Why we built Shyne

Today we're introducing Shyne — a new product from the team that builds NextDocs.

Before anything else, the question we know you're about to ask: NextDocs isn't going anywhere. Your account, your documents, your exports and your plan all keep working, and we'll keep the product healthy. But we owe you honesty about where our heads are: Shyne is where we're building now, and the new things we make will land there. This post is about why.

Three requests we couldn't build our way out of

Over the past year, roughly the same three things kept arriving in our inbox.

"Can my team work in this with me?" NextDocs was built around one person and one document. You describe what you need, you get several versions, you pick one. That's a good loop — for one person. The moment a second person needed to be in the file, we were the wrong tool.

"Can I make video, not just slides?" We added motion and video export, and people used them. But the underlying model was still a document that happened to move. Real video work wants a timeline sitting next to the canvas, not bolted underneath it.

"Can the AI work with me instead of at me?" This was the big one. NextDocs generates a draft and hands it over. If it's 80% right, you're left doing the last 20% by hand, and the AI has already left the room. What people actually wanted was the AI in the document — making a change while they watch, and getting out of the way when they take over.

Each of these could have been a feature. We tried. The problem was that all three point at the same foundation, and it wasn't the one NextDocs was built on.

What we changed underneath

NextDocs treats a document as something the AI produces for you. Shyne treats it as a space you and the AI are both standing in.

Concretely, that means one live canvas where decks, documents, social posts and video all live in the same project rather than in four separate editors. Everyone in the file — people and AI agents — is editing the same thing at the same time, and you can see who did what. When an agent makes a change, it happens in front of you, and you can undo it like any other edit.

That last part matters more than it sounds. An AI that works where you can see it is one you can correct early. An AI that disappears and returns with a finished draft is one you either accept or redo.

What this means if you use NextDocs today

The short version: nothing you rely on breaks, and nothing is being taken away.

• NextDocs stays up and supported. Your account, documents, exports and plan are unchanged, and we'll keep it running well.
• New building happens in Shyne. Everything we've learned from NextDocs went into it. If you've ever asked us for more — collaboration, video, an AI that works alongside you — Shyne is our answer, and we'd love you to try it.
• If you're a paid NextDocs customer and you'd like to make Shyne home, write to support@nextdocs.io (or just reply to the announcement email) and we'll activate your account on Shyne ourselves. Moving everyone over properly will take a little time, but we'll take care of you.

We wrote a longer, more practical breakdown here: NextDocs and Shyne — which should you use?

Try it

Shyne is free to start — no credit card, no trial clock.

Try Shyne free

If you've been one of the people asking for any of the three things above, I'd like to know whether we got it right. Reply to the announcement email, or write to support@nextdocs.io — a person reads both.