Posted: Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 4:00 pm. Filed in Mobile.
Tags: android, Blackberry, iPhone, Mobile, Nokia, WordPress.com
Mobile Apps for WordPress
February has been a great month for mobile blogging on WordPress.com. In just the past week, WordPress apps for Android and BlackBerry made their official debuts, and the iPhone app reached version 2.2. No other blogging service has this kind of app support across these three smartphone platforms — we checked!
Power and control, on the go
While each of these mobile apps is unique, they share a common design philosophy: to give you the ability to easily update and manage your blog from an optimized smartphone user interface. You can easily create new posts, add media, manage comments, and more. There are small tweaks and differences, but the other thing that is shared is the developers are constantly improving the apps based on your feedback, just like we do here on WordPress.com.
100% free and open source
Each app is released free of charge, and the code is open source. The teams welcome suggestions for new features and even code contributions. One of the coolest things about open source development is community involvement. It makes the code better, and it makes the apps rock.
Developers can get involved here:
Android | BlackBerry | iPhone
If you’d like to give feature suggestions, do it here:
Android | BlackBerry | iPhone
Language support
WordPress.com users come from all over the world. The mobile apps here are available in multiple languages but need volunteers to enable even more people to use them. If you’re interested in helping localize these mobile apps, you can get involved by visiting translate.wordpress.org.
Works with WordPress.org blogs
Each of these mobile apps also lets you publish to and manage your self-hosted WordPress.org blogs.
Now with video
VideoPress is now supported in the WordPress for BlackBerry app, and is coming soon for iPhone and Android.
One more thing
We are very excited to share with all of you that in the coming weeks we’ll be opening up a beta test for the official Open Source WordPress for Nokia app. For developers who are interested in getting involved, we just opened-up a dev blog with details, links to the source code and trac tickets, and an early alpha build. We’ll be leveraging the Qt framework which means will be able to support both the S60 and Maemo platforms.
Blog on!
What are you waiting for? Download WordPress for your favorite mobile device and get blogging on WordPress.com.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Cheers for the good work!
But, what about Symbian?
February 11th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Are there any plans for apps or similar for non-smartphones? Not everyone can afford the smartphone data plans (it’s an almost $250 difference a year for some companies between unlimited data on a non-smart compared to a smartphone).
February 11th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
We have a mobile optimized site at http://m.wordpress.com that is popular with non-smartphone users.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
*cough* Windows Mobile guys? No? Still nothing, huh?
February 11th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Interesting! No other blogging platform is so packed with features!
February 11th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
About to buy a new phone, seems it won’t be one with WinMobile
February 11th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
So when is the Windows Mobile app coming? Come on, you can’t leave Windows Phones out!
Or are you waiting for top-secret developments from Microsoft at the MWC?
February 11th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
crossing fingers that Palm Pre will be added to this list
February 11th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
waiting for wm platform!
February 11th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
is there an app coming out for the samsung impression any time soon?
February 11th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Sorry, nothing currently in the works for that phone.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
You forgot to mention Poster for the Palm Pre. Although, I prefer to just email posts. @Sarah, Sprint has low priced unlimited data. It’s even better if you’re on family plan and the Pre rocks.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
I do find it interesting that a platform like WordPress – with such a web-based philosophy – is going so strongly down the route of per-platform client apps, when clearly your end game should be device agnostic.
Mobile apps are a fad
February 11th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Right now there are some inherent advantages of dedicated mobile apps – speed, photo and video capabilities, offline support, address book access, and more – things that are just not possible or not well supported on the mobile browser right now. Having said that, we are watching the space carefully and ultimately think the mobile web will be a significant way people interact with services and platforms such as WordPress in the not too distant future.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
@wordpress on Twitter mentioned Nokia??
February 11th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Yup, Nokia app is in the works. See the “One more thing” section in the post
February 11th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
@Rong MeiShan : I’m on AT&T. I wouldn’t touch Sprint with a 10-foot pole. I have the same phone as helenpaige1
February 11th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Please develop a Windows Phone app.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Gosh, that’s good and sounds a bit mind boggling!
