Notion (productivity software)

Notion (productivity software)
Notion is a freemium productivity and note-taking web application developed by Notion Labs Inc. It offers organizational tools including task management, project tracking, to-do lists, and bookmarking. Additional offline features are offered by desktop and mobile applications available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Users can create custom templates, embed videos and web content, and collaborate with others in real-time.
History
Notion Labs Inc is a startup based in San Francisco, founded in 2013 by Ivan Zhao, Chris Prucha, Jessica Lam, Simon Last and Toby Schachman. At that time, they declined to meet any venture capitalists or discuss acquiring a higher valuation.
In March 2018, Notion 2.0 was released. It was rated #1 Product of the Month on Product Hunt. At that point, the company had fewer than 10 employees.
In June 2018, an official Android app was released.
In September 2019, the company announced it had reached 1 million users. In April 2020, it became valued at two billion dollars.
In January 2020, Notion received $50 million in investments from Index Ventures and other investors.
On September 7, 2021, Notion acquired Automate.io, a Hyderabad-based startup. In October of that year, a new round of funding led by Coatue Management and Sequoia Capital helped Notion raise $275 million. The investment valued Notion at $10 billion, and the company had 20 million users.
In 2022, Notion launched the Notion Certified Program, an official accreditation allowing users to expand their expertise. It also joined the Security First Initiative, a coalition of tech companies pledging to share security information with their customers.
In June 2022, Notion acquired calendar software Cron to add it to its suite of productivity apps.
In November 2022, Notion announced its official Japanese release.
In February 2023, Notion officially released the "Notion AI" service that can be used on the workspace.
In April 2023, Notion officially released multi-factor authentication for its users.
Software
Notion is a collaboration platform with modified Markdown support that integrates kanban boards, tasks, wikis and databases. It is an all-in-one workspace for notetaking, knowledge and data management, and project and task management. It is a file management tool offering a unified workspace, allowing users to comment on ongoing projects, participate in discussions, and receive feedback. It can be accessed by cross-platform apps and by most web browsers.
It includes a tool for "clipping" content from webpages. It helps users schedule tasks, manage files, save documents, set reminders, keep agendas, and organize their work. LaTeX support allows writing and pasting equations in block or inline form.
Users can sign in to Notion using their Google account, Apple ID or email.
Features
Notion does not require specialized training to use. It offers AI capabilities and a library of free and fee-based templates, with the Notion AI functionality, users can write and improve content, summarize existing notes, daily standup, adjust the tone, translate or check text. Security features include Security Assertion Markup Language single sign-on and private team spaces for their Business and Enterprise tiers.
Notion enables its users to integrate with more than 70 other SaaS tools, such as Slack, GitHub, GitLab, Zoom, Jira, Cisco Webex, Zapier, and Typeform.
Blocks
Everything in Notion is made up of blocks. This includes text, images, tables, and even pages themselves. This allows users to easily customize a page by adding and moving blocks in various ways. In June 2021, Notion released a 'synced block', which is a special type of block that, when copied and pasted across different pages in a user's workspace, shows edits synchronously.
Databases
One of Notion's features is its database. Databases are used for storing information and can hold any number of rows and columns. By default, each row will have two pre-populated properties: 'Name' and 'Tags'. Users can add more properties, such as date, checkbox, multi-select, URL, and more. When creating databases, users can choose to either create it 'inline', within an already existing page, or as its own page.
Templates
Another popular feature that Notion provides is the ability for users to make templates and share them with others. Notion hosts its very own template gallery, where users can browse through templates made by other Notion creators. However, not all of these templates are free to use. Some creators have also made a profit from selling Notion templates. Jason Ruiyi Chen, a 20-year-old from Singapore, made $239,000 by selling his Notion templates to his Twitter audience. Thomas Frank, a YouTuber with 2.8 million subscribers as of February 2023, earned more than $1 million in 2022.
Notion AI
Notion AI is based on artificial intelligence, which enables prediction of different results, generation and solving mathematical outputs. It will also work with other datasets in response to an input by the user of the AI. This AI can automate tasks, and assist the user to make a brief or outline from a single line of text. Notion AI has its own subscription set which is $10/month/person.
Pricing
Notion has a four-tiered subscription model: Free, Plus, Business and Enterprise. Users can also earn credit via referrals. As of May 2020, the company upgraded the Personal plan to allow unlimited blocks, a change from the previous cap in the plan.
See also
Collaborative real-time editor
Document collaboration
Obsidian (software)
References
External links
Note-taking software
Collaborative real-time editors
Collaborative software
Proprietary wiki software
Android (operating system) software
IOS software
Software companies based in California
Business software
Applications of artificial intelligence