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Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

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Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#21

Post by homebrewer »

privatelypublic wrote: post #8
rjh29 wrote: post #4

So far this year they've discontinued Paper (app), Passwords, Send and Track, Vault and Capture. Incredibly, Vault was discontinued by automatically turning PIN-protected folders into regular unprotected ones! Would be stupid to rely on them for anything other than basic file storage at this point.

Why rely on them at all? Dollar per GB they cost more than literally any other solution with file storage.

Years ago, their desktop client was the only one among popular similar services that supported proper delta sync while also covering all major platforms. Absolutely indispensable if you used it with things like TrueCrypt containers, where changing one byte within would cause most sync clients to resend the whole 50 GB, or however large it was. Dropbox handled this fine and would finish in a couple of seconds (actually sending new data, not just pretending it did that).

I don't know how it is these days, wouldn't be surprised if other commercial services still haven't figured it out.

Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#23

Post by CamperBob2 »

system2 wrote: post #6

HN saw the birth of Dropbox; I hope we don't see the death of it here.

Meh, they can shut it down simply by taking it private and arranging a sale to private equity, then loading it up with debt and stripping the assets. I don't see the big deal.

Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#24

Post by dunham »

rjh29 wrote: post #4

So far this year they've discontinued Paper (app), Passwords, Send and Track, Vault and Capture. Incredibly, Vault was discontinued by automatically turning PIN-protected folders into regular unprotected ones! Would be stupid to rely on them for anything other than basic file storage at this point.

I wrote off paper when they announced (later 2019) that everyone would be migrated to the new storage in a few months and then kept pushing the date out over the next four years.

It seemed that they were not allocating any resources to the project.

I did check back every year or so for entertainment purposes. Mine was migrated in November of 2024.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200615075409/https://www.dropb...

Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#25

Post by xeromal »

plasticsoprano wrote: post #20
hiroshi3110 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why are they killing the app? Cutting the maintenance cost I guess.

That app hasn't been touched in years. I doubt the cost was that high.

App stores have been getting more annoying every year with new requirements for apps that aren't even updated. I just archived 3 apps I've built for people over the years but hosted for free but now the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#26

Post by scarface_74 »

bayindirh wrote: post #11
privatelypublic wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why rely on them at all? Dollar per GB they cost more than literally any other solution with file storage.

Because they provide nice features on top of basic file storage. If you use them, they justify the cost. If you don't need them, there's always pCloud.

With either Google or Microsoft, you get a complete office suite for the same price including storage

Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#27

Post by pempem »

bayindirh wrote: post #9
rjh29 wrote: post #4

So far this year they've discontinued Paper (app), Passwords, Send and Track, Vault and Capture. Incredibly, Vault was discontinued by automatically turning PIN-protected folders into regular unprotected ones! Would be stupid to rely on them for anything other than basic file storage at this point.

On the other hand, they are adding tons of invisible yet useful features like auto OCR on PDFs, auto-transcription of audio files, a much better search, etc. It's not suitable to store anything that sensitive, but for regular stuff, they are becoming a powerhouse, and the web app allows you to work very efficiently and fast. I personally like Dropbox, and don't find the direction they're heading ill-advised.

The direction is great. The communication and customer support leave a lot to be desired.

The thing is, its hard to have a product thats important to you and does cool things but also you don't rely on for anything crucial. Esp when its file storage.

Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#28

Post by Hovertruck »

ianstormtaylor wrote: post #18

The way Dropbox has mismanaged Paper over the past decade, and squandered so many opportunities in the productivity tools space, has been one of the most frustrating things to watch. Dropbox bought Hackpad and launched Dropbox Paper a decade ago! Paper was awesome at launch — so much less friction than Google Docs for teams back then — and had a good internal product team behind it, but leadership failed to see the p…

Yeah, Dropbox Paper remains the best pure writing experience I've ever used at work. I think Notion has a lot of nice features, but just writing in it still feels more cumbersome than Paper did a decade ago.

Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#29

Post by AlexandrB »

rjh29 wrote: post #4

So far this year they've discontinued Paper (app), Passwords, Send and Track, Vault and Capture. Incredibly, Vault was discontinued by automatically turning PIN-protected folders into regular unprotected ones! Would be stupid to rely on them for anything other than basic file storage at this point.

> Would be stupid to rely on them for anything other than basic file storage at this point.

Ironically I stopped using Dropbox when they started trying to branch out into all the other stuff. I doubt I'll go back at this point though.

Re: Dropbox Paper mobile App Discontinuation

#30

Post by pradn »

They have a super fast and slick file storage app. Some of the features that are natural additions to that feature set work quite well, like document scanning. But so much of what Dropbox does seems like they can't stay put and be happy with their core offering. Of course, they have to do this to increase revenue, for fear of becoming a mere commodity. It's tough.
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