3 ms·

I've been a big fan of Ente and their work and am a paying customer but, man, this comment in a long-standing GitHub feature request is ringing truer every day:

I've been a big fan of Ente and their work and am a paying customer but, man, this comment in a long-standing GitHub feature request is ringing truer every day: > Ente is becoming like Proton: too many products and a lack of focus, leading to lower quality and not delivering what customers want https://github.com/ente-io/ente/discussions/552#discussioncomment-16083376 https://github.com/ente-io/ente/discussions/552#discussionco...

vishnukvmd 6mo ago
Hi, we had addressed this concern (along with the timelines for nested albums) during our recent AMA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkTspvi_mM&t=1728s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkTspvi_mM&t=1728s If you have any follow up questions, please do ask.
- codethief 6mo ago
  Hi Vishnu, thanks for engaging here – it is highly appreciated! Let me respond to a couple of your statements from the interview: > I think it's important to offer a complete package I agree. But doesn't that start with making one product (Ente Photos) good enough for people to actually be able to migrate? If Ente Photo really is your "home ground", as you say, shouldn't you prioritize accordingly? Specifically, in your response[0] to the GitHub issue I linked you say > to pull it off with the finesse we would like, it will take us more than a quarter. […] I will mark this feature as unplanned until we have more engineering bandwidth. But it seems you really do have the engineering bandwidth! You've just been prioritizing other products besides Ente Photos. I do understand that folder nesting in particular is a non-trivial change and if you look at the discussion on GitHub, I've actually been defending you rather heavily. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to do so – quite frankly, I am starting to doubt your product management is entirely on the right track if in 3 years you can't dedicate 3 months to the feature request with the highest number of votes by far. More generally, I am losing trust that any of your products will see enough polishing any time soon. (So I will definitely not put time into migrating anything else if I can't even migrate my photos yet.) And it seems I'm not the only one thinking that – your reputation among enthusiasts is starting to take a hit. > There is no way Ente is going to let anyone else build a better photo app. Words to live by! :-) [0]: https://github.com/ente-io/ente/discussions/552#discussioncomment-15074142 https://github.com/ente-io/ente/discussions/552#discussionco...
  - vishnukvmd 6mo ago
    Hey, thanks for the response. For a bootstrapped, engineering-driven company like Ente, product offers the best leverage for growth. We are not P0-ing nested folders right now because we believe there are areas within the photos app investing into which will provide higher revenue returns, that we can re-invest into increasing our engineering bandwidth. Now I understand the disappointment around us not prioritizing a feature that is blocking you from even using the product. It is a loss for all parties, but it is important for us to plan long-term. And while we're not prioritizing this specific feature, I don't think it is fair to say that we do not invest time into polish. We do care about our craft[0][1][2]. In case it helps, here's our product lead addressing the timelines for nested albums, and our perspectives around organization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkTspvi_mM&t=367s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkTspvi_mM&t=367s [0]: https://ente.com/blog/offline-gallery-faster-ml-family-feed-and-more/ https://ente.com/blog/offline-gallery-faster-ml-family-feed-... [1]: https://ente.com/blog/likes-comments-admin-settings-ente-photos-biggest-update/ https://ente.com/blog/likes-comments-admin-settings-ente-pho... [2]: https://ente.com/blog/introducing-rituals-public-links-ente-photos/ https://ente.com/blog/introducing-rituals-public-links-ente-...
    - codethief 6mo ago
      Thanks again for the YouTube link – I hadn't had time to watch the entire video yet, so I wasn't aware your product lead addressed nested folders specifically. So how would nested tags interact with albums? Will I also be able to share (or contribute to) tags like I can share (or contribute to) albums? Actually, aren't albums already "tag-like" in the sense that photos can be assigned to multiple albums at the same time? > And while we're not prioritizing this specific feature, I don't think it is fair to say that we do not invest time into polish. We do care about our craft[0][1][2]. This was overly harsh, my apologies!
      - vishnukvmd 6mo ago
        You will be able to create "smart albums" with nested tags, and share (and contribute) to them. Albums are tag-like in the sense you described it, but might be an overkill[0] for the outcome we wish to achieve - organization, sharing, and ability to respect original folder structure when a user exports their data. [0]: https://ente.io/architecture https://ente.io/architecture

vishnukvmd 6mo ago

Hi, we had addressed this concern (along with the timelines for nested albums) during our recent AMA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkTspvi_mM&t=1728s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkTspvi_mM&t=1728s If you have any follow up questions, please do ask.

