Skiff is joining Notion
Happy for the team. But to be honest, really disappointed with the update.
When I checked my mobile this morning, I saw an email notification from Skiff labeled “Major Skiff update”. Receiving messages from the Skiff team always brings a sense of anticipation and interest to me.
Even a small update will bring happiness because, in my mind, it reflects like this - “This project is still going. I can invite more people to this platform without any doubt”. I often check their community to see the discussions and everything. But this update changed everything.
I opened the email and found out that it was a long mail, skimmed through the text, and found an underlined line.
It really was out of the blue and without reading further, I got really disappointed. I was thinking, now it is a burden and I have to change this email address everywhere and have no clue wherever.
Then I read the entire message. It was not enough. I got really confused. Are they really shutting down or what? I don't know why I can't process this info.
Because they recently did some revamps with their Drive and Page app designs. I got the last promotional and updates email (Mail keyboard shortcuts released, custom colors, and calendar export) on Jan 22, 2024.
How can a product like that go like this?!!!
I even considered subscribing if my storage space ever ran out. With Google, like everyone else, I only create a new account. But here this “paying decision” was genuine. But it all crash-landed.
I checked their website, news, and communities. Saw that most of the hardcore users felt the same. So, like everyone else, I have two possible assumptions.
Either they're not growing and the current situation of the market.
Or they're in deep trouble and Notion lend a hand.
But then again, it is Notion!
Recently, they made headlines with their acquisition of Cron. Because Cron is everyone's favorite in the tech field (not mine though).
And when reading Skiff’s update, I see only one possible outcome. Notion is aiming at the office suite market and Skiff has a great reputation for their privacy and security.
I don't have any bad vibe about Notion (yet), but it still feels something off. I thought Skiff was going to be the one who is making some changes in the industry.
I even wrote my honest review and opinion when I first tried it.
Andrew even replied to that review. That all raised my faith in it.
I’m really happy for Andrew and the entire Skiff team. But at the same time, I feel very disappointed with how they delivered the news. The main reason is I really liked their copywriting, but this notification didn't convey the same tone and vibe.
It felt like they were very busy and just wanted to post an update.
Retrospection
I thought and called Skiff the real Gmail killer. Now It turns out that what I thought was wrong. That’s why I waited around 10 hours today to collect my thoughts and express my reflections more effectively.
Afterthoughts
With Skiff’s and Artifact’s shutting down update, it is clear about the market situation. A lot of apps and platforms are going this way or the highway.
If no profit or enough turnaround, this will be the fate of many interesting platforms. When a company joins or gets acquired by another, it may often be viewed as a relatively minor event, like a footnote. If my memory is correct, I only know YouTube and Instagram which proved otherwise. I didn't want Skiff to be a footnote.
Anyway, I’ll continue to test and be vocal about new interesting platforms. But with these two incidents, when you look for the TAM1 of the big corps, it’s clear that…
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Total addressable market