I think everyone in this community agrees that Anytype is extremely powerful in many ways. There’s a huge amount of feature requests in the forum, but the vast majority of those aren’t dealbreakers - ie. most people here probably plans to adopt Anytype (or already did so), regardless if their FR’s are fulfilled or not. This post is not for those people!
To some people, however, the feature(s) they miss is essential for them to be able to adopt Anytype. This post is for those people. So, what is your dealbreaker with Anytype?
To me, the only reason I’m probably not going to be able to adopt Anytype right now (or in the short-medium term) is what I describe here:
The reason I’m doing this post is because this conversation (about dealbreaker FR’s) doesn’t get much visibility in the forums. It usually comes up far down in the comments section of some FR. I’m curious to know how many people also feel this way. It was inspired by this recent post:
For me the dealbreaker is almost completely reliability and “control”.
This means close to 100% working sync OR at least an error telling me sync is not complete or not working. I have issues with sync from day 1 in one way or another. Part from work laptop/network restrictions I think but it is very odd that one object syncs while another doesn’t.
When it comes to control this means that I am in control of my data. I can delete anything I add to anytype, delete my entire account and/or make a fresh new one without any onboarding or needing a staff member to reset/make a new account.
For Anytype this also means that I can choose to work offline OR use their sync (it’s mandatory now for testing).
Everything else is nice to have in my opinion. The basics when it comes to features are pretty solid as is.
I think we need to be careful about how we use examples from other apps. Anytype isn’t Remnote (or Roam, Obsidian, Logseq etc etc etc) - it’s Anytype. It has its own methods and structures (and limitations). If it attempts to adopt all the features and methods that have been proposed based on other apps, it’ll become an unwieldy mess.
Each app, and style of app, has its place. As I see it, Anytype is closer to the likes of Notion and Craft than it is to Remnote or Roam, so for me, any dealbreakers would be in that kind of area (I posted separately on a couple that are critical to me).
Incidentally, what you described in Remote (emerging structure) has been in Tinderbox (Mac only) for many years. I use, and will continue to use, Tinderbox, because it works very well alongside Anytype.
This feature is necessary for keeping track of which paragraph of a resource was used to write a specific part of an article, mainly for faster referencing. Also, it’s necessary for keeping track of citation information. For the citation part, of course some sort of manipulation of pdfs needs to be introduced. For example, in Remnote, we can click and drag to select a part of a pdf, and have the option to either only highlight that part or link that part to a “Rem” which is what a bullet point of an outline is called in Remnote.
If block to block links can’t be done with Anytype’s architecture then the embed feature is a must for me.
Anytype is already very good at taking small amount of info that is added each day and then link the same type of those small info together and make a coherent, “permanent note”. Like, adding daily thoughts or literature notes (useing Zettlekasten terminology for lack of better option ) from literatures etc, and add them together to make a new content. But, I think, it still needs to add some features for adequately managing the knowledge that comes to us as a bundle not bite size info, like school, college and different courses. And, I think embed/ portal is one such feature.
Edit: Just to clarify, The embedded portal and referencing may be different, although similar, features.
The other one is handwriting with diagramming. Some information is just better to organize visuo-spatially. And that is really needed. Here are some feature request (one by me )
Many good wishes to the team during this busy time. I wish I could do more to help. But joining the Nightly types will have to wait for me due to time constraints on my part.
That was my experience too, over a year ago. Though since my main usage is local only (sync is nice-to-have), this isn’t a dealbreaker for me.
The good thing is that syncing is (supposed to be) part of their core functionality. So I think it’s unlikely they won’t do everything they can to make that work.
I know what you mean ( that we can’t expect one app to do everything - otherwise someone might say lack of 3D editing tools is their dealbreaker ).
However I think it’s reasonable for me to want Anytype to have a feature from Remnote, Notion, Logseq etc… These are all PKM tools. It’s not that far-fetched.
You have all already said very interesting things that I also think but for me it will be adding things to Anytype as reference.
