What's with the constant updates and unnecessary features?

[evernoteisbloated 3]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it appears to be the only place to contact the Evernote team. I've been an Evernote user for about a decade, but I think I'm going to have to find a different notes app. I don't want to switch, but with every new update, Evernote gets more bloated and more frustrating to use.

It seems like there's an update every other day with new features that I don't need. Why do I have to tap twice to create a note now? I don't care about Tasks. If I wanted a Task app, I would download one. Half the time, Evernote just spins out for several moments before it will even load my notes. This is incredibly irritating when I just want to jot down a thought. And syncing between my mobile app and my desktop app works only about a quarter of the time. The app keeps making duplicate notes, which makes it difficult to update and track my lists.

Every time I open Evernote these days, I get frustrated. Instead of making my life easier, it's now making it harder. Please stop adding unnecessary features and pushing out constant updates.

[PinkElephant 8,284]

To reach the EN team, this is not the right place.

Use the feedback function build into the clients, or if qualified issue a support ticket.

Personally I think we had a stalemate with nearly no advancement for years. Maybe EN is currently making up for that. I think each software package can do much more than you personally want or can use. Just pick what you need, ignore the rest.

[WilliamL 658]

I have to say I entirely disagree with the op. I am on board with the remember everything accomplish anything idea. What’s the point of data if I can’t in the end be productive with it. I like home, I think it will improve as widgets are added, I love integrated tasks as thats so helpful as I have many meetings and struggle to stay on top of to-dos from them.  I’m not looking to debate this as we all have different needs but I’m seeing a narrative of we don’t want all these new features, so I feel I gotta say, no, actually some of us are finding them really useful. 

[DTLow 5,738]

6 hours ago, evernoteisbloated said:

It seems like there's an update

Switch to the Evernote Legacy product - there's no updates    🙂

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052560314-Install-an-older-version-of-Evernote

[Boot17 1,490]

I think Evernote is better than it was a year ago (and I'm using the v10 on Mac and Windows). I love the consistent UI and notes.

I don't use tasks and I don't use the Home widgets (and I'm a Plus user -- so I can't really use them very well anyway), but they don't bother me. I just don't use them and they aren't in my way at all.

[athletico 6]

Personally, I really like the new Evernote and I've been with the product since the very beginning. I like Tasks and I like the new Calendar integration. My Evernote runs quickly and it syncs okay across devices fine. What am I doing wrong! 😂

Some of the posters on this forum need to get a grip. If you don't like Evernote, go find another product. There are too many whiny posts about costs or how you are migrating to some other note taking app because you hate the new Evernote. Great, you are entitled to your opinion. Now vote with your feet and go. Some of the long goodbyes on here are just plain embarrassing.

How about a bit more positive feedback on here to lighten the mood! No one wants to read a constant moan-fest do they?

Wishing you all an enjoyable and productive Friday! 😀 

[Anonyme For Liberty 16]

I totally agree with you. Long time user of Evernote myself, I’m disappointed by the Evernote home that gets in the way. You can’t even display a widget of your notebooks if you are a Plus subscriber! Notebooks! Can you imagine, a core feature! How they dare?

It is like if they say they bring new features, but use them as an excuse to get in the way and force you to pay more to get rid of them.

How come there is no option to toggle the display of the task feature in the UI ?

Proof that they are fighting against their customers, on my ipad evernote client, when I create a new note, they force me to chose between two buttons instead of creating directling a new Note : Note or Task. If I click the Task button, the app tells me : you can’t use it, you need to pay more for that. Ok, why not. It’s ok but I don’t want this feature.

But why are you displaying this button next to my usual Note button, asking me to do an extra click, if the feature is not available in my subscription ? why not hide it for Plus subscribers?

You see the pattern? Its the same thing they do in some games where you can do only 4 tasks a day and you need to pay if you want to get rid of the limitation. But those games are free to play. Paying Plus subscription is not free, I don’t deserve to be treated like that.

The only thing that keeps me in Evernote is having the legacy pc version (and the live search/filter option inside notebook, my most used feature by far - i’m a power user- that disappeared in new Evernote client...). The day they remove this legacy client, I will migrate all my notes elsewhere and it will be the same with my peers.

On 7/22/2021 at 6:58 PM, evernoteisbloated said:

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it appears to be the only place to contact the Evernote team. I've been an Evernote user for about a decade, but I think I'm going to have to find a different notes app. I don't want to switch, but with every new update, Evernote gets more bloated and more frustrating to use.

It seems like there's an update every other day with new features that I don't need. Why do I have to tap twice to create a note now? I don't care about Tasks. If I wanted a Task app, I would download one. Half the time, Evernote just spins out for several moments before it will even load my notes. This is incredibly irritating when I just want to jot down a thought. And syncing between my mobile app and my desktop app works only about a quarter of the time. The app keeps making duplicate notes, which makes it difficult to update and track my lists.

Every time I open Evernote these days, I get frustrated. Instead of making my life easier, it's now making it harder. Please stop adding unnecessary features and pushing out constant updates.

 

[PinkElephant 8,284]

With Plus you are on a double vintage subscription - single vintage now is rebated Premium.

When you stay on this old subscription level, you should not expect new features. If you get them, because EN invests into developing new abilities (finally !), you only get what every Free user gets as well.

You can upgrade any time.

But please, don’t expect a free lunch - it would be handed out at the expense of us other users who pay for what we get. And sorry, I am not willing to do so (if I have a choice).

