A. The Problem and The Pitch

How do you take notes? ✍️

Do you love writing in a notebook? Or do you do it digitally in Evernote or Notion?

What if you had connected notes in a Notion-like format? Which were privacy-first? ♥️

...just like Tiago asked for, a year ago 👇

Note-taking apps have flourished in 2020 & 2021. But which one fits Tiago's wish? 👆

Well, Anytype comes closest to the dream!

It works like your brain 🧠 does. And is privacy-first! User-owned and user-run.

Anytype is a personal knowledge base, a digital brain that allows you to quickly capture, describe, and connect information. In a Notion-like interface. You can use Anytype to create books, tasks, notes, ideas, documents, tools and organize them any way you want.

Join the waitlist today

Note: It is still in closed alpha stage. I was onboarded on Oct 28; at the time they had 1000+ early users. They're onboarding ~700 users each month now. Public beta coming in 2022.

B. What's special?

As of writing, Anytype has 30,000+ people following it on Product Hunt Upcoming alone (That's a big deal because other launches generally have only a couple thousand).

They've been building the product with their community for ~2 years now. Here are a few key factors that differentiate it from others in the 'connected notes' space:

1. 😌 Easy to use: Simple, intuitive interface. You'll feel right at home if you've used Notion.

   

2. 🤝 Collaborative: Just like Notion. Slightly technical: It’s built on IPFS, a peer-to-peer network similar to BitTorrent where all files hosted by the nodes of the network are freely, anonymously, and efficiently accessible as long as you have its 'passcode'.

   

3. 🧬 Connected: Everything in Anytype is an object: people, books, musicians, documents, ideas, places, numbers, or files. And every object is connected. (Why is this helpful? Check this piece on bi-directional linking and what it means for your knowledge)

   

4. 🥳 Always free & open-source with the public release

5. 🤫 Privacy: Your data is stored on your devices and encrypted with a keychain phrase. The keychain phrase (aka password) is something only you know. And no one can access what you have stored. Not even Anytype.

6. 📱Mobile App: Although they're in closed alpha, they already have an iPhone app (phased rollout taking place)

   

Join the waitlist today

C. What's more?

1. ⚖️ You might have a question: How do you compare Mem v/s Anytype? Mem is more 'integrated' with its Spotlight feature. Whereas Anytype's key value proposition is its privacy-first approach. More details in 2022 in this newsletter as they both release more features.

   Probably Nothing Newsletter

   Dec 2: Don't just take notes but also refer back to all your knowledge. Blazing fast.

   The Problem and The Pitch Note-taking is great. But how do you refer back to information when you need it most? 🤔 How do you search for saved knowledge like meeting notes 🗒️, membership numbers 🛬, your friend's favorite restaurant 🥗, or that travel recommendation your work buddy 🧑‍💼 had made…

   Read more

   6 months ago · 1 like · Tejas

2. 💸 How do you think Anytype will monetize over the long term?

We think some percentage of users will need a backup. While some technical users will configure something for themselves, for others it will be more convenient just to pay for backup from Anytype.
And we will never sell ads. It's against our principles - long term advertising business model makes more harm than good and misaligns developers' and users' interests. ~Zhanna (Founder; source)

3. ✅ Yes, you can import directly from Notion to Anytype.

4. 🔁 What is bi-directional linking?

5. 🎙️ Here is Anytype’s founder, Zhanna, speaking at Techcrunch Disrupt in 2020

D. What’s next in the 🗓️ App Advent Calendar?

🗓️ Dec 10: Superpower your planning

📬 Dec 11: All messages in one place (No more switching across Twitter, iMessage, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and whatnot)

🤖 Dec 12: Build powerful apps without code (The no-code revolution is here; even our main website top30.app is made with no-code!)