Adding an image, video, audio, etc… WITHOUT having to copy the file into Anytype.
I wish i could just use Anytype as a note taking application to manage relations between objects but without having to change all my system already in place on my computer as they are very stable and efficient for their own purpose.
Very viable topic of conversation! besides the post that you mentioned from me regarding nested relations, I would have to say the inline Tex support is the most important deal breaker.
I mean, at this point I’m pretty committed in Anytype and I’m moving different aspects of my life to it. But since Physics and research are my work, the inline Tex feature is a necessity. Fortunately, no other note taking app (yes, including Notion ) doesn’t offer as much as Anytype offers for me. Beside, I have an emotional connection to Anytype . But if it doesn’t get implemented, I probably have to think about moving.
I would also like this feature. I would also add that we get to decide where we store our media locally. Because I would like to put the media in Anytype in a external SSD and sync with Anysync. That option would be a life saver.
Good day.
Syncing and data loss is #1. I’ve had bad luck with those, but I’m still holding on and waiting for things to improve.
Once sync is more reliable, I’d really like to have a good monthly view calendar (for desktop and mobile) and some form of nesting to create sub-tasks. I imagine I’d still want to use the app regardless if these features arrive or not, but it will be a huge bummer if I have to keep switching between productivity apps.
Not a complete deal breaker, but recurring objects, calendar and notifications would be really really really nice so that I don’t need to use other apps in addition to Anytype.
I agree a PKM system should never experience data loss.
This is one of the first rule otherwise you cannot fully trust the system and what is the point of a system you cannot trust, right ?
Unreadable file format.
Currently all data are stored offline in big container in unreadable file format. I expect my data to be Readable and Movable at anytime and from anywhere.
Unreliable sync.
Data loss.
Inability to change Recovery phrase.
In case of password management hack even if you add worthless 2FA “security”.
Definitely agree on the repeating tasks and notifications for a reminder date and a due date. This is something that’s preventing me from switching over to AnyType for the purposes of short-term or long-term goal/project planning, and habit tracking.
I started using AnyType for about a month now. I like the features especially inline sets and collection along with Kanban view. The biggest drawback for me is not being able to edit any file attachments. The previous workaround was to use “File:///…” as a link but since upgrading to 0.32.0, it stopped working. I will have to go back to OneNote unless there is another workaround out there. I was really hoping that I can stick with AnyType.
A few things are not supported that stop me from using Anytype as my default note-taking app:
embeds/transclusions - I use those a lot. I am surprised an app like Anytype does not support this. Furthermore, supporting embeds has to go hand-in-hand with seamless in-situ editing of those embeds, i.e. being able to edit them without having to switch to the original page.
inline HTML - there are certain things markdown does not offer (e.g. changing the color of text in a paragraph only, so that can be resolved with inline HTML. Furthermore, since there is talk of an eventual AnyOS, why not make this the 1st step?
headers H4-H6: in long notes, it is not uncommon in my workflow to sometimes go all the way to H6, the normal markdown maximum. Why does Anytype stop at H3? I know it is not a markdown editor but it does support markdown.
Ability to link to paragraphs/blocks in another page. Linking to a whole page is not sufficient, I need a more granular way of linking.
Conclusion
Anytype is a nice app, provides a very pleasant, joyful working environment with good features, has a lot of potential. However, the app is still needs more work before I would consider using it as my default note-taking app to replace Logseq and Obsidian.
I just discovered 1 major road block: the Russian flag does not feature among the icons in Anytype. I am not Russian, but this kind of biased political game is unacceptable.
) from literatures etc, and add them together to make a new content. But, I think, it still needs to add some features for adequately managing the knowledge that comes to us as a bundle not bite size info, like school, college and different courses. And, I think embed/ portal is one such feature.
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. But if it doesn’t get implemented, I probably have to think about moving.
does not feature among the icons in Anytype. I am not Russian, but this kind of biased political game is unacceptable.