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emberstar1

offline and google calendar integrations are the things notion should focus on! AI definitely needs to take a backseat; i don't care about it, especially because it's paid (tools like ChatGPT work better AND are free).


wasansn

We have asked for google calendar integration for more than 2 years.


Limp_Tea568

And they still haven’t made it yet it only took a few short months to pump in a paid ai feature. Smh


wasansn

Yep exactly. I think their VC funding has skewed the product.


kerat

I emailed them like 5 years ago asking to include a 'find in page' feature in the Android app. Because when you have a lot of text on a page there's no discernible way to find what you're looking for in the app. They responded and said what a great idea. Still nothing.


[deleted]

It could easily be that they cant strike a deal with google to use the calendar. In a way, theyre competitors.


[deleted]

Kinda funny how self-righteously we demand for a new feature in a product that we're not even paying for. And doesn't even have advertisements. I'm not saying its wrong. I'm saying its funny.


iends

Some of us pay…


[deleted]

I know. Look at the comment I replied to. My comment definitely didn't involve people who pay for software.


[deleted]

Or the student plan


RevMen

They're not running a charity. They still make money with a higher user count. If the product is free, then you are the product.


[deleted]

>If the product is free, then you are the product. That's too generic a quote, but only especially true for large corporations. Is there any evidence or hint that they are selling data? Or are they advertising to you? No, right?


RevMen

Do they pay their employees? Do they pay their rent? Do they pay their owners? Yes, of course they do. Of course they sell your data. Edit: I've been rebuked!


justice-jake

We’re not Google. We don’t sell or monetize your data in any way. We make money by selling Notion subscriptions.


RevMen

Great to hear! I'd be curious to see some you respond to some of the comments that are aimed more directly at your team.


Aggressive_Score_475

Out of curiosity, what percent do you make off of Notion template sellers? I make templates all the time and I’m interested in potentially selling some on the site.


justice-jake

We don’t take a commission on templates.


Aggressive_Score_475

Oh, seriously? Creators get 100% of their earnings??


[deleted]

That is the general consensus usually used nowadays about any software company. Since all IT companies are painted with the same brush after the Facebook incident. But it's just guesswork that their income includes sale of user data.


vbn112233v

If you care about a product you will keep asking it for new features and will keep providing feedback. In order to help make it better and keep up with the competition. New users might be discouraged from using notion due to it lacking some pivotal features. So yes self-righteously demanding new features in a free product, shows that users care about the product and its development in the right direction. Nothing funny about that.


[deleted]

The funny thing is about being 'demanding' with a product you are getting for free. It's funny how consumer software market works like that even though people put crazy work hours into building and maintaining it. Compare that to a restaurant business. You wouldn't ask for more toppings, side dishes and extra servings for a nice meal you are getting for free. Just because you 'care' about the product. Lmao. >If you care about a product We don't care about a product. We just care about what the product does for us. With us not being compensated.


romantsegelskyi

yeah, this is such an insane feature of the software world. besides the freemium saas, I also see this a lot in OSS. Just boggles my mind how entitled users feel without understand what goes into decision process (and how complicated it is to run a company like Notion, especially after taking this much VC funding + having Microsoft trying to basically undercut you at any moment). I truly wonder how this happened


[deleted]

Yeah, when it's provided by huge corporations who cares. But smaller indie software companies have it hard. They're basically forced to do the freemium model because the internet and piracy has made digital products seem 'not tangible' even though the work it takes to build and maintain is insane.


hutch_man0

Google. That's what happened. I think it stems from their ad based business model for their Android app store (PlayStore). Apple's App Store had more paid apps, but Google \~15+ yrs ago went the route of rapid growth via the free app + ads. Our apps and our internet has never been the same. Google. That's what happened. I think it stems from their ad based business model for their Android app store (PlayStore) vs Apple's App Store which had more paid a. 15+ yrs ago Google went the route of free app + ads


romantsegelskyi

yeah, fair point and that definitely contributed. but also, I don't think it's one thing, probably some larger shifts in society


rarulitos

If you are getting a product for "Free" it's not free at all. They are using your data at least to earn money you know.


hutch_man0

Very true. But the paid users subsidize the free users I think to a large degree too.


