Prioritize core functionalities

[Congested396]

Hi,

I realize this isn’t a feature request, but it’s still a request I hope you’ll consider.

I’ve been using Anytype for several months now, and while it has become an essential tool in my daily routine, I can’t help but feel some skepticism about the direction of recent updates.

My main concern lies in what seems to be the development team’s surprising prioritization of certain features.

It’s great to see new features being added. Since my first taste of the software (v0.32, probably) there have been some really interesting improvements, like multiplayer support, browser plugins, and stability improvements.

However, I’ve also noticed new features that, while nice to have, don’t seem to merit the level of priority they’ve been given. Take, for example, the Space bar placement update:

• Initially, it was at the bottom in the floating menu, which worked fine.
• Then it was moved to the left side—not my preferred choice, but whatever.
• Next, a toggle was added to show or hide it on the left side. However, if you disable it, you lose access to your different spaces, which is a non-sense. I understand this will be fixed, but was it really a priority? Especially when the original feature was functioning properly?

At this stage of development, the exact placement of the Space bar is less important to me than ensuring it’s accessible and bug-free.

Another example: the option to disable the top menu bar. I’m hesitant to use it because I fear it might disappear completely without an easy way to re-enable it before the next update.

I’m not a developer, but I believe the priorities should be:

• Stability
• User-friendliness
• Features
• User preferences (like the position of the Space bar)

Even the most innovative software won’t be adopted if it doesn’t function reliably, and Anytype still struggles with stability issues.

For example, twice now, I’ve been unable to access my space due to an error, requiring me to tinker for 1h with the Windows folders to resolve it. There have also been multiple instances where the loading screen -after entering my recovery phrase- would hang indefinitely. And yes, it’s still the case with v0.42.3.

Regarding usability, it’s also a core aspect, much more than the number of features or the preference toggles.

For example, the texting works but isn’t very pleasant to use because of its counter intuitiveness: it’s too easy to accidentally delete an entire block when all you wanted to do was adjust the margin (block, sub-block, etc.). When drag-and-dropping a file, sometimes the orange bar (showing where the file will be dropped) doesn’t show where the mouse actually is. Sometimes different layers of menus are on each other, making it impossible to do what I want (when creating relations for example). Clicking on the “search” feature of a kanban won’t place the text cursor in the research bar, obliging to click another time… these are very important aspects and affect the daily-experience. Etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I wish I could help with the development because I really like the app - and I will eventually love it. But focusing on the right priorities will determine if people will love it sooner rather than later.

[Shampra]

These are points that come up regularly.
You can browse these posts to see discussions on these topics :

Feedback about UX and UI, the real reason for not using Anytype

UX editor Editing represents a good part of the time spent on Anytype and often the UX part that can be the most frustrating. But there’s already your long topic @anton . Pehaps it’s UX editor, or a functionnality, but not being able to change the type of a relation is a real hindrance to the serene use of Anytype. Getting into a large database with the risk of having to redo everything because the relationship type doesn’t suit… that’s happened to me, I gave up, I didn’t want to redo E…

Slight grievances with the UX and UI

Hey there, Anytype team! I must begin by absolutely commending the tremendous amount of work going into a project as promising and innovative as this. I’ve seen so many note-taking apps out there, many of them having a couple of great features and tricks up their sleeves and none of them are without their attractions. Using Anytype, however, I quickly realized that Anytype is hoping to do much more that what a conventional note-taking app can or would do. In fact, calling Any…

Angelo made an interesting reply here :

Development pace (roadmap for 2025?)

Hey @sofalakatino, thank you very much for sharing your concerns and initiating this discussion! We appreciate your feedback and continued support of Anytype despite your frustration with the pace of development and the absence of certain highly requested features. We understand this has become a significant pain point for many of our earliest and most loyal adopters, and our current product focus may not appeal so much to them. All valid points, however, it’s relevant to the co…

[Lyoneel]

I really think some users are more noisy than others, specially in that segment (visuals, personal preferences).

IMO if you (developer) have some options for future improvements It should be asked inside the application.
Persons like myself because I don’t have much time I don’t spend time on forums.

So in-app survey will hit people that really uses the application, there are plenty of examples of noisy persons driven stuff to the void.

EDIT: I totally forgot when I wrote this, I remember a survey that only appears when N number of objects has been created, in addition I will add other kind of counters to make sure nobody is cheating.