codethief 6mo ago
Hi Vishnu, thanks for engaging here – it is highly appreciated! Let me respond to a couple of your statements from the interview: > I think it's important to offer a complete package I agree. But doesn't that start with making one product (Ente Photos) good enough for people to actually be able to migrate? If Ente Photo really is your "home ground", as you say, shouldn't you prioritize accordingly? Specifically, in your response[0] to the GitHub issue I linked you say > to pull it off with the finesse we would like, it will take us more than a quarter. […] I will mark this feature as unplanned until we have more engineering bandwidth. But it seems you really do have the engineering bandwidth! You've just been prioritizing other products besides Ente Photos. I do understand that folder nesting in particular is a non-trivial change and if you look at the discussion on GitHub, I've actually been defending you rather heavily. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to do so – quite frankly, I am starting to doubt your product management is entirely on the right track if in 3 years you can't dedicate 3 months to the feature request with the highest number of votes by far. More generally, I am losing trust that any of your products will see enough polishing any time soon. (So I will definitely not put time into migrating anything else if I can't even migrate my photos yet.) And it seems I'm not the only one thinking that – your reputation among enthusiasts is starting to take a hit. > There is no way Ente is going to let anyone else build a better photo app. Words to live by! :-) [0]: https://github.com/ente-io/ente/discussions/552#discussioncomment-15074142 https://github.com/ente-io/ente/discussions/552#discussionco...
- vishnukvmd 6mo ago
  Hey, thanks for the response. For a bootstrapped, engineering-driven company like Ente, product offers the best leverage for growth. We are not P0-ing nested folders right now because we believe there are areas within the photos app investing into which will provide higher revenue returns, that we can re-invest into increasing our engineering bandwidth. Now I understand the disappointment around us not prioritizing a feature that is blocking you from even using the product. It is a loss for all parties, but it is important for us to plan long-term. And while we're not prioritizing this specific feature, I don't think it is fair to say that we do not invest time into polish. We do care about our craft[0][1][2]. In case it helps, here's our product lead addressing the timelines for nested albums, and our perspectives around organization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkTspvi_mM&t=367s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkTspvi_mM&t=367s [0]: https://ente.com/blog/offline-gallery-faster-ml-family-feed-and-more/ https://ente.com/blog/offline-gallery-faster-ml-family-feed-... [1]: https://ente.com/blog/likes-comments-admin-settings-ente-photos-biggest-update/ https://ente.com/blog/likes-comments-admin-settings-ente-pho... [2]: https://ente.com/blog/introducing-rituals-public-links-ente-photos/ https://ente.com/blog/introducing-rituals-public-links-ente-...
  - codethief 6mo ago
    Thanks again for the YouTube link – I hadn't had time to watch the entire video yet, so I wasn't aware your product lead addressed nested folders specifically. So how would nested tags interact with albums? Will I also be able to share (or contribute to) tags like I can share (or contribute to) albums? Actually, aren't albums already "tag-like" in the sense that photos can be assigned to multiple albums at the same time? > And while we're not prioritizing this specific feature, I don't think it is fair to say that we do not invest time into polish. We do care about our craft[0][1][2]. This was overly harsh, my apologies!
    - vishnukvmd 6mo ago
      You will be able to create "smart albums" with nested tags, and share (and contribute) to them. Albums are tag-like in the sense you described it, but might be an overkill[0] for the outcome we wish to achieve - organization, sharing, and ability to respect original folder structure when a user exports their data. [0]: https://ente.io/architecture https://ente.io/architecture