[Ginjam 0]

It seems every time I open the app I'm interrupted with a new version to install.

Surely these can be collated into a once-per fortnight update?

[EnderCrow 0]

It does seem excessive, I rarely read the update content anymore because they come so often. The updates have not risen to the level of annoying quote yet, they have just become a part of my morning routine when I get to my desk. Gotta click OK, never bother with even reading what it says any longer. I don't even know what the format of the update content looks like to offer suggestion on improving that aspect because at this point my mind has learned to block it out.

Outside of critical updates; If it was done on the X of every month or whatever schedule you decide to choose it may be more effective. 

[Brinkburn1 26]

6 hours ago, Ginjam said:

It seems every time I open the app I'm interrupted with a new version to install.

Surely these can be collated into a once-per fortnight update?

I like the surprise of seeing another update in my inbox. Maybe as an "early adopter" type it just feeds my appetite. We've waited a long time to see the improvements which are now being announced and I for one don't want to wait for longer. 

[PinkElephant 8,284]

Hey everybody: We used to wait a year between updates with legacy - yes, even for bugfixes if often took that long.

Wish it back ? Uninstall v10, install legacy - done. No more updates, never …

The current v10 update cycle is approximately 1 update every 2-3 weeks. How I know ? V10 is out for a year now (plus a little, depends on the platform). On desktop we count 25 releases so far, on mobile 21. Since this is typical for the „agile“ method adopted by EN, I expect this to continue. So better get used to it.

[lost_gweedo 73]

On 11/17/2021 at 2:36 AM, Ginjam said:

It seems every time I open the app I'm interrupted with a new version to install.

Surely these can be collated into a once-per fortnight update?

While I haven't been counting days between updates, they have been around once every couple weeks.  I find the consistent, incremental updates easier to digest and continue working versus large changes (less frequently)...but, to each their own.  I'm confused at the number of users who dislike updates and added features. 🤷‍♂️

[Nate6357 0]

Agree, out of control. Every second day it feels like a new update. Just do it once a month and provide a better UX.

 

[PinkElephant 8,284]

The process is very much in control. It is called agile software development, and you find it in more and more places. It drives progress by many, but in itself incremental improvements, leading to a steady flow of innovation. One side effect is that QA is easier when changes are smaller, and if a bug evaded detection, the next update is always just around the corner.

Usually what will be released in 4 cycles from today is defined just now, what we see in 3 cycles is in coding, 2 cycles is with QA and documentation and the next cycle is in release management. If something does not make it, it can easily be stopped and delayed one cycle (or more), because again there are many cycles, and not much is lost by delaying it by 2 weeks.

How often a new release will show ? If they keep the pace, desktop roughly every 2 weeks - we had initial launch in October 2020, 90 weeks since, and we count rel. 10.41 today. On mobile a little less, released in September 2020, 85 weeks since, and release 10.36 as of today. So, just get used to get a new version every 2 weeks - it is your subscription money at work.

[WilliamL 658]

13 hours ago, Nate6357 said:

Agree, out of control. Every second day it feels like a new update. Just do it once a month and provide a better UX.

 

Come on, you gotta see how first world problem this is that your complaining an app is too well maintained.  Just let it update and then use it. 

[ehrt74 240]

i just want to say that it's really rare for a software to be "done". quite apart from bugs or performance improvements (and it's fairly likely that every non-trivial app can be updated for one of these reasons), there is often new functionality to add and software Evernote interacts with could change something about their interfaces.

For this non-trivial programs will either change with time or they will become superseded by other apps. The question is, what different strategies are there for a software team to update the program they work on? 

Classically there are two popular models. These are called "waterfall" and "agile development". To simplify greatly, waterfall involves larger changes happening rarely while agile development consists of many small changes. For SAAS (software as a service--for example, a web site or a piece of software on a device with package management), agile development is generally regarded as a superior method. For large stand-alone software products which are evaluated over months by corporations before being deployed (like microsoft office), the waterfall model has advantages.

Evernote stands somewhere between the two. The web interface can update itself everytime you refresh the page, the android/iOS (and i hope Linux) versions get updated automatically by the package manager built in to the operating system. Do Windows or OSX have package managers nowadays? I really don't know, but they didn't the last time i used them.

Personally i prefer the incremental update approach, but i can imagine IT departments being annoyed by it. 

[PinkElephant 8,284]

MacOS has the AppStore, and you can decide how to handle updates there. But it doesn’t cover all apps, and it has some disadvantages, like running all apps in a sandbox mode. With EN this has created problems in the past, both with legacy and v10.

[agsteele 2,978]

15 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

MacOS has the AppStore, and you can decide how to handle updates there. But it doesn’t cover all apps, and it has some disadvantages, like running all apps in a sandbox mode. With EN this has created problems in the past, both with legacy and v10.

Similarly for Windows. The store app is sometimes hampered.  Of course, all the desktop apps will update on due course after a new version is released.

[shaunB 8]

I agree that the functionality is changing from a note taking and reference tool to more of a productivity tool, I personally like it.

At the moment I still use a task app as Evernote is not quite there yet (need the badge showing number of tasks due today for example) but the ability to take notes linked to meetings and the ability to add action items is great for my workflow.

There is still some distance to go in terms of 100% reliability across devices, sync is still too slow, but I am actually using Evernote more than ever and am intrigued to know what comes next. Hopefully better sketching and handwritten notes (and the badge) is in the pipeline.