randomly assigned into that experience. 

Version 1 of the new Home feed included:

• New look for stories: We designed two different ways to highlight the amazing stories you can find on the Wattpad platform.

1. The first showcases story covers only and one tag, based on your feedback that you'd prefer a simplified view on the amount of information presented. If you're a writer, you should make sure your stories have compelling covers and accurate tags.

2. The second way showcases the story cover, tag, and a portion of the story description. If you're a writer, we encourage you to make sure your descriptions are succinct. Write them to hook your future readers right away.

• Better Wattpad HQ communication: Our new carousel—you can't miss it right up top!—will allow us to share important information and highlight some of the stories we love from the Wattpad community and our Wattpad Stars. You might discover an author we think you'll enjoy, or news that your favorite story is now a movie, TV show, or book through Wattpad Studios and Wattpad Books. We'll also be sure to share the latest news and updates from Wattpad HQ, including product changes, new programs, and more.

• Browse tag/categories in Search: Browsing tag and categories is now housed within the Search bar. When you click on Search, you can still type in what you would like to search, but you will now also automatically be presented with the ability to browse tags and categories to find your next story.

• Browse refresh: For English Wattpadders to start, the Browse page for tags/categories will receive a visual refresh to bring these genres to life in a fun and dynamic way.

• No more duplicated story recommendations: Enough said. :)

Following Version 1, we worked on launching a Version 2 of the new Home feed experience. 

Version 2 of the new Home feed included:

• Everything we've shared in Version 1 plus the following:

• Easy access to Writing Contests: Easily find out what Wattpad Writing Contests are running, what the prizes are, and how you can enter.

• Ad space: One ad will be shown in the Home feed experience starting in Version 2. Wattpad is a free platform available to millions of people around the world. Ads help us keep it that way, ensuring readers can find amazing stories and writers can build communities of fans. Like other free services, these advertisements help with the cost of running Wattpad.

• And, for us, a Home with more flexible code: While this is mostly exciting for our Product team, what it means for you is that we can easily tweak and iterate on this new Home experience based on your feedback. The will help us fulfil our desire to make Home an experience that serves you, our community, first and foremost!

Now, we're happy to share that we have launched a new Home feed, across all devices (desktop, iOS and Android) and across the globe, in every country.

And while this global launch means that now every Wattpader has a new Home experience, that doesn't mean we're stopping there. 

We have more features on the way after the global launch including:

• Home Content Preferences: With this new section in Settings, we'll be introducing a way for you to have more control over your Home feed experience:

1. Ability to block certain story tags, meaning stories with those tags will not appear in your Home feed any more. Not a fan of fanfic? No problem!

2. Decide if you want to turn 'on' or 'off' Mature stories from showing up on your Home feed, if you're of age.

3. Select the language of the stories you want to appear in your Home feed.

And, of course, we have a number of ideas to continue building on our vision, including: 

• Community forums: We know you want to be able to access the Wattpad Community forums right from the app. It's something we want too! We'll be working on finding the best experience for this.

• Tag page personalization: Eventually, our goal is to provide you with a personalized list of the tags you engage with most, shown above the high level list of tag/categories under Browse. Until then, you can still find a tag page by searching with #[tag] or clicking on a book with that tag and then clicking on the tag itself from a Story Detail page.

• Continued improvements: With our new flexible code, we can continue to improve and iterate on the new Home experience as we hear your feedback.

Phew! That was a lot of information. Thank you for sticking with us through all of this and we are so, so excited to hear what you think about your new Home.

- Your friends at Wattpad HQ