February 11th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
So – official comments come back saying:
– no app for Samsung Impression
– app on the way for Nokia / Symbian
– keeping an eye on HTML browser apps
But despite there being several comments asking about Windows Phone support …….. there is no comment! What’s the secret?
February 11th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
@Amir. Nothing to announce in terms of an official Open Source Windows Mobile app at this time — but we definitely see the demand out there, so that’s great feedback. Also as Janne mentioned below, using Qt might be one way to go about it.
February 11th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
The Nokia client is developed using Qt libraries, which are also available for Windows Mobile. So one option for Windows Mobile users would be to try to port the application for it.
February 11th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Erm, for those of us who don’t really speak web, code & software (is that a crime for a WP user? I think it might be…) what does “The Nokia client is developed using Qt libraries, which are also available for Windows Mobile. So one option for Windows Mobile users would be to try to port the application for it” mean in practice?
February 12th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Qt is what is called a “toolkit” ; it provides pre-built pieces of code which reduce the need to build programmes completely from scratch. For instance, toolkit are especially important in building interfaces.
February 11th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Have been waiting for a while. Glad to hear that it has arrived. Now I could enter my page easily and enjoy it from my mobile. Thanks for the effort.
February 11th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Finally android app!!!YESS!!
February 11th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
allaboutduncan
crossing fingers that Palm Pre will be added to this list
Agreed!
February 11th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
What about Symbian and Nokia 5800?
February 11th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
I use it on my Android and love it. Great app. User friendly, wonderful UI.
Thank you!
February 11th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
How I can translate these apps to finnish?
February 11th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
@apuasi — would love to have you work on that translation. We are still streamlining how the process works, so if you could leave a comment on the dev blog of the app you are interesting in, we’ll get you all the details. For example, for the Android app, please leave a comment on http://dev.android.wordpress.org
February 11th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
very nice!
February 11th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
fantastic news… :-p
February 11th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Not bad. I used the iPhone app right from the start. It saved me a few times when I was on the go, to correct mistakes.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
I’m not sure what all of this means to me for now, but it seems clear that it is opening the pathways to many more possibilities…and that’s a good thing
February 12th, 2010 at 12:14 am
great news …..
now we can blog directly from mobile
thank u guys and good luck to fellow bloggers ………
February 12th, 2010 at 12:30 am
February 12th, 2010 at 2:30 am
With the release of the iPad not too far away, and the HUGE scope that it offers, especially for wordpress bloggers on the go, will WP.com be looking at making a iPad WordPress app to allow access and editing, uploading of images and basically full functionality of ones blog via the iPad.
I hope to have one by mid year, in time for E3 in LA (traveling from Aust to US to attend) and would be using the iPad as an intergral part of my coverage of the event.
The iPad offers a great deal to users such as ourselves, and opens up a huge list of possibilities, can we expect some movement in this area guys-n-gals?
The work you do is so appreciated by the community, this would just top the cake off nicely.
Others thoughts welcomed . . .
February 12th, 2010 at 3:07 am
I have a t-mobile Shadow which one do I get.
February 12th, 2010 at 4:19 am
Perplexes me that there isn’t a Windows Mobile version when it has more market share than Android; by a few times. I suppose it isn’t cool to deal with anything Microsoft anymore.
February 12th, 2010 at 5:17 am
I’m looking forward to the Nokia app. I have an E63.
February 12th, 2010 at 6:36 am
wordpress again made a step ahead
February 12th, 2010 at 8:01 am
What about us Window Mobile users? Please do come up with one.
February 12th, 2010 at 8:05 am
Does WordPress work in Nokia Communicator 9500?
February 12th, 2010 at 9:20 am
yes agree so.
waiting for windows mobile platform.
sorry but its disappointment for me…
February 12th, 2010 at 10:23 am
what about symbian devices?
