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Anytype.io
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Posted by Ken
Jun 13, 2022 at 02:22 PM
While looking for information on Mem, I saw a reference to this program on Demetri Panici’s YT channel: https://anytype.io/en . Have not really had a chance to look at it, but those concerned about data privacy might find it interesting.
—Ken
Posted by NickG
Jun 13, 2022 at 05:48 PM
Ken wrote:
While looking for information on Mem, I saw a reference to this program
>on Demetri Panici’s YT channel: https://anytype.io/en . Have not really
>had a chance to look at it, but those concerned about data privacy might
>find it interesting.
>
>—Ken
I’ve been participating in the alpha for a year or so. It’s more akin to Notion than anything else I’ve tried, if anyone wants a starting point. Building blocks are objects (notes, people, whatever), relations (attributes of objects) and sets (groups of objects with shared attributes(.
It’s very much in development (alpha is a fair designation) but what’s available is stable and, within limits, very functional. It’s not as easy to get into as the likes of Logseq/Obsidian - like Notion, you need to get your head round the underlying concepts.
The basic proposition is that all your data is yours and held locally (as opposed to Notion, for example) although in the current phase, sync is via an Anytype server. In future, the app will be open source and free, with a charge for using their sync service and for a backup service. You will, apparently, be able to set up your own sync for privacy.
Access to the alpha is free. Runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, IOS/iPadOS.
In sum, it’s a very interesting attempt at a Notion-type data tool. Im’ enjoying it and it’s been very very stable, but it has some frustrating limitations at present (no bulk delete, for example) that mean I’m still test-driving rather than committing (only someone really silly would commit to using an alpha for critical work, right :-) )
Posted by Pluq
Sep 9, 2022 at 11:58 AM
Hi everyone - long time follower of this forum - first time poster. Nice to meet you all.
Came here to say that I joined a 1h long onboarding call for Anytype yesterday. Visually the app looks a lot like Notion, but a better comparison would be Capacities.io - which was mentioned recently multiple times. Huge focus on creating re-usable elements that live in multiple places at the same time. Both these apps have rather steep learning curves, with their own specific lingo for essentially the same thing: what Capacities calls ‘databases’ is called ‘objects’ in Anytype. And Capacities’ ‘collections’ are called ‘sets’ in Anytype. Where Anytype takes things up a notch is the ability to manually define the relation between two different objects. Plus the integrated task management is a nice touch and feels natural.
Anytype’s marketing material is heavy on the ‘owning your data’ and ‘giving back privacy and data ownership to users’, but there’s a lot of air in that balloon. One of the top posts on the user forum is called “Fake local first strategy and the user don’t actually own their notes”.
Still early days for Anytype. I still prefer Capacities, but will keep following them.
Posted by Nomatica
Jun 29, 2023 at 07:36 PM
I was curious if there had been any discussion of anytype https://anytype.io/ and found this thread which is from Sept 2022. Interested in people’s thoughts and experiences. Also interested in experienced crimpers here sharing their feedback with the anytype team who are quite open. I am not involved with the company, but I am pretty interested and hope they are successful even if it does not turn out to be the perfect tool for me. There needs to be more open source platforms like this.
Anytype looks pretty interesting as an application and also philosophically. Unlike many other platforms which I look at as mainly tools, Anytype’s broader philosophy is attractive to me here. I like open source. I like transparency. I want privacy and security. I really like it when those things are core building principles with a group of developers. In this situation, these principles are driving the Anytype team to not only create a PKM/KMS app but also a larger platform for communities to publish information and collaborate together in a decentralized way.
There is already a pretty active user base and community open to user feedback and where people are showcasing how they are using the software (I will include some links below). It is somewhat difficult to figure out what issues are from previous alpha releases and what are new issues. It recently entered Beta and then shortly after that an updated android app was released. Installers exist for Mac, Windows, Linux, IOS, and Android) No web app, in order to handle local encryption/decryption on the device and to avoid other issues browsers have. Syncing is done with E2E encryption via a new P2P protocol IPFS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterPlanetary_File_System
The are doing staged development and their roadmap is interesting. The first stage is the “operating system for life” a local first application geared for the individual, the second stage is broadening the community collaboration and the 3rd stage focuses on scaling larger to collectives and associations.
It still is in early development, so there are still features missing. Most notably a calendar system and a web clipper, but both are in the works. Also, while local first, current Alpha/Beta users sign in and use Anytype’s backup node servers. In the future users will be able to selfhost their own backup nod, or use an alternative backup node when their devices are not all on the same local network. There is some talk about making this easier for individuals who are not tech savvy, but there are still some questions.
The cost to us the software locally, on your devices and with your own bandwidth will be free, but it looks like there will be costs to use their backup node, but those costs have not been released yet. There is also an idea of having some sort of cooperative where people’s contributions are taken into consideration but again, this has not been released.
While there is a learning curve, what I have liked is that there are built in options that help you figure out how you might want to set it up as shown here: https://youtu.be/KtV3L0Wrgew?t=146
Documentation is pretty good already:
https://doc.anytype.io/d/
I have been impressed with the graph view:
https://imgur.com/a/bF0Ca0d
Interesting User Showcases on the forum:
Anytype - 0.32.3 -> Fusion of Notion & Obsidian into one System
https://community.anytype.io/t/anytype-0-32-3-fusion-of-notion-obsidian-into-one-system/9628
Picture thread: Sets, Relations, Types, and Templates
https://community.anytype.io/t/picture-thread-sets-relations-types-and-templates/1507/3
My Anytype setup for fans of environment/bg art (incl. resource links)
https://community.anytype.io/t/my-anytype-setup-for-fans-of-environment-bg-art-incl-resource-links/2772
Anytype: The Best Offline Alternative to Notion (alpha release):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIWsKwEqG00
Anytype Beta Tour! New UI, widgets, and Kansan Board! (New Beta release)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_BjafCXLaU
Anytype Instructional Videos (not sure what release)
https://vimeo.com/teamanytype
Philosophy
https://blog.anytype.io/our-open-philosophy/
Product hunt (not sure of when these reviews are from)
https://www.producthunt.com/products/anytype/reviews
Posted by Garland Coulson
Jun 30, 2023 at 06:12 PM
I have looked at Anytype multiple times, but it is lacking a key feature that makes it unusable for me - I can’t share my documents and templates with others like I can with Coda and Notion.