WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND?
Allow users to choose a specific display name or display a nickname/alias in each shared space they join or create.
Rather than having your main profile name used in every single space you join, you would be able to have a space-specific name that is only visible within that specific space/channel. This would be similar to what’s possible in Discord or Signal via their nicknames features.
Ideally your “real” profile name could remain hidden for additional privacy benefits, but it’s also OK if that’s not possible - users could at least then choose to have a more general main profile name that’s OK to share across spaces, and then they can use a more specific display name in each of their shared spaces. The display name you use in a particular space would only be visible inside that space.
HOW COULD IT BE DONE?
You would be able to choose a specific display name or nickname for each channel/space that you join or create, which could be edited in your Channel Settings. (This might only need to be an option for shared spaces, as that’s likely the only time this is relevant.)
At the very least, channel owners/editors could have the ability to assign a nickname to channel members in the member list - this could be something that members can then ask these admins to edit for them. But, it seems much more reasonable to allow each user to do this themselves in their own settings.
This could also potentially be done by making the “Space Member” object type editable, either by members themselves or by the owner only.
REAL WORLD USE CASES
I have been using Anytype for the past few months and would like to start using it collaboratively with a few different groups I work with (both personal and professional), but I would like my name to appear differently across different spaces.
For example, I want to have a shared space with work colleagues where I use my full name, but I also want to have another space with some online friends that I play D&D with who I don’t necessarily want to have my real name. I may also want a shared space with my neighbors, or a space for managing projects with a volunteer group I work with - and again, I may want to be able to use different nicknames or aliases in each of these spaces.
Alternatively, someone might be OK with their name being used across all spaces, but may want to have slightly different identifying details highlighted in each space. Ex. main profile name “John” might want to be “John Doe”, “Johnny”, “John Doe (Acme Co.)”, “John (Sales)”, “John (Apt 9B)”, etc., depending on the space. This example comes from a related feature request; I’ve pasted their description below for more detail.
Consider a Company, Acme ltd, that has several Spaces.
- One that I want to share as “John (Acme)” towards close collegues.
- One that I want to share as “John (Marketing)” towards collegues
- One that I want to share as “John Doe (Acme - Marketing)” towards suppliers
- A public share as “Acme (Sales)” towards customers that should not contact Marketing.
Always using the default name linked to your identity just won’t do for all these different scenarios.
In general, for an app focused on privacy, this feature seems really valuable for helping people be selective about who they share their identity with and what personal details are shared in each of their shared spaces.
RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVES
You could have different accounts/vaults for different contexts (ex. a work account and a personal account), but I think having to log in and out of different accounts is quite cumbersome. The whole benefit of the channels/spaces concept is that I can just have one account that I use for different groups or contexts, but right now the inability to change how you appear in shared spaces feels like a barrier to having more than one group you’re collaborating with in Anytype.
Otherwise, it would be great to at least be able to easily switch accounts from inside the Anytype app. That way I can have a work account separate from a personal account, each with a different profile name, and could switch between them easily. There is a separate feature request for the multiple accounts/logins idea.
ADDITIONAL CONTEXT
Related feature request here from 2024 - I believe this one is focused on what profile name is displayed when you first share a space. That user’s idea is to make a set of predefined aliases for your account (somewhat like email aliases, I think?), which you can then select from when you create or join a new space. That strikes me as being more complicated to implement for some reason, but it could be another idea to consider. The use cases listed there (pasted above) are basically the same as what I have in mind though.
Thanks for your consideration.