Apptisan #45 - Quaily: A Modern, AI Powered Newsletter Service
In this edition, we feature Lyric, the creator of Quaily, an innovative newsletter platform designed to empower writers. Unlike traditional services, Quaily stands out with its Markdown-based...
Name: Quaily
Developer / Team: Lyric
Platforms: Web
Read this newsletter issue in Chinese (中文) .
Please describe your product.
Quaily is a newsletter platform designed to help writers build communities, connect with subscribers, and ultimately, fund their creative work through a clean, Markdown-based interface.
A few aspects of Quaily that I’m particularly proud of include:
Multi-Channel Distribution: It’s more than just an email service. Quaily integrates with Telegram, Discord, LINE, Bluesky, Slack, and X (formerly Twitter), allowing you to publish your articles simultaneously across all connected channels.
Deep Editor Integration: We offer a full-fledged Obsidian plugin, so you can write, publish, and push updates without ever leaving your favorite note-taking app. You can also publish directly from the command line, which effectively adds support for any other third-party editor.
AI-Enhanced Features: Quaily leverages AI extensively to enhance functionality and user experience. For instance, you can use AI to generate article summaries and tags, translate and publish content in multiple languages, and detect spam with an AI-powered moderation system. We also have a writing assistant and an AI image generator in development.
Was there a ‘aha!’ moment that inspired your product’s creation?
I’m a writer myself, and I never really connected with the ethos of other products on the market. The initial motivation for creating Quaily was simply to build something that I wanted to use.
Later, some friends expressed interest, so I opened it up to them, and the community of creators has been growing ever since. Ultimately, I just love building things that are genuinely helpful and bring a smile to people’s faces.
Beyond specific ‘aha!’ moment, how do you generally find and nurture creative inspiration in your daily life?
First, sleeping. Dreaming is a fantastic source of inspiration. I really love to sleep. If I’m not feeling my best, a good nap is always the right answer.
Second, chatting with friends. Although I’m not the most social person, I have to admit that the collision of different perspectives often sparks new ideas.
Could you walk us through your typical workflow, from initial concept to a shipped product? What key tools or methodologies do you rely on?
In the beginning, I usually skip the formal design phase and jump straight into coding. By that point, I already have a clear initial vision in my head, from user needs and interactions to the API, business logic, and architecture. Since 2024, I’ve started collaborating with AI, letting it handle some of the more tedious coding tasks like generating test cases.
I view software as a living organism. Its evolution isn’t driven by design, but by demand. So, I try not to make too many assumptions at the outset. I prefer to get it up and running and let time show me what needs to be built next.
As for understanding user needs, I don’t rely on surveys or competitive analysis. I much prefer to engage directly with users and customers. As my signature says:
Set course 🧭 by the stars ✨, not by the lights 💡 of passing ships ⛴️.
On principle, I dislike strategies and features designed to hook users in manipulative ways, like aggressive growth-hacking tactics or endless recommendation feeds. In the last century, Aldous Huxley warned that:
People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
I want to explore a different path: one where technology makes people stronger, not replaces them. This aligns with the original purpose of tools—we create them to transcend our physical limitations.
When it comes to technology choices, two opposing truths guide my thinking:
New technological trends make new paradigms possible. Value can be created where new and old paradigms diverge.
Most updates are superficial. If the underlying principles haven’t changed, I choose not to follow the trend to avoid accumulating technical debt.
What makes your product unique compared to others in the market?
You can see a detailed comparison here: 🐦 Quaily Alternatives | Quaily Blog
Many practices can lead to commercial or data-driven success. I understand that, but it’s not my priority. What I care about is whether these practices are genuinely good for creators and their readers.
So, I tend to focus on the small details:
For example, creators on Quaily should be autonomous. This means they have full ownership of their data and can export it anytime. They also own their brand and traffic, with the ability to set up custom domains, logos, and favicons. Quaily’s content recommendation system will never promote other people’s work within a creator’s publication, because no author wants unsolicited flyers in their personal creative space.
