Great. Many thanks Jess.
@ErsatzLord, I join in your request. I, too, have asked to be better informed, without success so far.
Having looked through this and another thread discussing the recent lack of info regarding future updates, I was reminded of a post (Now we’ve launched, what next?) I made just after the initial launch of version 3.
It is clear that now, nearly 18 months after I wrote that post, users are frustrated at not being kept informed on a more regular basis about the future of Aeon Timeline.
Aeon 3, when it launched, was a huge step change in terms of what the software offered, in particular to fiction writers. It quite literally towered above the competition, offering a huge amount of flexibility, and carefully designed features honed over the course of a two-year-plus alpha and beta development phase. I took part in both the Alpha and Beta and there was a real buzz about this great new future for Aeon Timeline.
The software also came with a new, and I still believe, fairer business model which promised more regular updates. I say fairer, because users would not be pressured into paying for software updates if they did not value them, or if the frequency of updates was not as they had hoped. It placed the emphasis for the future of this software squarely at the developers’ doors.
However, the implications of this are clear. The future of Aeon Timeline is, as with any software, reliant upon a steady stream of income from its users. And, I believe that this is where the frustration lies amongst current users. They want to know that the app they have grown to love, is going to continue to go from strength to strength and still be there for them in the future.
I don’t know why there has been a lack of new updates recently. Or why the communication regarding AT3’s future has been sparse of late. I can only presume there is a good reason why. I know from experience, during the alpha and beta testing, that the developers care deeply about the app that they have built. And, it is for this reason, that I have recently paid for another year of updates.
But, and this is a big but; it would be great to at least have some indication of where AT3 is currently heading. There is clearly a new beta about to start at some point, which according to an email sent out late last year, includes some new features. Part of me doesn’t even care to know at this point what those features are. Just roughly when the beta is likely to start. So I can plan in some time to help with the testing.
I would also encourage others to take part in the beta. With the emergence of Plottr as a (in my opinion, inferior) contender to Aeon’s story planning crown, the more users who can help inform Aeon’s future, the better. But of course, users need to be in possession of an active license to do so. Another reason why an updated communication is now overdue. So that users can have the confidence to update their licenses and take part in the testing.
Anyway, I just wanted to add my own thoughts to this discussion.
All the best,
Andrew
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I think Aeon has a developer, not developers. That probably impacts releases.
In the meantime, I’m getting good service out of the present version.
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They certainly had three developers during the beta phase. Which granted, is still a small team.
I am also getting great value and utility out of the current version. But that wasn’t really the point I was making. It was more about the future of the software given user expectations and market positioning.
Your point well taken. I’m looking forward to the next version, too.
I hope it remains as open to CSV import as the current and previous versions. I don’t do it often, but it’s nice to export data from other apps, like Devonthink or Curio, into Aeon.
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For a product this useful, I’m comfortable paying for yearly support, I’d love to know what the plans are for the next six months or more. My credit card is standing by.
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Hi Mike, Steve, Andrew, Palle, Ant, Amontillado, Ersatz, Serabale, and everyone,
We’re currently working hard on version 3.2, which we expect to release for beta testing in early May. Although we had originally planned to release it in January, we encountered some unexpected challenges along the way.
We’ve made significant tech changes to better support large and intricate timelines. Unfortunately, it has taken us longer than expected to get this version up to the standard we’re happy with, and to achieve the quality we’re committed to delivering to you. We are truly apologetic for the inconvenience and confusion caused by the delay and lack of updates.
Rest assured we’re still here and pushing forward! Despite some unexpected health issues and other challenges, the team has put in a tremendous effort, and we’re eager to share these updates with you as soon as possible.
If you’re interested in being front of the line to experience the updates and share your feedback, we invite you to join our beta waitlist as others have suggested in this thread.
Thank you for your continued support, and we can’t wait to share version 3.2 with you soon!
On a slightly different note…
We are committed to building a product that truly makes a difference and empowers people in their work.
We understand that the lack of communication been a concern, especially for those who depend on the app for their work or projects. We want you to know that we are always listening, and finding ways to better connect with you all is a top priority for us.
We not only want to improve how we communicate, but also what we build.
If the app is essential to your work, we would love to hear from you and gain a better understanding of your goals and needs. We’re always looking for ways to improve our product and processes, and your insights would be incredibly valuable to us.
So, please reach out and send me a direct message if you would be open to such a conversation.
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Hi @Rebecca. I hope you are well. Thank you for taking the time to post an update to the forum. It’s great to hear from you again. And thank you for the information regarding the next iteration of AT3.
I have already signed up for the beta programme and am happy to help with the testing. It is often a big commitment but I think it is important to help test and potentially shape the future of great software. So hopefully there will be a lot of people wanting to participate and provide feedback.
