Retiring Shorthand Social

If you're reading this, it's likely you were redirected here after trying to sign up to Shorthand Social for the first time, or you clicked our notice on your Shorthand Social dashboard. If you fall into the former category, you can skip the rest of this article and sign up for Shorthand right now. If you're in the latter group, read on!

For the past three years, we've supported Shorthand Social, a completely free, and ad free, storytelling platform for anybody who wanted to tell visual stories in a simple way. Prior to that, we also offered Immersive, the forerunner to Shorthand Social. A small, but vibrant community of storytellers has grown around these two platforms.

So it's with a heavy heart, but also with a feeling of excitement for the future of storytelling, that we announce the retirement of the Shorthand Social app on 30 September 2018, to focus 100% of our efforts on our flagship product, Shorthand. Effective immediately, no new accounts can be created on Shorthand Social, nor will existing Shorthand Social stories be able to be updated. From humble beginnings, our pro product has emerged as the first choice visual storytelling platform for many of the best known publishers, brands and non-profits around the world.

We'd like to thank everyone who published stories on Shorthand Social and Immersive. Some amazing stories were told on those two platforms over the years, and though you'll be unable to edit existing stories, rest assured that every published Shorthand Social story will remain online.

It may be the end of Shorthand Social, but we know that our flagship product, Shorthand, though it's been around for longer, is still at the very beginning of its life. And, if you represent a brand, publisher, NGO, government department, or educational institution, we'd love you to continue to be a part of the Shorthand story into the future.

So, we want to encourage Shorthand Social users to reap the many benefits of making the move from our basic consumer platform to our professional storytelling platform. Here are some reasons why you should make the switch.

Innovation

It's been some time since we made any updates to Social, whereas we're actively working to make Shorthand better every day. The recent launch of Shorthand 2.0 means we can deliver new storytelling features faster than ever before. Our small team can't do justice to both Social and Shorthand, and it's clear that Shorthand is where the future of visual storytelling lies.

You'll be in excellent company

Shorthand is the bees knees of visual storytelling. It's used by everyone from The Economist to the Red Cross to the BBC to Bain & Company to Cambridge University, as well as many agencies and freelancers, to create memorable stories that readers will share.

Powerful, but still beautifully simple

Our recently launched Shorthand 2.0 platform is powerful, while being at least as beautiful and simple as Social. You'll have greater control over the way your stories look and feel without greater complexity.

Impact

Our small team, spread across the globe, and our amazing customers have had a disproportionate impact on story quality and audience engagement on the web. In fact, it's not a stretch to say that Shorthand stories are amongst the most engaging media formats on the web, with average engaged times, as measured by Chartbeat and others, through the roof. This, coupled with our beautifully simple editor, is what draws publishers and communication teams to Shorthand. By switching to Shorthand, you can make a bigger impact on your audience, too.

What are you waiting for?

For any Social users who reproduce their Social stories in Shorthand on a paid plan, we'll commit to redirecting your Social URLs to your new Shorthand stories at your request.

You can head straight to the sign up page for Shorthand, or get in touch to learn more.

We're here to help, and we look forward to welcoming you to professional storytelling!