We Can All Do A Little Better With and On Medium. Here’s How
Let’s look at the finer beauty we were ignoring all this time.
I assume you mostly write on Medium from a desktop or a laptop. I do the same.
A couple of months ago, Medium rolled out the feature of writing and posting from its Android and iOS apps. They basically brought it back.
I used it a couple of times but then I shifted back to writing on the desktop.
I don’t write regularly and that’s the reason most of my articles are one shot. They are thought about, researched, written about, edited and posted on the same day.
It turned out to be a little too hectic. Not as pleasurable as it once was. You know it’s not the same as it was.
Medium’s underutilised features
Medium has rolled out another feature apart from the ability to write in the app. And that is the audio feature to ‘listen to’ the stories. Do you use it? On the laptop? On your mobile phone?
I underutilised this feature. I was excited at the beginning. I tried different voices and treated articles as mini-podcasts. It was fun until it was not.
The excitement faded away, gradually. I was back to normal—reading the articles. I barely even notice that small play button, let alone regularly use it.
But I don’t regret not using this feature as much as I regret not using the other one. And that is the ability to write from the app.
Here is the biggest advantage I can think of, of writing on a mobile phone:
- You are not prone to distractions.
No grammar checkers to bleed red under your words.
No urge to beautifully edit your article while you’re writing.
It’s more fun this way. It feels like chatting. It feels as if you’re talking to someone.
Google’s autocorrect is perfect. It corrects spelling and doesn’t bother with sentence structure and grammar.
Most importantly, it’s not annoying.
And here is one underappreciated and often overlooked feature: small screen size.
But why does it matter? And how is it even important?
Think for a moment. A small screen size means less text is visible to you at any moment. That means you can fight your urge to delete words and paragraphs while writing without actively fighting it.
All these small tidbits make for a combined sizeable experience improvement. You write yourself. You write what really matters to you.
You can write in peace. No one to disturb you.
No Chrome extensions. No dozens of tabs simultaneously opened on your browser (that all want you to go to them). No feeling as if you’re doing something boring and monotonous.
You are writing. And you can love it.
You can always edit it afterwards on your desktop or laptop. I would advise you to do so.
There are also a couple of features that Medium still doesn’t offer in their apps. Like:
- adding pictures directly from Unsplash.
- submit your articles to publications.
- manage your own publications.
You can also use different extensions you are accustomed to using while you write. These tools make our work easier.
Closing thoughts
I don't think most of us are using Medium’s features to the fullest.
- We bookmark articles to read later and forget about them.
- Who is listening to the articles as much as reading them?
- We were all excited when the feature of writing from the app returned. But are we using it now?
In short, we can do better with Medium.
Though this article was mainly focused on writing from the app, I also want you all to utilise the feature of listening to the article.
It may help you gain a little more knowledge and wisdom while you exercise or are waiting for your cab to arrive.
Do let me know how you are using these features.