You mentioned looking at new ways of communicating. I think that makes a lot of sense. Forums by their very nature tend to be places people come to when they have a technical or usage question or if they wish to report bugs. But I would imagine the majority of users never come here. Will you be sending an email out in the coming days or weeks inviting people to the beta? I didn’t get the last email and a lot of time has passed since that communication was sent.
One of the things I would like to see would be more of a community for users. When AT3 was initially being developed the forums were busy and people were sharing ideas about how best to use the software. But that naturally died down upon release and there has been nothing to replace it. I see other software (I’ll mention no names) creating a buzz through livestreams and informational videos. That can prove a big burden on a company but it does help create interest and a strong brand.
I would be open to further discussions regarding my needs and the way forward. But we have talked a few times in the past and you may wish to speak with others. I would say though that I have been doing a lot of thinking surrounding AT3 and the writing community and potential ways to showcase AT3’s power and flexibility to creative writers and other industries.
Anyway, thank you once more for the update. I breathed a sigh of relief to hear some news this morning. I will look forward to the beta starting and being able to help in some small way shape AT3’s future.
Keep up the good work everyone.
Andrew
P.S. I can find no way of sending direct messages on the forum. They have always eluded me.
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I use ver. 3.1.8 and it is great… AND as I have pointed out to ‘Jess’ one feature I sorely miss, which existed in previous versions (2…):
That Characters and Arc should be shown sorted a-z or z-a.
I operate with a huge number of characters (names) and setting up a useful filterfunction is not possible, for me, in a practical manner as it is, when these 2 groups are shown sort of random .
I have opted to be on the beta list, hope I am still there 
Kind regards
Palle Jensen
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I’ve come to find Aeon Timeline 3 essential. I’d love to directly message you to discuss specific wishes for the app.
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Regular, preferably frequent, communication is essential to maintain community involvement and support and attract new customers. I haven’t popped in here for a long while because there didn’t seem to be much going on and I had no direct need.
I’d agree with the suggestion in another post for having a discord server. Especially if one or two community members would take on the moderator role (I’m assuming that team time is already too little, and frequency matters if you want people to keep checking in).
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I really think the team has to give out an official message that isn’t “Hey! We’re working on something!”
My subscription has been expired for months now and I’m not re-subscribing until I see that there will be updates or even regular communication from the team.
An actually roadmap would be great. There are a couple of features that people want. I the feature request page hasn’t changed at all.
I’ve been waiting for avatar images for months and in the feature request it has been voted by a lot and it was labeled with small, yet it still hasn’t been added.
The app feels so dead because of the lack of communication and I’m inclined to think that it is. It’s hard to trust the whole “we’re working on something” when it’s been month and nothing has been shown. Even a sneak peak would be great, because right now it just feels like the team just waited for people’s subscriptions to expire and it’s currently not worth it to subscribe because there is no update.
I’ve been watching my email for months after signing up for the beta and everything but nothing.
This is very disheartening as I’ve been using the app since the beta and really do like it enough to subscribe for updates but without a roadmap or even open communication with the team. It feels like a scam to do so.
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I can understand your frustration. No news is not always good news.
This thread reads, quite rightly I think, as a plea from a concerned user base who loves the app that the developers have crafted. Everyone who has posted here, has done so out of love for Aeon Timeline and its features. They find the app invaluable and want it to be successful. But there will be many more who I am sure will either just be getting on with using the app, happy with what it currently offers (but not necessarily subscribing due to the lack of updates) or they have moved on to other apps with more regular updates being released. This, I fear, may be the silent majority. But that is only guesswork, based solely on my experience of users and apps and their thirst for new features and continued development. After all, continued development is a fairly good indicator of an app’s longevity.
I feel I can add some context here though. And this is in no way a defence of the development team (I can’t speak for them). But I did have an hour long zoom call with one of the devs to discuss my future needs from the app, as offered by @Rebecca above. During that call I got the impression that they are working hard to make the app better in a whole range of different ways. They seemed enthusiastic for the future and eager to understand what my needs were.
However, current development plans were not discussed. In fact, I came away with zero information about what the next update is likely to be, and zero idea whether my wishes for the future were possible areas for development or not (although in fairness, my needs were simple and mainly in line with a number of current feature requests).
We have just passed the second ‘deadline’ or suggested release date for a beta that has been missed and still there has not been a simple blog post talking a little about where the app is headed. Which, for me, is the most frustrating thing. As I get the impression that there will be big changes coming sooner, rather than later. If only I could know that for sure, I would be a much happier user of this wonderful software.
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Let’s remember: Literature and Latte also struggled for many years with Scrivener version 3 for Windows.
Actually, it is a proof of quality for me, if not constantly new updates are needed to be able to use a software. If I only think of the Windows 10 updates, which steal my time again and again.
Or the dreaded message “Your web browser has been updated. Learn all about the brand new user experience.” Yikes!
An excellent job was done by the Aeon developers with Timeline 2, which has served me as a reliable workhorse for many years and has no problems whatsoever. I can program myself tools and not have to worry (anymore) about the file format changing.
