{"id":2940,"date":"2021-01-27T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/?p=2940"},"modified":"2026-03-10T21:05:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:05:03","slug":"product-update-canny-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/product-update-canny-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Canny 2.0: What’s new (and how we slow-released our product update)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019re releasing the biggest visual change to Canny since we launched. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially what we did is moved from a restricted-width layout to a full-width layout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that doesn\u2019t sound like much, but it\u2019s been an intimidating product update change to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To be clear, this only affects the Canny admin view. Public, end-user views remain unchanged.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From day one, our customers have expressed how much they like Canny for its simplicity and ease of use. With 2.0, we\u2019re trading some simplicity for power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having more screen real estate means our customers can see more and do more. We want to pack more power into Canny and the old layout was constricting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, balancing simplicity and power will always be important to us. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve made incremental changes and we\u2019ve been testing 2.0 for about 8 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we slow-released Canny 2.0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I worked at Facebook where the smallest change could confuse and frustrate millions of users. I knew we\u2019d want to make sure existing customers had plenty of time to get familiar with 2.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we rolled out 2.0 in phases:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. Explicit opt-in for the 2.0 beta<\/strong>
We added a button in the account dropdown to opt-in to 2.0.
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Some people found the button and tried 2.0. About a month after, we emailed people letting them know about the beta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the longest phase, lasting about 6 months. We got a lot of feedback and implemented improvements. People always had the option to go back to 1.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Auto opt-in for new customers<\/strong>
New customers wouldn\u2019t be exposed to 1.0. We wanted to make sure newly onboarded users had a good experience with 2.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.<\/strong> Forced opt-in for existing customers<\/strong>
At this point, we were quite happy with 2.0. We switched people who had never tried 2.0 or had opted-out previously into the beta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everyone still had the option to switch back to 1.0\u2014under 10% did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Deprecating 1.0<\/strong>
1.0 served us well but it\u2019s time for Canny\u2019s next phase. We\u2019re closing the chapter on 1.0 so we can fully focus on the new Canny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What actually changed<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to highlight some significant changes that come with Canny 2.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feedback view<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We merged the post list view with the posts themselves. It\u2019s now represented more like an inbox where you can easily switch between posts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Post views are the most active in Canny so we wanted to make navigating around zippier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this change, we were also able to include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n