Looks great. I like the use of emoji.

The concept reminds me a lot of what we did with Circa years ago: https://medium.com/circa/the-right-way-to-ask-users-to-review-your-app-9a32fd604fca?source=linkShare-9e1633b0e7ad-1505326987

Sure, it takes care of the job in the same way that LayerVault took care of it years ago. And takes care of it in the same way that Dropbox takes care of it, with some additional GUI and features.

But Abstract is not the basic version control that you find here. It's way more feature rich and frankly, more powerful. We're not just talking about one file evolving over time where you can look back at old versions. Branches add a whole new dimension to design collaboration. You can keep the Master file safe and clean, which acts as your single source of truth. Then branch from there to explore and work on new things without affecting the source of truth for engineers, etc.

Abstract also handles conflicts beautifully rather than having to worry about whether my changes will override someone else who's actively working within the file too.

Nice update Stephen! Any plans to support library versioning? That way when you have to go back to an older file and make adjustments you're able to use the symbols, colors, etc. that were relevant for that time?

Consider Star Trek. Voice is a significant primary input but direct input is still used. Voice feedback also significant but not the only way to receive information. Both will be critical in the future.

At first I thought I was crazy, but turns out a lot of folks I know have even more apps on their phone. How about you?

Whether or not Apple does this is definitely one question, but I think the privacy aspect of this is really easy to work through. The experience would be sandboxed and providers (apps) would only be able to connect with someone on an opt-in basis. Additionally any permissions that were granted to the provider would be opt-in. Functionally it would work the same way that iMessage already does – fully encrypted where only the client can read the message. Apple would simply be the transportation layer here.

Thanks for posting this, Mitchell. I published this last week after a long time of brooding on the idea. Happy to discuss anything further in here!