Of course, with Aeon 3, things are a bit different – the new features almost challenge you to compare with the market (where Aeon 2 had a unique position), and always create new desires among users. And a subscription model naturally creates great expectations.
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I don’t know about great expectations, but certainly expectations of something continuous. Even if it’s only communication.
By comparison, I received an email from Heptabase a couple of days ago listing all the major features it had launched in April with a list of what it expected to deliver in May. There’s daily communication from their team on their Discord. When I started trialling the whiteboard/note apps, I actually preferred the way Scrintal worked, but it didn’t have dark mode. Was promised for soon, but actually took 4 months. I look at their updates, but don’t use the program and will not continue my subscription.
When there’s a promise, or even an implied promise, it needs to be delivered. Communication helps manage expectations. When 3 was launched with a subscription, it was explicitly in recognition of 2 having stalled and that there was need of a funding mechanism supporting continued development. As it stands, there’s no public evidence of that development despite the existence of the mechanism: maybe the old one-off model was the best fit after all.
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We’re in the final stages of working out the last unreleasable bugs and hoping to have the beta release built this week, with announcements likely going out next week.
The largest change by far and what has taken so long has been rearchitecting the app to support larger timelines. We’ve heard from people who found the app slowing significantly when they had more than a couple of thousand of items. The only way to truly address the performance issue was a very large rewrite of essentially the entire codebase. Coming out of this, we expect the app to be able to handle thousands of items with minimal lag.
Another reason why we have been quiet on exact features is we’ve come to realise that taking on suggestions as they come, while there are always good intentions, hasn’t always left us in the best spot. And that’s on us for not planning and prioritising at a higher level. Again with good intentions, but we’ve sometimes spent our time on additions that don’t help the most people, or on features that don’t yet come together into a coherent experience.
We want to address some difficulties a lot of people have with the app, even if they don’t specifically call it out. Clicking or editing the wrong item due to confusion, not being able to navigate their data, not using various features because they’re too difficult. So we’ve been putting in effort to make the app easier to use, less taxing, and less error prone.
The resulting changes are only just a start, and we wouldn’t expect they solve all those problems. But hopefully it sets us on a better path of making any features we do add more discoverable and learnable, and ultimately more useful.
So as a preview, a few updates that have been made (other than the performance improvements which are less visual):
Showing item icons in the item’s actual colour, rather than items having seperate icons and colours that aren’t used together.
Showing in the workview header how many items are shown in a view, and how many items are hidden by filter.
Making it easier to see which item is selected. Adding an option to auto open and close the inspector.
Making it faster to add entities. Making it easier to tell in Spreadsheet and Relationship what items are being edited.
Showing a warning colour when entering an invalid date that will be rejected.
Showing where an item went if it drops away from your mouse position, such as in Timeline view where items move to be ordered by date.
Even a sneak peak would be great, because right now it just feels like the team just waited for people’s subscriptions to expire and it’s currently not worth it to subscribe because there is no update.
That definitely has not been our intention. The subscription was put in place for updates to recognise that at this stage for the app, not all updates are going to hold value for everyone (although we had certainly hoped to get to the upcoming beta sooner). Having the subscription be for updates only was intended to allow people to optionally hold off until there were changes that they did find valuable.
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Rebecca,
Your message and explanations make sense. Biting the bullet on your deep database code and getting it right, or at least better, has to have a first priority. Failing to do this leads to big user disappointments later.
However, since this is “basic” and since you said this is a very big code rewrite, you must have a large and vigorous beta because you will surely have lots of new bugs to fix. Perhaps when the beta is out you will post a “public” (beta only?) bug list, status, and fix expectations? It seems like lotsa folks want you to be successful so perhaps you enlist their help in one or more ways?
I am a newbie and dabbler but did consumer software in an earlier life.
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Thank you for the update Rebecca. While I tend to not have thousands of lines of data in any single timeline file (I’m never likely to write a novel the size of War And Peace), hopefully the changes to the underlying architecture will make the app feel smoother. And also, perhaps it will help fix the visual glitches I am still experiencing in rendering Timeline views, especially at the margins of timeline ranges.
Another benefit of providing a more streamlined and performant app is that it will make plotting an entire series of books in a single timeline file even more viable.
The other changes you have previewed I am sure will certainly help users navigate around the app and will help build a more solid base upon which to develop any future updates.
From one of @matt’s previous comments regarding the high volume of feature requests (some carried over from version 2 and even earlier) it makes sense for you, as a development team, to review all feature requests. With an eye to prioritising those which are likely to provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of users, both current and future. And, as you say, if features developed don’t suit certain users then they do not need to continuously pay for updates they don’t find useful.
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Have you ever thought of offering additional features as program extensions? Of course, this would require a “plug-in” architecture, which may not exist in version 3.
I agree.