Preparations for the inauguration are under way at the US Capitol. The Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab will be testing features across three platforms during the event. Photograph: Internacion/REX/Shutterstock. As part of our mission, the Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab experiments with new ways of telling stories on small screens. On inauguration day, be a part of our experimental group to try out new mobile live blog features and notifications.
We’ll be testing four features on three platforms. These experimental features will supplement the Guardian’s overall coverage of the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States on Friday 20 January.
Here’s what we’ll be testing:
Get a live video stream inside a notification
iOS users can watch the ceremony and other key moments as they happen. We will send a notification to your lock screen containing a live video stream from the Reuters news agency. Just tap the notification to expand and you’ll be able to watch right there. So far as we know, this is the first time anyone has used notifications this way, and we’re excited to try it.
To get this feature: Download the Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab app on iOS and turn on the notifications on the first screen to participate.
Stay up to date with a rolling live blog through notification
Keep a rolling summary on your lockscreen to stay up to date with inauguration day coverage. The notification will update automatically with the highlights of what happened most recently as well as information about what’s to come.
To get this feature: Download the Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab iOS app to receive these if you are an iOS user, or sign up on Android for Chrome web notifications.
Read and watch video simultaneously in the live blog
Guardian readers will be familiar with the videos we sometimes affix to the top of live blogs. On inauguration day, you’ll be able to watch and read at the same time. In a mobile browser, such as Safari or Chrome, go to the inauguration live blog, tap the live video of the inauguration to begin, and then scroll to continue to read. The video will minimize and pin to the bottom right of the screen so you can stay up to date with the events as they happen in the video and also read the blog to catch up on what you may have missed.
To get this feature: Follow the inauguration live blog on mobile web on Safari or Chrome.
See the day’s events through different lenses
On inauguration day, there will be plenty of action on the podium – and plenty happening off it. Our new feature, which we are calling “Shifting Lenses”, allows you to swipe left and right between two views to get the latest on what’s happening in each narrative line. Shifting Lenses will be available through the experimental mobile lab iOS app. Since it is our first time testing out this format, we will be running it on the afternoon of 20 January, after some of the day’s events have finished.
To get this feature: Download the Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab app on iOS to participate.
As with all of our experimental features, we are eager to know what the people who try them think. We will follow up with a survey about most features to get your reactions, and will use your feedback to help shape future experiments.