What is ISO 26517?

The short answer

ISO/IEC/IEEE DIS 26517 is a draft international standard for user assistance in mobile applications. It sets requirements and recommendations for designing, developing and evaluating help inside phone and tablet apps, and it is edition 1 of a new standard.

What the public record shows

It is a draft, not a published standard. The ISO record shows stage 40.60, close of voting, on 25 June 2026. The public contents runs from planning and analysis through design, development, evaluation and accessibility, with an informative annex of six named progressive disclosure techniques in seven subclauses.

What it means for a mobile team

The practical question is not whether the draft is perfect. It is what work can start now without betting on wording that may change. The planning clause, the audience definition, the mobile context sheet, the help form map, the device test plan and the image text descriptions all survive a change of wording. Start there, keep the register, and re-read the published text when it appears.

What this answer does not claim

It does not claim that ISO has announced a date, that the draft is final, that a certificate is affected, or that a team following this page conforms to the standard. The free preview stops after clause 3; the pages for clauses 4 to 9 say so.

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