Hi,
I understand the urge to add more and more stuff in order to get ahead in the market. But, the Main Reason people go for Bear is its Minimalism and Simplicity.
Request you to never loose it.
Thanks,
7 Likes
Thank you for your post @jbaig
This is something we aim to never lose, and it’s a big reason as to why we don’t just add every highly requested feature.
We always want to keep a balance of updating with things that fit/make sense for Bear, whilst also staying true to our minimalistic and clean design. We really appreciate that you understand this.
5 Likes
I think that it is not necessaraly a question how much features you add but rather than what features are added and how. For sure you cannot add a file/folderbased handling of notes without destroying the current design. I hope that in turn panda as a standalone app - once the editor is implemented into bear - will take that approach and build further features around that principle.
When you take a first look at ulysses you will see a clean ui without any distraction so that you never would suspect that it is full of (meaningful) features. On the other side obsidian: a wonderful set of features but the ui is terrible in both matters, the aesthetics and friendliness - an endless amount of tabs whereas i believe after some thinking that almost the whole feature-set of obsidian could be designed easily more minimalistic and userfriendly.
But yes, as long as the devs find a balance between adding features and keeping the priciples of design consistent, elegant and minimalistic, the further development will be amazing. 
Regards!
2 Likes
I just want to weigh in with my encouragement and support for the idea of keeping it clean and minimal. I really like the new markdown engine – my only problem with Bear is that I don’t want to see the markdown most of the time – but everything else about it is really good. Solid, reliable, simple… So Panda seems like a dream come true to me (along with some other features like tables and folding).
I use Bear for personal use, but for my work related notes I use Evernote (long story, but the short answer is I want to keep work and non-work completely separate). As you might know, Evernote has been undergoing a from-the-ground-up do-over since 2020, and one of the main changes is that it’s entirely cloud based with no local storage. Result: borderline unusable. Every time you flip from one note to another it refreshes from the cloud. I think it also refreshes just by typing or deleteing text. The lag is unbearable. Sometimes I can type an entire sentence and then sit back and count to 10 before the text shows up in the note. Even when it’s working “well” and the lag is only half a second or a second, it still makes it awkward to use. Seeing that spinner for one second is not a biggie until you start seeing it five times a minute no matter what you’re doing.
My big fear is that Bear will go in that direction. Please don’t!
2 Likes
Hello there!
Bear is and always will be a local first app, we want everyone to be in control of their data. Fast and reliable are the key points for us, so rest assured that we’re not going to follow the Evernote direction 
Best.
7 Likes
Yes simplicity and Minimalism is what got me into Bear almost 4 years ago. I still use it daily. I hope Bear never loses its Beauty and simplicity
1 Like
I just want to support this statement. I really like Bear. As far as I’m concerned it’s far and away the single most important app I have on my devices. It’s so helpful in helping my think. Because of it’s simplicity and keyboard-friendliness using it feels like it’s got some kind of intuitive interface to my brain. I can so easily dump information into it, think in it and get stuff out. It’s naturally just replaced apps I never expected it to. It’s my personal library, my extened brain. And I believe it’s simplicity is key to making that happen.
I do somewhat agree with @krssno here in that how you do something really matters. Bear isn’t the most simple note taking app (image support in markdown that consistently works is pretty rare for instance), but everything is very thought out. It reminds me a lot of Things in that regard. Another app that people complain about lacking features all the time yet it’s very popular because it’s very well designed.
The way Things do it is probably a good model for how to add new features. Do it very rarely, very slowly and very carefully.