New merch, January events, app updates, and more
Hi,
Happy new year. How is it feeling so far? What have you been thinking about?
We’re still riding high from the calm productivity of last year, and we’re willing that feeling to continue this year. We’re listening to 18,000 / Dubdermal from Hesatix. What are you listening to?
There’s a few things we’re excited to tell you about…
iOS and Android app updates
If you missed the last newsletter, you might not know that the new iOS app is available to everyone in the world, and it’s been very well received. You’ll also be pleased and maybe a little proud to know that there’s been two updates released to the app since the start of the year. These include changes to the share extension (you can now share multiple items through that flow), an optional compact notifications view, a setting for removing block previews on profiles, support for deep links, and support for hex color blocks in the widget. Follow along for more updates via the iOS-specific CHANGELOG.
Speaking of mobile apps, our rebuilt Android app is in the Play store and is also receiving updates as we speak.
The next big thing for both of the apps is a re-implementation of search, which will coincide with the work that we’ve been doing on the infrastructure side to make the results much more high-quality (but still weird).
We’re also hard at work on the new API v3, which will be beautiful, performant, and integrated directly into Are.na.
Lastly, a small but important quality of life upgrade: profile indexes got a huge performance boost this week. If you’re one of the elite people with thousands of channels who previously had no hope of using Index View, you’ll be pleased at how things are working now.
Are.na Annual vol 7 “pool”
The new Are.na Annual started shipping just before the holidays, and we’ve loved seeing them in your hands. The books are available in our Gift Shop — this year’s volume features essays, interviews and other pieces of writing by 29 contributors around the theme of “pool.” Maya Man designed the cover, and included is also a very special poster insert by Sara Magenheimer.
You can also grab a copy at one of our beloved Stockists:
Iconic (NYC)
Casa Magazines (NYC)
Bungee Space (NYC)
Skylight books (SF)
MagCulture (London)
I Love You So Much Books (Richmond, VA)
If you have a store and you’re interested in stocking the Annual, get in touch: meg@are.na.
Are.na Annual Events in January
You might also pick up a book at one of the book launch events happening this month in Los Angeles, Rotterdam, and Richmond, Virginia. As usual, we are feeling very grateful to the people in the Are.na community willing to organize, host, and gather.
Today, January 16, Extra Practice in Rotterdam hosted a book launch and income pool party. Food was provided by Eat Your Feelings and the folks behind Extra Practice read their piece from the Annual, “Pools for Conviviality,” on the ebbs and flows of pooling resources as a shared studio.
Tomorrow, January 17, Material Room in Richmond will host a book release party with channel walkthroughs by Mariah Barden Jones, Liza Pittard, Matthew Dowdy, and Nicole Killian. Special shout out to Mariah for organizing.
On January 30, Alice Zhang is putting together an event at her space Plot in Los Angeles. Stay tuned for more on this one, it should be a really nice time.
New on Are.na Editorial
The latest on Are.na Editorial is an essay by Genevieve Divine on the swimming ponies of Chincoteague and the mythos that surrounds them. Genevieve went to the 100th Anniversary of the Chincoteague Pony Swim to report back for the Annual.
Also from the Annual, Rob Arcand’s interview with climatologist Paul N. Edwards was re-published in Dirt. They talk about the history of climate modeling and Edwards’ book A Vast Machine, a cult favorite.
New in the Gift Shop
The Pool Hoodie is a collaboration with Maya Man featuring Maya’s cover design for the new Are.na Annual. Beautifully screenprinted in Brooklyn at Funhouse. These are very close to being sold out in all sizes, so if you want one play it safe and buy it now.
The 100 Stars Postcard is a collaboration with Birdcall that came out of a 2024 Are.na meetup in Seoul — participants each drew a star, which were paired up to make 100 Are.na logos. Postcard design by Suzin Kwon with special thanks to Jisu Lee of Birdcall for leading and facilitating the project.
Community News
Naho Kubota’s photography book Foundations is launching on January 30 at A83. If you’re in New York, you should definitely go.
Greg Wolanski has created a way to import your highlights from LiquidText to Are.na. Thank you Greg!
Roadmap
As always, you can check out our roadmap page which goes into the features we're building, our long-term goals, and our current numbers.
There are so many places you can spend your attention, and we’re touched that you spent it reading this letter.
The Are.na Team