With the Daily Kos migration to WordPress complete, we’re finally in a position to build some of the things we’ve wanted for years. Here’s what’s coming.

The Daily Kos app (ETA: October)

This is the one I’m most excited about.

Daily Kos App homepage, in dark modeDaily Kos

For years, people have asked, “When are you finally going to build an app?” The answer was always the same: Our old platform made it impractical. We weren’t going to slap together a glorified web browser and call it an app. If we were going to do it, we wanted to do it right.

Now we finally can.

We’re targeting October, just in time for this November’s critically important midterm elections.

The app will make Daily Kos faster, cleaner, and much easier to keep up with throughout the day. It’s being built from the ground up as a true mobile experience, making it easier to read stories, follow breaking news, and jump into the conversations that have always made Daily Kos different.

The way people consume news has changed dramatically. More and more, people begin and end their day looking at apps, not web browsers. I know I do. My kids barely use a browser at all. Even companies that built their businesses on the web, like Reddit, increasingly steer readers toward their apps because that’s where people spend their time.

The open web isn’t going away, but it is no longer the front door to the internet. If Daily Kos is going to reach the next generation of readers—and better serve our existing community—we have to meet people where they are.

We’ll have much more to share as we get closer to launch, including screenshots and feature previews. But after years of saying “Someday,” it feels pretty incredible to finally be able to say, “It’s almost here.”

Daily Kos app screenshots, community section Daily Kos

The rest of the items below are listed in order of expected arrival.

Daily Kos Live Blog beta (ETA: This week)

There’s simply too much happening each day, and not every development needs—or deserves—a full story. Our new live blog, helmed by Walter Einenkel, will provide a steady stream of links, videos, updates, and quick observations that either don’t warrant a standalone post or that we don’t have the bandwidth to cover in greater depth.

All of our staff writers will be able to contribute, and it should become a regular home for my own observations as well.

At launch, comments will only be available at the bottom of the page, which obviously becomes less useful as the number of updates grows. That, and us testing out a new format, are why we’re calling this a beta.

By the end of August, we’ll add two-way conversations directly into the live blog. We’re currently testing two approaches: comment threads attached to individual updates, or a live chat running alongside the blog. A live chat could be especially fun for debates, major speeches, election nights, and other breaking news events, while traditional comment threads may work better for day-to-day coverage. We’ll experiment and see what works best.

We’ll also be able to pin posts to the top of the live blog. So maybe it’s time to bring back the open thread? We can pin it to the top and let people talk about whatever’s on their minds. Let’s give it a try.

Daily Kos design refresh (ETA: 1 to 2 weeks)

Don’t worry—it’s nothing radical.

Daily Kos design refresh, news section. The tagline in this screenshot was a placeholder. We’re going with “Daily Kos: The liberal media”Daily Kos

We’re cleaning things up by improving font legibility, refining design elements like the “Staff” and “Community” labels after story authors, and reorganizing the front page to make it easier to navigate.

Right now, the homepage tries to do too much. It’s an endless stream of headlines and images, and our analytics show that very few people scroll very far. It’s simply too much information presented without enough structure.

The redesigned homepage creates two clearly defined destinations: our staff journalism and our community content. We’ll also do a much better job introducing new visitors to the community. For longtime members, it’s second nature. For first-time visitors, the terminology, traditions, and sheer amount of activity can be overwhelming. We want to make it obvious that this is a community anyone can join and contribute in.

You’ll also notice fewer stories featured on the homepage. Since almost nobody gets beyond the first couple of scrolls anyway, we’d rather be intentional about what we highlight than overwhelm readers with endless choices.

Daily Kos design refresh, Community sectionDaily Kos Badges! (ETA: 1 to 2 months)

We’re finally going to do a better job recognizing the people who help make Daily Kos what it is.

Badges will appear on user profile pages and alongside usernames in the comments. Each member will be able to display up to three badges recognizing different aspects of participation.

Badges will recognize everything from Community Advisory Panel members, Rescue Rangers, and Group Admins to subscribers and recurring donors, as well as major community milestones like writing 100 stories or posting 5,000 comments.

And yes, there will be a guide explaining what all the badges mean.

Badges are coming! These are fake, for design purposes only. Daily Kos

Chip in now to help us launch the future of Daily Kos.