Frequently Asked Questions
What is Shape?
Shape is a collaboration app for small teams that combines the best of email, Slack, and Linear into a unified web experience that brings calm, focus, and delight to your team. Shape primarily focuses on "Discussions," which are threaded conversations centered on a single topic. Think forum + email + Slack, but thoughtfully crafted to help your team get to the bottom of the matter quickly and clearly.
Shape is more than just about talking. You can go from discussion to to-do in one click. Once your team reaches consensus—which Shape guides your team toward—you can create to-dos in "Boards," which are Jira- or Linear-like multi-column boards that let you track deliverables from to-do to done.
For quick, uncategorized pings, Shape features Slack-like chat but designs the chat experience to encourage well-thought-out messages versus a quick succession of "hey…," "question for you…," which creates disruptive notifications.
Shape is designed thoughtfully to reduce noise and chaos in your team. You'll have high-bandwidth text transmission between your team, with a fraction of the noise and chaos. It's something you have to try to believe.
What does deep-text mean?
Deep is the opposite of shallow. Modern work tools like Slack and Teams encourage shallow, stream-of-consciousness message sending that creates endless noise and a messy stream of notifications that you just can't seem to get on top of. Deep-text means Shape is thoughtfully designed to encourage long-form messages. In much the same way it is uncommon to send five successive emails to the same person saying, "hey…," "question…," "I was wondering…," and so on, Shape's deep-text user experience creates a culture that encourages calm communication.
What would take 10 messages in Slack takes one message in Shape—and this happens quite naturally. The result is a communication platform that doesn't itself become the job but rather helps everyone do their job with clarity and focus.
What does noise-cancelling mean?
In the same way you pop on noise-cancelling headphones when you really want to focus and drown out noise, Shape is designed to reduce noise and amplify signal. In Shape, notification settings are not hidden behind many levels of dropdowns—they are a first-class, one-click-away experience that lets you manage exactly what you want to hear and when.
Shape features a top-level "speed dial" that lets you control just how fast things are moving, similar to games like The Sims or SimCity. The initial speed is 1x—this means you'll receive notifications in real time as things happen. But you can dial it back with just a click to 0.75x or 0.5x, which reduces notification frequency to once an hour or once every four hours. You can even hit the pause button to temporarily pause all notifications—you'll get a summary email as soon as you hit play again.
In Shape, notifications are a primary user experience feature, not an afterthought. It's something our users tell us they thoroughly enjoy and that has made their work much more pleasant.
Why just web?
Shape is a web-first experience, with no desktop or mobile app. While at first this may seem an odd decision, it's one that yields many benefits. Shape is a tool, not the job itself. We designed Shape to be out of mind when it's not in use—no bouncing dock icon and no red notification bubbles you're constantly itching to pop. Shape is designed to work great in your existing workflow, in the tool you use most: the browser.
Just like your real work, Shape is best done on the desktop. You can access Shape on the go from our mobile web app, which works great for catching up when you're AFK.
Why no push notifications?
Shape uses email notifications over push notifications. It integrates within your existing tools—your web browser and email app—rather than seeking to augment them with a separate, isolated environment. This makes Shape easy to pick up and easy to put down.
Who is Shape for?
We designed Shape for small teams, from two people all the way to 100. While technically nothing limits you from using Shape beyond that, we find larger teams may have unique requirements that compromise the core simplicity of Shape.
Can Shape be self-hosted?
Yes, you can self-host Shape in your own server environment. The requirements are minimal and the instructions easy to follow. The self-hosting license grants free usage for teams under five people. Teams larger than five people must seek a business license to self-host Shape.
Contact sales@shape.work to get started.
Does Shape offer plugins or apps?
Not yet. Shape is focused on the human element as part of our v1 strategy. Shape is best suited for small, intimate teams who do not have an over-reliance on Slack bots.
Bot integration is something we have planned however. It's not difficult to do either; we'd just rather focus on delivering an excellent human-grade experience first, before moving on to wider features.
Ready to join us?
Experience what it's like to work without constant interruptions, lose fewer ideas to the void, and actually love your team comms.
We're confident you'll love Shape. If not, we'll refund you—no questions asked.
Try free for 30 days
Then, just $5.99/user per month
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