February 12th, 2010 at 11:19 am
how about “java midp” phone? i hope you made it because ALL phone have it!
February 12th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@ Raanan Bar-Cohen
OK, thanks for information!
February 12th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Great news! Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to access the internet through my mobile
I use my dad’s laptop to blog.
February 12th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Now all I have to do is convince my boss that he needs to buy me the N900 with a data plan.
#wishfulthinking #appsfortherestofus
February 12th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
It makes a world of difference having a good solution when travelling, i used to have to take my laptop everywhere.
February 12th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
The iPhone App was the real reason I started Pressing, and now I`ll never go back! <3
February 12th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Really wish you’d give thought to WebOS mobile app development for the Palm Pre (just a hack away from Linux, guys, and the market is growing). I’m currently using the mobile web interface to check stats and do an occasional Quick Post, but blog management is nearly impossible that way. Having a Pre interface would be far nicer, and probably more productive.
Love WordPress, and my readers do too. Keep up the great work.
February 12th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
hey, great apps but a app for windows mobile would be even better
i’m using windows mobile and always have to use the web gadget…
February 12th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Kewl! ^_^ I use a mobile app on my ipod. Now, if only wordpress could create a way for me to text faster.
February 13th, 2010 at 2:22 am
I use the blog app for iPhone. Didn’t think I’d use it much, but I often find myself wanting to write on my blog while out and about. I appreciate this feature.
February 13th, 2010 at 6:45 am
are there any for symbian s60 3rd? nokia e71?
February 13th, 2010 at 8:29 am
@bbc913 — yes, the e71 is supported. You can try out the alpha build by visiting http://dev.nokia.wordpress.org
February 13th, 2010 at 6:50 am
Is there a WebOS app coming? Palm Pre users (like me) would like that.
February 13th, 2010 at 10:56 am
like this! but my phone is a nokia N70
February 13th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Would love this for WebOS to use on my Palm Pre!
February 13th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Dynamite, can’t wait to try it out
February 14th, 2010 at 3:13 am
well I have a blackberry and I surely will try this app. thanks for the info then.
February 14th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
C’mon. WinMo. Please!?!
February 14th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Although, that said… post by email has made it a lot easier to post from my WinMo phone. I’ve saved most html tags as predictive text words, the only problem is its difficult to remember the wordpress tags for draft etc, and only putting pictures at the bottom of the post is a pain!
February 14th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Symbian, please. It has a much wider approach than all three OSes. Combined.
February 14th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Is there any app coming for samsung s5600
February 15th, 2010 at 4:50 am
We want symbian!!!
February 15th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Since this isnt cmpatible with my phone yet, is there any other mobile way to post? And my phone is a samsung gravity 2.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
+1 for webOS
February 15th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
i tried both the iphone app v. 2.2 and m.wordpress.com. both work well.
the iphone app does occasionally crash, but overall it’s quite stable. when it does crash (which is rare) i don’t have to reset my device; just reload the app and it works fine.
the m.wordpress.com is brilliant. super-fast load time. just wish comments can be accessed from m.wordpress.com.
February 15th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Let’s see now that microsoft is getting again into the game who this industry will transform itself
February 16th, 2010 at 7:30 am
+2 for webos.
February 16th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Any chance of something for Motorola Rival anytime soon?
February 16th, 2010 at 9:17 am
My Pantech runs on Windows Mobile – is there an app that I can use? I know that I can post by e-mail, but that’s a big pain in my butt, so I figure that an app would be more user friendly.
February 16th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
With this kind of apps support.There’s never been best time to be on board with WordPress.
Well done!
February 16th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
its Quite Pathetic that wordpress doesn’t allow use of symbian OS …YET
February 16th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
I must confess to being bewildered by the iphone app. I have reverted to version 1 as all versions of 2 have lost me data and simply don’t download the whole of my pages to the phone. There seems to have been plenty of feedback in the app store telling a similar story and yet the product seems to have gotten worse.