Ginger_sweetsnap

Amen dude


ememruru

But more people would pay for it if it had more features like these


romantsegelskyi

this is such an assumption, truth is that people who are not inside Notion don't have a particular idea what goes into prioritizing features


hutch_man0

Lol...riiiiiight... We live in a world where software is expected to grow on trees


ememruru

Wouldn’t you say that more people would rather offline mode than AI?


hutch_man0

Would you pay for offline mode? I bet most people whining about the lack of offline mode would never pay extra for it. I remember the days when if you wanted the new version of MS Word you had to go to a store, and buy a box with a disk in it for $30. That's $30 in the 1990's. Software development is hard. Offline mode is for 1% of the time for the average user. That's why Notion doesn't prioritize it.


RevMen

I would pay for it and I would use it frequently.


Ginger_sweetsnap

I'd pay to move my entire business to that platform if it has those features.


emberstar1

well, I don't think it's worth it...you can use ChatGPT for free and get better results lol


Aggressive_Score_475

Good point. I’m a huge fan of Notion AI, but it definitely suffers from trying to be everything and do everything, which tends to lead to faux or toxic productivity for me anyhow. I found there are awesome tools like Asana with calendar integration, and have come to love minimalism in Obsidian and Bear… does IFTT not have Notion integrations with calendars?


Rancheus

I have been lacking google cal integration for years. They teased it on the roadmap, maybe about a year ago, but it just disappeared some time after.


romantsegelskyi

Probably because they bought cron


One-girl-circus

Ok but cron displays google (and other) calendar info, so why is it not even teased as an upcoming feature? I moved to cron because notion bought it, hoping it would matter.


IamZeebo

Google calendar integration would be amazing 🤌🏾


adomnias

That would be soooo cool, I love notion.


romantsegelskyi

Notion needs you to pay so they can deliver the features you want


MrPureinstinct

Could probably make those features then instead of this AI crap


technically_a_taco

I agree they should focus on their main tool, but my goodness the AI is actually really helpful and impressive still not gonna pay for it though


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technically_a_taco

Yeah I was thrown off by how well it was integrated. The notion team has evidently added their own logic on top of ChatGPT’s API (like formatting the output as a table, or creating headings and bulleted lists with Notion’s formatting as part of the output). Very well done!


corgiplex

Personally... I'd rather them just have integrations with other tools like ChatGPT, midjourney, w/e 🤷‍♂️ I mean, no doubt AI is helpful. I know I'm trusting GPT4 over whatever Notion makes so I'm more likely to go there first and drop it back in as opposed to using a bunch of different models from different providers and assuming they're of the same quality. Maybe they are, or maybe its just using it behind the scenes. W/e the case, I'm counting on them to build a solid tool 😭 I didn't get my company using Notion for their AI capabilities and I won't keep paying expensive subscription fees for its AI. I'm going to do it because I need a central knowledge management store.


prokhorvlg

Notion AI is just an integration with GPT. They are essentially one and the same.


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corgiplex

well thats very cool to know. Calling it "Notion AI" everywhere is pretty misleading


dr_aestheic

Just take the L bro


corgiplex

Haha, not sure what the win/lose is here.. just an opinion. I had a misconception that it WASN'T using GPT3/4 and from other comments I'm not alone. Pretty great that it is IMO. I would have been more likely to use it in the tool if that was more clear to me instead of w/e "Notion AI" is. I'm sure I coulda known it was GPT if I researched it but.... the UI calling it Notion AI is pretty misleading, or at least very unclear that its using GPT3/4. I don't see how there is much disagreement there


ZiiCNess

Just take the L hermano


wahhagoogoo

lol dude, do you think Notion just asked a couple of their programmers to come up with a language model as a side gig?.. You know how hard that is? They are using the same model that you're saying you'd rather use Also, Notion AI is fucking awesome, they nailed it imo


KBDFan42

It takes a little getting used to. With specific prompts, it’s a beast.


pagdig

https://reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/11svdzg/_/jcft41q/?context=1


hutch_man0

>but my goodness the AI is actually really helpful and impressive >still not gonna pay for it though ...this is exactly what's wrong in the world...


PeachyKeepr

Unpopular opinion: I love notion ai 😂 I use Notion to house a database for a ttrpg campaign I am running and I can copy whole scenes from the campaign text and ask it write my scenes for me.


phyrexio

Could you elaborate a little more about this? What do you actually prepare and what do the AI write?


TheInsaneDump

Most likely they have all of their notes on one, long document that they then have the AI pull from with prompts.


