So, Writers Can’t Write From the App.

Is everyone supposed to have a desktop to have a voice?

I’m writing this in my Notes, still shocked at the turn of events that threatens my presence on this platform.

Yesterday, my laptop was stolen. I was bummed but I figured that I would just write on my phone for a few weeks until I can save for another. I have done it before, and as a traveling writer, I rely on mobile features a ton.

But then, to my surprise, I found that the ability to edit, draft, and post stories is now gone from the Medium app and mobile web.

I’ll have to copy and paste this article from Notes into the desktop version of Medium, which I will get to by opening the mobile web and requesting the desktop version from the browser (you are welcome). I won’t be able to upload a photo, meaning my article will be dead in the water without a visual.

Let’s talk about Desktop privilege. Now, just a guess, but I’m guessing it was really annoying for the dev team to support the text editor for the app. Probably the Javascript was super janky. I get it — most text editors ARE super janky.

They probably looked at how many people were editing and publishing from the app, and decided it was worth the pain of scrapping. Then someone on their marketing team wrote something about it being a difficult choice.

In all likelihood, it was a numbers choice. But I don’t currently own a desktop.