Here is why Notion took so long to implement an offline mode, now available

Notion is a fairly popular all-in-one productivity app that enables users to take notes, manage projects, collaboration online, implement to-do lists, and more. The company even has a dedicated AI-powered email service called Notion Mail. However, a core feature missing in the Notion app itself was offline mode, which the firm has finally implemented now.

It is quite strange that an app which allows you to take notes does not work when you have no internet connectivity. This would seem like a very obvious capability to have as you document stuff on the fly, often with unstable internet. However, Notion was designed with a cloud-first approach that emphasizes collaboration, so it did not have an offline mode up until now.

In an X (formerly Twitter) thread, Notion CEO Ivan Zhao stated that offline mode had been the #1 request for five years, but since the app leverages a complex backend that synchronizes content across thousands of workspaces, this was not a simple ask. The executive explained that unlike Apple Notes, Notion does not store user data on device, and neither does it store it in a relatively simple "page" structure like Google Docs. Instead, Notion utilizes a "graph of interconnected data blocks".

This is exactly why it took the company so long to migrate 100 million users to a hybrid structure with zero downtime. It apparently tested thousands of features individually to see what broke offline and how it could patch it or degrade gracefully. This was an endeavor that involved all engineers at Notion and a migration effort that spanned months, but now it's finally here.

Notion's offline mode isn't perfect, though. Right now, the app will retain 50 rows per database by default when offline, but will incrementally improve upon this limit in future updates. It is also worth mentioning that your offline content should seamlessly merge into the online version with conflicts highlighted and resolved once you connect to the internet. You can find out more about how to leverage offline mode in Notion here.

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Posted Thursday 21 August 2025 at 2:43 am AEST (my time).

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