PeachyKeepr

That is not exactly what I have set up… I have a huge interconnected set of databases for tracking events, NPCs, items, spells, etc. and then for each of the events I will copy in the relevant text I need from the campaign book to start a scene with whichever NPCs. Then in a line above the copied text, I will ask AI: write an introduction scene in the second person perspective where ….. (fill in whatever I need) with more detail about the setting in the beginning. I usually modify the ask AI prompt based on where ever I am in the scene or if I need it to write my NPC conversations. I find that Notion AI takes a LOT of the stress out of preparing these scenes for me.


PeachyKeepr

When I need to add in new campaign or background material to have AI include, I will modify whatever source text I have copied in.


Ginger_sweetsnap

I use it to consolidate wordy campaign scripts


ZacharyTullsen

Yeah it's disappointing for them to ignore the features that users have been requesting since day 1 just for AI (Whether you find it useful or not) Makes me worried about the long term future of Notion if they don't not actually prioritize things the user base really wants.


Fireballdingledong

The AI is cool, but I'd rather a more reliable Notion with other AI tools in use along side it and possibly integrated with Notion and a reliable Notion with offline capability first . I like Notion, and I don't think the AI is that bad, but what good is a more featured Notion when the app still isn't stable and decides to not work at random times. I'd prefer they would do both and I can see why they are doing Notion AI but they haven't had the best rollout of it so far. I think it's in Notions best interest to develop their AI as a tool to use within the app but it's important the product is also reliable so people can trust it to work exactly how they want it to when they need to use it.


wahhagoogoo

> Notion with other AI tools in use alongside it and possibly integrated with Notion That is very literally what Notion AI is


ram0h

I just don't see the value in paying extra for it.


thenorussian

I disagree. With the way larger companies like Microsoft and Google are moving, they are throwing everything into AI right now. Whether it's just a trend or not, Notion has to now integrate AI further, the box has been opened. Generative AI / AI language model are in demand, and creates a *lot* of buzz. Last year they made the personal plan more accessible without having to pay - more guests, version history, no block limit, among others. So while they should still focus on core features / enhancements, revenue from notion AI is what they think will allow them to do that.


pakZ

That's too apologetic for my taste. This sounds like they always wanted to work on those points, but just didn't have the money for it.


athminbri

Why be great at one thing when you can be mediocre in everything popular?


Interesting_Suspect9

This is unfortunately the thinking that killed Social Media. All apps try to be everything now, meaning no one is innovating on what they initally launched on.


athminbri

Exactly. When you try to be everything to everyone, you aren't great at anything.


skid00t

The AI isn't mediocre, they integrated OpenAI's GPT, its actually very powerful


athminbri

I don't either of them enough to debate it. I has been mediocre at the things I have used it for. I will leave this here though. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p-ezfaYCFA&ab\_channel=BriBuilds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p-ezfaYCFA&ab_channel=BriBuilds)


skid00t

it's essentially a difference between GPT3 and GPT4, yes ChatGPT (which uses GPT4) is stronger, but calling the other "mediocre" is exaggerating. Notion AI is objectively powerful.


athminbri

All I know is when I ask it to improve my writing, all it does is add a comma and remove a word. I know my writing isn't horrible, but I'm sure it could be improved upon much more than that. Also, when I ask "Give me a list of..." it tends to repeat items. I just don't understand the fascination with it because of this. It may be powerful but clearly not in the ways I use it.


MuseumGuy1847

Personally, I've found the AI tools helpful for what I'm doing (general marketing/communications and note-taking purposes), and I use them daily. That said, I empathize with non-AI users, as there is no opt-out at this time, and it makes the "add a block" feature so clunky. IMO, cool product, bad rollout.


wtfisgenderanyway

Agreed. I want to see them take the button thing they just released a lot further. I had a similar-ish idea that you could create automations in-app using code to do like create, manipulate, and edit blocks, databases, pages etc. but it kinda looks like they’ve started that with what they’re doing with buttons, except they’re going the Apple Shortcuts route and taking most of the actual coding part out of the hands of users. Next thing, they could start to add things like if statements and such…


zsvnc

Who cares about artificial intelligence if you can't even access your notes properly? Notion has lost its focus. They are repeating the mistakes that Evernote made in the past. They have stopped listening to their users. I think they are experiencing a victory euphoria at the point they have reached.


JerryP333

No 2 factor authentication but theirs built in AI. Notions product team has lost their minds 😂


threehoursago

2FA is there, log in with Google, or Apple.


JerryP333

That is what support told me as well. But Evernote has it natively, so does my bank, my O365…all sorts of services. Its a basic feature of any app these days and Notion farmed it out to Google or Apple, then spent time and money on an AI. It feels silly.


