Grammarly acquires Superhuman • Hacker News Board

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#121

Post by phalgun_g » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 4:23 AM UTC

rwc wrote: post #68

briandoll wrote: post #50

I've been looking to replace Superhuman recently. None of their AI or Team features matter to me. I just wanted what they originally set out to build -- a super fast, keyboard driven, desktop email client. There are daily paper cut bugs and search issues that have persisted for many years, and I'm not going to stick around through this transition which will surely make the product worse. What do folks like for deskto…

Mimestream on Mac implements GMail's keyboard shortcuts so there was no learning curve for me and I'm able to enjoy a desktop app experience.

Is there a reason you prefer desktop apps over using email in the browser?

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#122

Post by phalgun_g » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 4:30 AM UTC

voigt wrote: post #79

> Superhuman valued at $825 million in 2021, $35 million annual revenue This is nuts! I used Superhuman for about a year. And honestly, I might still be using it if the pricing weren't so off. It had a couple of nice features, and the keyboard-driven approach was a welcome change for mail clients. But ultimately, Superhuman had nothing that couldn't be replicated in a relatively short amount of time (maybe even with…

bang on. It is quite straightforward to replicate the Superhuman experience with a plugin - www.simplehuman.email is one

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#123

Post by phalgun_g » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 4:30 AM UTC

phalgun_g wrote: post #122

voigt wrote: post #79

> Superhuman valued at $825 million in 2021, $35 million annual revenue This is nuts! I used Superhuman for about a year. And honestly, I might still be using it if the pricing weren't so off. It had a couple of nice features, and the keyboard-driven approach was a welcome change for mail clients. But ultimately, Superhuman had nothing that couldn't be replicated in a relatively short amount of time (maybe even with…

bang on. It is quite straightforward to replicate the Superhuman experience with a plugin - www.simplehuman.email is one

simpl.fyi is the other

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#124

Post by DiggyJohnson » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 5:23 AM UTC

StochasticLi wrote: post #83

lvl155 wrote: post #54

Grammarly has an existential crisis. It can be replaced it with free versions of the top models and they are much better (and I can control the UI anyway I want). In fact, many of these “web 2.0” business models are a few more updates away from getting replaced.

I'm paying for most AI models top tiers and Grammarly. Grammarly is a phenomenal tool. It's not that LLMs can't do it. Well, they can't, but the more important thing is Grammarly's UI.

What do you like about their UI and what are your main use cases?

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#125

Post by ryandrake » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 6:20 AM UTC

daft_pink wrote: post #99

Superhuman user and former Grammarly user here. I'm a big fan of Superhuman as an email client and happily pay the premium price for it. I really hope they don't change what makes it great. I used to love Grammarly until they essentially ruined their product - much like Dropbox did. They took an app that worked perfectly and deprecated it, replacing it with an invasive keyboard replacement that was supposed to work e…

So much software keeps repeating this pattern: they gain their initial success by finding something users want to do, and then building software to enable users to do it. Users love it and are happy!

Then, after they’ve enjoyed some amount of success, they try to flip the script: now they start with what they want users to do, and build software that encourages, annoys, cajoles, or insists that users do that thing, even if they don’t want it!

So much software falls down this pattern and just endlessly begs the user to change their behavior, rather than simply addressing the users’ actual needs.

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#126

Post by rcleveng » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 6:27 AM UTC

daft_pink wrote: post #99

Superhuman user and former Grammarly user here. I'm a big fan of Superhuman as an email client and happily pay the premium price for it. I really hope they don't change what makes it great. I used to love Grammarly until they essentially ruined their product - much like Dropbox did. They took an app that worked perfectly and deprecated it, replacing it with an invasive keyboard replacement that was supposed to work e…

I think the phrase you are looking for is called enshitification.

Coda has some great folks leading it, so let's hope that now they are really running grammarly, they can hold out against this.

The answer will depend on how well they do at taking care of the $1B line of credit used for the purchase.

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#127

Post by michihuber » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 8:12 AM UTC

isaachinman wrote: post #115

briandoll wrote: post #50

I've been looking to replace Superhuman recently. None of their AI or Team features matter to me. I just wanted what they originally set out to build -- a super fast, keyboard driven, desktop email client. There are daily paper cut bugs and search issues that have persisted for many years, and I'm not going to stick around through this transition which will surely make the product worse. What do folks like for deskto…

We're building what you want: https://marcoapp.io

are you unifying the inbox across multiple mail accounts? (like apple Mail.app does)

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#128

Post by ivankahl » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 8:51 AM UTC

StochasticLi wrote: post #83

lvl155 wrote: post #54

Grammarly has an existential crisis. It can be replaced it with free versions of the top models and they are much better (and I can control the UI anyway I want). In fact, many of these “web 2.0” business models are a few more updates away from getting replaced.

I'm paying for most AI models top tiers and Grammarly. Grammarly is a phenomenal tool. It's not that LLMs can't do it. Well, they can't, but the more important thing is Grammarly's UI.

Agree with this. I love that Grammarly is integrated into everything, and I don't have to switch to an AI chat for minor text edits.

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#129

Post by v5v3 » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 9:09 AM UTC

m3kw9 wrote: post #51

Never used of Grammarly and only heard of it in some random feed once a year in the past few years. Is money slushing like water in earth or what?

Are you a native English speaker?

As English as a non primary language speakers globally use it heavily.

English is the default business language, so if you are from another country and are not confident in your English, your gonna install such a tool.

Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman

#130

Post by v5v3 » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 9:12 AM UTC

Fuzzy1000 wrote: post #35

So many unexpected moves lately. AI is really changing how companies assess their trajectory and business plans.

They raised $1 billion and bought a small company.

If Ai was so good, they wouldn't have needed to buy a company. They would have vibe coded it in 10 minutes.