We are super pleased to announce Squid 3.0 for Android! With this update, we’ve introduced Squid Premium, a subscription that unlocks premium features in Squid. Squid Premium will undoubtedly draw questions and feedback from our users that we hope to anticipate and address below.
What is Squid Premium?
Squid Premium is a subscription that unlocks all the new paper backgrounds and gives you unfettered access to all features¹. In addition to paper backgrounds, this currently includes PDF import, additional tools, and cloud backup.
A subscription!?!?
We did not come to this decision lightly, and we exhausted a lot of different options before we decided on offering a subscription. We really love making Squid better, and a subscription allows us to focus on adding features and improvements that might not otherwise make sense economically.
Why not a paid app version instead?
A one-time purchase can only sustain our work on Squid for a limited time. Over the past 4 years, we have been committed to making Squid the de facto handwritten note-taking app on Android. As such, we are continually adding features, making improvements, and fixing issues. A one-time purchase model could not fuel the long-term vision we have for Squid.
Why not another in-app purchase?
Users already have been feeling nickeled and dimed with the three in-app purchases we currently offer. Adding more in-app purchases is frustrating to people and adds another layer of confusion. The subscription gives you everything without the fear of missing out on anything, and at a lower entry price.
But isn’t a subscription nickel and diming us too?
Yes… and no.
We make our livings off Squid, so it’s a struggle to do things that make our users happy and that also make business sense. That being said, we are rolling out Squid Premium with new paper backgrounds to bring more value to our users.
Many users have written and told us that Squid has allowed them to save a lot of money on notebooks that they needed for school, work, journaling, etc. We hope to increase this value by offering additional backgrounds that replace even more of those expensive real-world goods, which hopefully results in a net savings for our users.
Why are apps moving to subscriptions?
When the smartphone revolution started, apps used a one-time paid or ad-supported business model. Now that the app world has matured, the apps that offer a lot of features and have ongoing development, like Squid, can’t rely on one-time purchases from the past to fund all future development. The choice is either annually release new paid versions of the app or add a subscription (or add ads, but we really don’t think you want that 😉). We think the subscription model best matches our continuous maintenance and innovation efforts.
But what if I already purchased the in-app purchases?
Nothing changes for you, you still have access to what you paid for. If you choose to subscribe, Squid Premium becomes an all-access pass to our ever-growing catalog of paper backgrounds, with the added benefit of knowing that any future features¹ will be available to you. We are currently looking into ways to reward our long-time supporters such as yourselves.
There is no way I am supporting this, I already bought…
And we really appreciate it! You are valued users and we are truly grateful for your support. Feel free to email us and voice your displeasure. If it helps, we would be happy to send you photos of our children that you helped feed and clothe.
I literally just bought the in-app features, but I’d rather subscribe now…
If you just purchased one or more of our in-app purchases in January/February 2016 and now you want to subscribe, we think it’s only fair to refund your in-app purchases. Please subscribe, then contact us at support@squidnotes.com with “Refund New Subscriber” as your subject line and give us your Google account email address and your subscription order number so that we can refund you.
¹Will Squid Premium include all future features?
We would love for it to. However, we haven’t yet created an app to predict the future. We can’t guarantee there will never be a new tier for some substantially different set of features, but we do plan to keep adding backgrounds and features to Squid Premium.