Hi Anytypers,
We are excited to share some news in advance about a major update we are working on. This update will affect all users and their current spaces – we call the project “Primitives” since it focuses on Anytype’s foundational level. With Primitives, our goal is to improve the simplicity of Anytype as we mentioned here.
What’s New
Currently, we have countless ways to achieve the same outcomes in Anytype, resulting in confusion on how to best use “types”. We are simplifying our user experience by eliminating the current unclear behavior and providing a clearer structure.
Here are the most important changes we are making:
- Relations are now called “Properties”.
- Type becomes a full-fledged “first class citizen” as Type now determines all the properties attached to objects.
- Properties, which were previously set at the object level, will now be defined by Type. This change applies to both featured properties, such as the object description or tags, and specific properties, such as file or system ones.
- Our improved templates will only handle the contents of specific objects, while the properties will be set at the Type level. Setting a property on the Type level will change the properties for all objects of that Type.
- The object’s layout will also now only be defined by Type. For example, all objects of the Task Type will have the task layout. You won’t be able to change the layout of a specific task. If you need a different layout, you should create a new object Type.
In this upcoming release, we’re not only introducing new Primitives, but also laying the groundwork for our new Chats, including counters, notifications and other features needed for smooth chat experience.
As part of this groundwork, we have refactored our space storage. This should optimize memory usage, resulting in better overall performance, especially on mobile devices.
What Does This Mean for Your Data?
We understand that data migration is a significant issue, so:
- You will have full control: For the new Primitives, you will be able to adapt your old structures to the new rules on your own. The changes will not be made automatically.
- Your data will remain fully secure: For the space store refactoring, the update will be performed directly on your device, and your synced data won’t be affected. We’ll just copy it to a new format, and a local backup will be created on your device, containing all your data in the previous format. The reason we’re retaining this backup is to debug and assist you, in case of unforeseen issues. It will be removed in future releases.
Additional Features
Among the new features, please note the following:
- Templates for sets and collections: You will now be able to preserve your column configurations and reuse them, just as you do with regular page objects.
- Updated type icons: The new icons will be more differentiated, making it easier to identify whether you are working with Types or Objects.
- Introduction of the right sidebar: In this first iteration, you will only be able to check the list of the object’s properties.
What to Expect
After updating to this version, you’ll briefly see a loading screen while the app applies these changes. Once the process is complete, you can continue using the app as usual.
What’s Next
- Later today, we plan to release the alpha version of this update which you can download from GitHub here. If you choose this option, please be aware there may be some unexpected behavior.
- Next week, we plan on sharing the pre-release version of this update, which you can get by switching to the pre-release channel.
- Otherwise, once pre-release testing is complete, we’ll announce the official product release as normal.
We are confident that these updates will significantly improve the Anytype experience and benefit all users, especially those who joined us recently.
More to come,
The Anytype Team
. I miss you already 
And the hard Types make so much sense, especially for programmers.
!!!