It’s a fantastic idea but, at present, the execution is causing problems.
February 16th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
I have to try this!
February 16th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
how about nexian, is it available?
don’t forget, visit my blog at : http://www.aulyaabrar.wordpress.com
February 16th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
I am still trying to get this app on my Blackberry…
February 16th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
M.wordpress.com doesnt work for me. Idk y
I might be gettng a :lackberry soon tho
February 17th, 2010 at 11:37 am
I can actually see myself using this when I get my new Android. Thanks.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
OK there is a fantastic symbian/nokia application out there called wordmobi which is what I use.
http://code.google.com/p/wordmobi/
You just have to make sure you publish the post as a ‘draft’ if you want it to save, and haven’t finished it.
February 17th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
It’s great! I would now ask my friends to get the iphones!
February 17th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
The mind boggles at the continual drip of new stuff. How I wish I knew IT language and had a brain to learn new things. I was brought up when phones were immobile and lived in red boxes — at the corner of the street. But I have to say, wordpress is quite helpful to old wrinklies like me!
Nice to belong here.
February 17th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I love my iPhone app – any chance that I might be able to get stats to the phone though?
February 17th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
webOS. webOS. webOS. please.. please. please.
February 18th, 2010 at 11:22 am
great i’m using it already
February 18th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Too bad nothing is available for Winmobile. I certainly can use one
February 18th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Hi to my fellow Windows Mobile users. We are an unloved bunch, aren’t we. About a year ago I did a lot of googling to find an app that allowed me to blog from my phone. Let me save you a great deal of heartache in your own search – we a realistic choice of two (count ‘em) such apps. Both are free, both are rough around the edges and both, as far as I can tell, are no longer supported by their creators. Out of that dazzling choice only one (yes, one) worked for me. In the interests of giving you all as full a picture as I can, here are my findings, starting with the one that worked and ending with the one that didn’t…
1) moBlog (http://sampath.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/moblog-22-released/). This is the simpler of the two, but it still manages to link to you blogs so you can select tags and cats, saves drafts and publish posts. It doesn’t handle comments or any of the dashboard stuff, but to be fair it wasn’t written to – it’s a posting tool pure and simple. A useful addition is that it handles more that just WP blogs allowign you to also post to any old or joint-owned Blogger blogs you might have. The biggest problem I’ve found (as have others in various reviews) is the lack of copy & paste, a huge draw back for blogging, but a simple work around is to pull up the on-screen keyboard and use the good old shortcuts of CTRL-C/V/X. Thank god for Windows (and that may be the only time I say that).
2) TBlogger (http://darrenjohnstone.net/2007/06/29/travelling-blogger-for-windows-mobile/). This looked to be a very clever WordPress only app that has everything and the kitchen sink in but I simply could not make it work! The load time is huge and occasionally it goes into the loading something in the background that freezes it up completely (it also suffers from no cut&paste, but see above). I’ve left a comment on the author’s blog, but I guess he’s not updating it anymore. If he does, then it’ll become my tool of choice, but until then its moBlog for me.
So my dear (dare I say foolish) fellow Win Mo users, until I can upgrade to an Android phone, or the clever bods at WordPress show us some love, I’m afraid you have moBlog or nothing.
For more on my rants about trying to blog from my phone, see these posts (be warned, I do cuss from time to time)
February 18th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Word Press,
why not follow Opera’s lead?
Opera Mini is a Java app,
and runs on any almost any
phone with a JVM
and it runs well.
February 18th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
http://dev.nokia.wordpress.org/
is having jquery related issues.
“A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete.
Script: http://s1.wp.com/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.js?ver=1.3.2:1“
February 18th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
I agree with jrdskinner. I want an easier way to look at my stats. Right now I have to go to the website and the stats menu because the plug in doesn’t work on the phone for my dashboard. Just a summary would be nice.