Beyond free - the case for anonymous apps

Close your eyes and picture this. Actually, scratch that, you need your eyes to read. Imagine with me for a moment a different kind of world. The rules of the internet are different here, and if you want to use an app or piece of software, you just jump in and use it upfront without an account. Let's pretend for a sec that this app is a file sharing app of sorts, you go to the page and get a folder where you can throw in the things that you want to transfer or share, and then you just give that URL to someone else and then you both have access to that shared folder. You open your eyes now, actually we weren't doing that… you begin to raise your eyebrows with suspicion… "Now hang on a minute" you say while swatting away the imaginary imagination cloud that formed over your head, "What about storage costs? What about my privacy? Hell, what happens when I close that tab, how do I get back to my stuff?!" You feel a sense of calm as your perfectly rational questions fill the void between us.

I can, and will answer all your questions, but why not try it right now? We built exactly that: Visit new.space and get a new, empty space to share anything with anyone, no signup, no ads, no cookies, no friction.

Why build anonymous apps?

At Shareup, we have been intensely focused on breaking down barriers for sharing. From the walled gardens of green vs blue bubbles, to the snooping that the other providers do, and even rethinking those baseline questions of "what do people need to use our software?". We know we can provide value to people instantly if we don't require them to have an account up-front, so we made it work without one. Need a space to instantly share something? new.space

How does it work?

Spinning in your chair, you say to the ceiling fan "What about my questions?"
Ah, right. Well let's get into 'em. The deal is, you get a space instantly and can use it without any email or signup, but that space will "Auto-cleanup" in 2 weeks. At the end of that 14 day period, everything will be deleted. If you want to hold onto them longer, then that is a great time to make an account and keep the space around long-term or if you want a new space, just head to new.space! As for privacy, everything shared into a space, anonymous or otherwise, is end-to-end encrypted. We believe that you should own the keys to your data, so only you and those with whom you share the Space link can access this Space. And closing the tab? It will still be there when you get back, but don't lose the URL!

Are there already anonymous apps?

If you poke around, you'll definitely find examples of anonymous apps in the wild. Many games have been supporting anonymous modes for quite some time now. It is relatively common to just play a game and opt out of account-centric features like progress tracking, achievements or multiplayer…until you want those features. Chess.com is a fantastic example where if you want to play chess, you just start moving the pieces. This is a much rarer experience for productivity apps, though I have to admit it is a breath of fresh air when I experience it.

Ok, seems neat! But this doesn't work everywhere or for every app. Sometimes you need that account to secure information or sync between devices. Plus this takes a ton of extra time and resources to implement! Look, I know having account-less apps doesn't work for every piece of software out there. Though, I've seen that it has become, more often than not, the baseline starting point for a webapp to show a login screen. I think, as designers and developers, we can do better. Designing apps in this way isn't easy, and building them this way does require more resources and state management. However, finding areas to inject this capability can turn a good user-experience into a great one. In a recent update, Craft completely overhauled their shared document strategy to allow anonymous users to view and edit documents. This is a fantastic example of finding areas where software designers can meet the needs of their users in exactly the moment when it matters.

Some closing thoughts

Through our process of designing and developing new.space, we've learned a lot about what it takes to create software with an anonymous mode. From instantly giving value to the user, to finding great moments to level up the experience with an account, we firmly believe that the experience of anonymous apps and modes is key to delivering a solid UX to our users. There is a real opportunity to change the baseline expectations here. What if, instead of the initial selling point "no credit card required" we could instead say. Use it: right now, no signup, and no friction.

Anyway, we are building a thing called new.space. You can use it right now without a name, email address, or credit card. We're rolling out new things all the time, like our iOS beta (which, funnily enough, also launched our 'accounts' feature). Try out the apps and let us know what you think at shareup.world.