We moved our website to new technology, so now our app now lives at https://app.archbee.io

All existing links will automatically redirect to the new URL.

This is a breaking change for the native apps, which will not work until you upgrade to the latest version (should be automatic, prompting you to reload the app to apply the new version).

We don't predict any downtime, but if there is, please go use the new https://app.archbee.io for the app which should work without any change after logging in.

🔗

In the beginning of the year, we had an idea that realtime chat on documents would be a big deal. We launched it, but it didn't take off. We couldn't get users to actually use it.

Many users and customers told us they were missing traditional comments. We got proven wrong, so we built inline comments!

How to use? Select any text and add a comment.

What's next?

We're keeping focus on our core technology, and a UX redesign is coming for the left side of the app. Stay tuned!

✌

You can now set emojis as docspace icons.

You can also set emojis as docs icons.

But also in the doc editor by hitting Cmd (or Ctrl on Windows) + ^

Or shortcuts in the editor also convert.

macOS, Windows and Linux apps are here.

They auto-update. 

They're fast and are tuned out to not eat any more memory than the regular in-browser app.

They get you notifications right in front:

To download, go to the landing page and you'll see the download buttons, or download directly.

Try it out, we're confident we deserve a spot in your taskbar :)

As always, keep the feedback coming!

We've heard the feedback, table of contents needed much improvement, both on the internal side but also for external docs or docspaces.

We've built a better UI for all of it, starting from the editing experience, ending with your customer's docs delight.

Here's how it looks like on the internal side.

And the external shared side.

The same improved TOCs are available on individually shared docs and our blog, which is powered by Archbee's editor, check it out:

https://archbee.io/blog/board-meeting-minutes-what-they-are-and-how-to-take-them

Not all people like to draw stuff. Some people like software developers want to write stuff.

This is why we now have native support for Mermaid, a markdown flavored syntax for building diagrams.

Mermaid diagrams are an easy way build: flowchart, sequence, class, UML, gantt and entity relationship diagrams.

Here's a short gif showing you how it's done.

You can find the full documentation of Mermaid, the markdown flavored syntax here: https://mermaid-js.github.io/mermaid/#/

Our doctrees allow you to build any hierarchy you might want.

But sometimes you want to have parent docs without needing to write anything inside. No more "In here is this, this and that."

This is why we built doc categories. Here's how they look:

Here's how they look like when you share the spaces externally, on our own documentation:

Now you're set to go kill the docs game!

We've heard you, the rendering on the public view of docspaces needed improvements.

A refreshed UI is now available, along with performance improvements and placeholders for loading states. The search function used to be a bit hidden, now it's front right and center.

We've also made it possible for you to set the favicon to make your branding experience complete.

Now go in there and build the best documentation for your team and customers!

Many of you asked us for the option to remove our branding from individual public shared docs, as it was already working for public shared docspaces.

For customers on the Scaling plan, this is now available. But we do hope you will help us become more popular by keeping the branding on 😇.

In the process, we've also made doc loading 5% faster, for both internal docs and external docs.

For hosted public docspaces, we've added a status indicator that now allows you to see if your DNS has propagated or not, and more information for how to check yourself if you need details.

In a nutshell, we've been hard at work improving our core tech, but we've also been able to sneak in a couple of nice to have features.

Updates

• documents now load 7-10% faster;
• we were able to shave 150 to 200 milliseconds off the realtime sync algorithm, making realtime collaboration better;
• we've added more and better editor shortcuts (Markdown included); check the new shortcuts by hitting Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) + /;
• we've changed our CDN to AWS CloudFront, and setup better firewalls to our APIs to mitigate next Denial of Service attacks;
• certificate generation for hosted docspaces on your domains now happens in maximum 1 hour since the DNS has propagated, and we also have lowered their regeneration rate to 2 months;
• hosted docspaces are now 15% to 60% faster, as we were able to cache some of the content close to your customers; this will also improve your SEO;
• UI improvements across the board: more consistent spacing and colors throughout the app; cross platform scrollbars;
• better support for Safari and Firefox; there's still work to be done here, but we strive to be 100% cross-browser as ~15% of you don't use Chrome-based browsers;
• better support on mobile browsers;
• we've started doing automated phishing scans to prevent malicious use of our platform;
• our embed integrations come out of beta and are now generally available;
• iframe embeds and custom javascript are generally available but will stay in beta for a while longer;
• docx import comes out of beta.

What's next?

• workspace-level domains, share any amount of docspaces in an URL format like this: https://docs.yourdomain.com/docspace1 https://docs.yourdomain.com/docspace2;
• desktop app;
• improved datatables that draw inspiration from AirTable;
• continued core technology improvements;
• many misc. features asked by you; thank you for your great ideas in the Feature Wishlist, we watch them closely and many of them will get implemented.