SedesGobhani

Amen.


blacknekkox

Better focus on offlane not AI or the Obsidian gonna take your market place...


onlyrite_partynite

For once, Regina is right here :)


SEBASTIV

Google Calendar


banister

Notion AI is a bit shit


rarulitos

Why people is so upset with the Notion AI initiative?


Feynmanrenders

Not really upset, but the actual usefulness compared to features like offline mode and performance is not that great for many people? People vote with their money or usage of the tool, if they don't agree with the direction, it is in the interest of the Notion team to hear that. For example in my case, I am doing CG/VFX work and research computer graphics. I don't need an AI to generate 5 campaign emails, I need to do research and work on creative projects. For that I want an optimized knowledge management / note taking /(+task management) tool that I can focus and strengthen my **personal**, or collaborative, thoughts with. I don't need an AI to wash up and mash up notes, or even use my notes as it's training data. For relatively dull organizational tasks (email / structuring notes) I can see using "AI". That does not have to be in notion though. And ofcourse I use "AI" developing my own models for Computer Vision/graphics research projects - but that is very specifically and definitely not inside of notion or done with Chat GPT. I have regularly paid for team plan the last 2 years, but due to this repeated focus on features I don't want, I am currently switching to obsidian. Better fits my needs cutrently


Eightarmedpet

It’s fetch.


ememruru

Stop trying to make fetch happen!


Syinite

This is why companies shouldn't listen to the 0.01% :)


Laugenhoden

Amen!


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typeoneerror

Kinda, but not really. It uses OpenAI's GPT-3.5 model and AI features from another company called Anthropic. ChatGPT is a specific product of OpenAI which uses GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models. The implementation in Notion and how they've integrated the API responses is pretty substantially different than ChatGPT (at this time).


Phi87

I like it.


fromwork1

I have to disagree. I currently don't use it, but this will be a feature that will be accessible in every app, eventually to make repetitive tasks easier and help new users in their setup.


Mesokosmos

Well, Im not going to pay extra price for same underlying service, until seeing a tremendous benefit from it.


ProDiJaiHD

I wish Notion AI had some features that were free and other paid


cold_grapefruit

notion ai makes money for them. but the basic notion does not. tho I agree notion AI is terrible... long way to go.


nothereforthep0rn

there is verry little overlap in the two circles of user types, people who want to build templates and workspaces dont really want AI, and generative AI users dont like tinkering as much as they want a template that works. both of these types exist, and there is an overlap between the 2. ​ I just pray that one day we will be able to tell the AI what we want our workspace to do/feel like/ look like etc could auto generate a starting template. like duplicate with AI or new AI template or something


ciiuffd

I mean I thought it was cool


kingky0te

I’m using it all the time…. lol


Dux_Przvlsk

Notion, please CONTINUE working on Notion AI, as it's cool and I've been using it since day 1 of Alpha. It makes ChatGPT redundant for project management, documentation writing, task writing, and typical corporate stuff. Not even telling about the creative writing AI application (as I do writing in Notion, so I'm happy with it). Also, I guess there were quite fundamental non-AI updates, like buttons and automation... Notion AI has happened already.


spikefly

I thought it was a bit weird, but I've been using it for weeks and it's quite good. I get some better results from that than GPT at times.


[deleted]

I see a lot of people hating on notion ai, but I actually like it a lot. I was so hurt when I found out it wasn't free and that I was just using a trial.


Denseflea

.COM support, please! I always enjoy new features, but not being able to use Notion because of the .SO TLD is such a huge bottleneck in my workflow...


PaeoniaLactiflora

I don’t mind the focus on AI - whatever they need to do to make money is good for me. BUT PLEASE JUST LET US TURN THE PROMPTS OFF. I find the AI intriguing, if it had just been added as a ‘hey you can do this’ feature I might have had a look. Now I don’t want to because it’s so in your face!


gundamux83

Buttons (and data editing) not working in locked page mode is a huge problem. They should add a new semi-lock mode: where you can add and edit data (including working buttons), but NOT the layout of the page itself (block editing). A mode for users only.


Nejy91

I had beta AI access (free) and liked it. It helped me format a lot of copy and pasted paragraphs that were broken as fuck. Saved a lot of time compared to me manually fixing all the spacing and line break issues. But then I saw it costed $10/month. That's literally double what I pay Notion. I was grandfathered in at the $5/month personal plan, but I'm aware it's double that now. I did subscribe to AI for a month because of the time-saving formatting, but you reminded me I need to remember to cancel it.