The very first thing written in the home page is “the everything app for those who celebrate trust & autonomy”, followed by “local-first”. I was intrigued by this app and decided to try it.
And what was the very first thing I see the app ask me? For me to create an account and an username. So much for freedom when the first experience is for me to enroll in whatever service you want me to. The “By continuing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy” in dark gray over a black background at the bottom was the cherry on top.
At no point during the setup I saw a way to make it completely local, the account creation seems to be mandatory. I don’t want another account in whatever service that could or could not try to upsell my own data to me on the future, asking me to pay for storage I don’t want.
Hi @macchinario, while I understand your frustration, please note that Anytype is in beta and several features like custom storage location, local only, and many others, are not implemented yet. You can checkout the roadmap here to get an idea when the features you are looking for.
Thanks for your reply, and I’m sorry if I sounded rude. I thought the app was really interesting, but got really really irked by the account requirement. I’m glad about the roadmap but I really don’t think the way it’s working and advertised now is the way to go. The app is currently online-first with local backup, which contrasted badly with all the claims about trust, privacy and data ownership. Just my two cents.
I updated the title for something that I think sounds less agressive (english is not my first language). Again, thanks for your reply.
It’s actually local-first, you can create an account and get a login phrase generated for you while not being connected to the internet.
And to make your experience completely offline/local, you can use your firewall to prevent the app from accessing the internet. This or follow the guide to host your own backup server/node.
I just reinstalled the app with my computer completely offline to try and you’re right - I managed to get access to the app without storing anything online.
But… This is not a good user experience at all. There’s absolutely nothing indicating this could be possible, and to get the desired behaviour it needs me to alter relevant settings within my device which is pretty convoluted. I think the app should fall directly into the usable, offline mode first, and the account setup a notification or removable widget, to really make it clear that you can use it offline. A local first app should not force nor misguide their users into an online account, no matter how noble the intentions are.
@macchinario
You’re absolutely right, this is exactly how it will be in near future, Anytype team is already working on all of the pain points you mentioned, it’s just a matter of time
