December Town Hall

A question for Zhanna if she is present:

Could you elaborate on the last line of your Substack post (Local first versus the cloud) - “We think the next frontier in local first software is applying local first principles and ideas into the design of social spaces.”? Do you have any hypothetical examples?

I really enjoyed reading these posts. I hope there are more to come! It’s nice to go back to the core principles and imagine what other uses could be possible with the underlying technology.

Question:

  • Do you plan to add support for iOS widgets? I’d like to be able to view my task sets on my home screen, similar to how they appear on the app’s left sidebar.
  • How is the inline set/collection support for mobile progressing? I use these two a lot since they really streamline my second brain.

I’d love to be able to consume my anytype content from outside of the app via external apps. Some use-cases like building a time tracker app to automatically track and resolve tasks, or to query anytype to dispay a public roadmap on my website. Will this be possible in the near future?

Oh, same question for Android!
I have a fav widget to open quickly my fav in Evernote and Notion, I hope the same for Anytype!

For relations it is already possible, but only with the “All Objects” menu in the sidebar or in the relations menu of a page (top right triangle symbol). You (sadly) cannot click it from a page or something.

With the current beta you can also see this for date with the Dates as an Object update and I think with the tags as an object update everything you want will be featured!


I also have a question:

What is the end goal of Anytype, what is the vision that you want te realize with Anytype?

First it was a note taking app focussed on offline and private for solo users. Then there was talk about Anytype being an OS (operating system) which would support installing apps inside and now it seems to become a collaboration app simular to slack/discord/teams with the focus on multiplayer, paying customers and chat.

Which one is it?

The reason I ask is that I currently have no idea what I am getting myself into if I would go all-in with Anytype which is holding me back doing so.

This is not what I meant. I want to see all objects that belong to a single relation value.

In “All Objects” I can see all objects that have the relation “Tag” but not the objects that have the “Tag = whatever”.

That was what I tried to explain in the second sentense and will come with Tags as an Object update next year.

Do you have anything specific in mind?

I have several questions about this topic, but I decided to ask one question

  • The current approach for login-method and the unchangeable phrase key

The current method is very robust, but it is full of flaws. If someone loses their device or their phrase key is at risk of being exposed, there is nothing you can do about it. Previously, you could work around this by creating a new account with extra steps. Now, however, you might be paying for a subscription or have joined a online space, with data registered as yours. the unchangeable key will be obsolete with how the app evolve

Unfortunately, this’s something that happened before Logout from devices : r/Anytype

The method itself raises many questions because it’s the only app I have that creates passwords/key on my behalf. I have no control over what the verification process will be since I can memorize my own verification unlike trusting random phrases. and thx.

First I want to take a moment to congratulate the Anytype team for their great work this year. Your swift updates and improvements have made the app increasingly enjoyable so keep up the great work!
So my questions

  • Do you plan widgets for ios ?
  • What’s your view about task management in Anytype ?
  • Desktop and iOS/mobile seem to sometimes follow distinct paths and priorities, and feature parity is often a subject of frustration in forums. How do you balance development between platforms ?

Thanks !

I am eagerly looking forward to future updates from Anytype, as many of the concepts you propose are highly commendable. As a multilingual user (simultaneously using English and Chinese) and an Obsidian user, there are a few minor concerns I have:

  1. Why are some types labeled as “system” and accompanied by a lock icon? Furthermore, why are these types not allowed to be modified or deleted? Although I am accustomed to using multiple languages, I still hope for comprehensive support for “Chinese.” These unchangeable types to some extent limit user freedom and I have to mixup using two language.

  2. I have noticed in previous responses that there are some missing components and features which I also want to talk about. Does Anytype have a plan for when the first stable version will be released?

One very shy question, but maybe you have an update on this one? :slight_smile:

Here’s some notes from the town hall, while we wait for the replay to be posted.

  • Next update scheduled for 3rd week of December (no specific date given): date as an object & simple formulas (the roadmap lists this as stage 1)

  • What’s Coming in 2025 Season 1: chats + updated profiles/roles, publish to web, notifications, tag as an object, primitives (updated object creation and applying templates)

  • Demo of Raycast extension for API

  • Due to technical difficulties these are not priority for the Anytype team at this time:

    • Mobile apps features including handwritten notes on tablet (think of mobile apps as companion apps/on-the-go viewing)
    • RTL language support (however @Razor did mention RTL development for chat)
    • Embedding images from a URL (security risk for malicious links)
    • Calendar integrations
    • Video chat
  • In development but no specific dates mentioned

    • New login options in addition to the auto-assigned passphrase
    • More membership price tiers based on storage
    • Releasing code to be open-source vs proprietary
  • No plans to sell Anytype to another company. Vision remains to create a decentralized all-in-one app for thoughts and communication that does not need a cloud in between.

Please correct if my notes are not accurate.

Thank you @Curie, these are awesome and very helpful for those of us who missed the call :pray::pray::pray::pray:

@raph No prob!
I’m that impatient person who misses a meeting and immediately messages everyone for an update. :joy:

Yeah, I’m the guy pushing RTL support in the editor, so hopefully I’ll make a prototype and then we will use it to finalise the logic.

The best Town Hall with the best news! There is a light at the end of the tunnel! Finally! :trophy:

API, Formulas… I hope to see some progress before the end of the 2025… :upside_down_face:

Is the recording of the town hall available anywhere?

Unfortunately, not yet.

This will be in simple tables or sets/collections? Please tell me simple tables :pray: