Software:Anytype

Short description: P2P, Encrypted, Local-first software

Anytype is a knowledge management and note-taking software based on a block-based text editor. It is designed to help users document, structure, and connect their thoughts in a graph data format.

Anytype is considered a web3 application and is built on the open-source Anysync protocol. It is E2E encrypted, local-first, offline-accessible, uses p2p inter-device sync [source], and is widely considered a private and self-hosted alternative to popular PKM applications such as Notion and Obsidian.

The application is currently in beta. Anytype is available on Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS.

History

Anton Pronkin and Zhanna Sharipova began working on Anytype in 2018.

In 2019, Anytype was accepted to Techstars accelerator in Berlin.

In 2020, Anytype released the first prototype of its desktop application, followed by its Android alpha application.

In 2021, Anytype released its iOS application.

In July 2023, the open beta version was released, earning #1 Product of the Week on Product Hunt. That same month, Anytype opened its Github repositories. The infrastructure protocol any-sync, and the data protocol any-block, which power Anytype, are open source, released under the permissive MIT license.

In August 2023, Anytype announced that it had raised $13.4 million in seed funding led by Balderton, with participation from Inflection, SquareOneVC, and prominent angels from the web3 world.

Software

Anytype’s product architecture is heavily influenced by principles of object-oriented programming, in which objects comprise the core data units and are differentiated based on their object type. Each object simultaneously represents a node on the user’s graph, while relations constitute the connections between objects.

Users can create objects using Anytype’s block-based editor. The editor supports markdown input and various kinds of blocks including text, code, LaTeX, simple tables, video, audio, and images, the latter of which also makes Anytype suitable as an offline-first file storage system.

Common use cases include:

• Wikis
• Project & task management
• Presentations & strategic writing
• Daily journaling
• Habit tracking
• Course notes
• Hobby tracking

Users sign into their Anytype account using a private seed phrase, an approach typically used by cryptocurrency wallets to ensure non-custodial login. The BIP39 algorithm is used to generate unique seed phrases for each user. [source]

Features

As of October 2023, some of the main features of Anytype include:

• Types: Classification system for objects, defined by the user. Common examples of types include Notes, Tasks, Humans, Pages, and Books.
• Templates: Repeatable content structures
• Relations: Connections between objects in the graph. Commonly thought of as attributes or properties.
• Sets: Live filters for objects based on a certain criteria, ie: a shared type or relation. Can be visualized in grid, gallery, list, kanban, or calendar views.
• Collections: Manual compilations of multiple objects; commonly compared to a folder or a database. Can be visualized in grid, gallery, list, kanban, or calendar views.
• Graph: Non-hierarchical representation of all objects and their connections

Pricing

As of November 2023, Anytype is free for personal use and up to 1GB in backup storage is available to all beta testers.