Another example is my long-standing refusal to implement pop-up subscription modals. They are incredibly disruptive to the reader’s experience. I believe that if a reader is going to subscribe, they will eventually subscribe. This interaction is like a ripple in a pond; an author’s persistent dedication will eventually resonate with readers. There’s no need to slap a subscription box in their face the moment they arrive.
I’ve also added some of my own personal touches. For instance, Quaily has excellent support for scientific and engineering writing, allowing you to easily create code blocks, mathematical formulas (LATEX), and various diagrams within your articles.
Overall, however, Quaily may not have a host of flashy, unique features or solve one single, glaring pain point. Users who choose a small product like this often do so not just for its features, but because they connect with its ethos. It’s about finding out if we share the same convictions.
How have you marketed your product, and what key lessons have you learned?
I have plans for promotion, but so far I’ve only done one paid campaign on InboxReads. I’ve also submitted Quaily to Product Hunt but haven’t officially launched yet (you can follow us in advance here).
Here’s what I’ve learned from the process so far:
Traffic-focused paid ads are a no-go: I’ve discovered that direct paid advertising is highly ineffective for a product like Quaily. It doesn’t generate conversions or enhance brand value, so I’ve paused these campaigns for now.
Brand-focused placements are valuable: I sponsored an introductory article about Quaily on a Japanese media outlet, Coinpost. This quickly improved how Large Language Models (LLMs) respond to queries about the “Quaily” brand.
Direct engagement is key: Beyond advertising, the best approach is to talk directly with creators and keep an eye out for opportunities. For example, when Zhubai (a Chinese newsletter platform) shut down in April, many of its users migrated to Quaily. The effort-to-reward ratio for this was ideal. I later wrote an article documenting the experience.
Based on your experience with Quaily and seeing platforms like Zhubai shut down, what are your thoughts on the future of newsletter platforms? How do you think the landscape will evolve?
Writing has been around for over five thousand years. Although image- and video-based content services have surged in recent years, text possesses irreplaceable advantages.
One key advantage is its “high information entropy.” In his novel True Names, Vernor Vinge noted that even a mediocre author, with a sympathetic audience and a gripping plot, can evoke a complete, imagined reality in a reader’s mind with just a few lines of description. Or consider the classic Chinese poem: “夕阳西下，断肠人在天涯” (The setting sun descends westward; those anguished wander, stranded at the edges of the world.). These few words instantly convey a complex tapestry of dusk, separation, longing, and sorrow. The amount of uncertainty it resolves is far greater than its literal length suggests.
A more modern example is an LLM prompt. A short prompt can retrieve a specific result from an LLM’s vast knowledge base; it’s the primary way humans interact with and command AI.
These are all demonstrations of the high information entropy of text.
The benefits are numerous. It requires very little bandwidth. It creates a strong sense of immersion (the human brain is a powerful rendering engine). And it’s highly adaptable to different readers (think of the “a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes” effect).
I don’t know what the future holds for newsletter platforms, but I believe text-based content itself is unlikely to be replaced anytime soon. That would require either a significant decline in civilization where literacy falls, or a massive leap forward where text is no longer needed as a medium (like direct neural interfaces).
Until then, as long as text has not completed its mission, there will always be value in writing, and therefore, value in building services that support it.
What has been some memorable feedback since your product’s release?
The most memorable was from a user in the US who wanted to use a feature that wasn’t quite ready. He was very keen, so I enabled it for him in a bit of a rush.
Naturally, it was full of bugs. We were actually having dinner together at that moment, so I ended up opening my laptop to check the logs right there at the table.
Another time, a reader reported a serious bug. I fixed it and sent him a bounty as a thank you.
A short while later, he reported another bug of the exact same nature. I was amazed at my own foolishness, so I sent him double the bounty and told him if it happened again, the reward would double again.
That incident was the catalyst for me to start implementing comprehensive test coverage.
How do you typically structure your day to stay productive and creative? Any favorite time management techniques?
I usually wake up before 8 AM, exercise for half an hour, then shower, eat breakfast, and start working.
If I stayed up late the night before, I’ll skip the workout, wake up, and get straight to my routine.
My approach is to tackle tasks immediately, whether I like them or not. Also, if I feel tired, I go to sleep. When I wake up, I get up, no matter what time it is.
Are there any products out there that you feel deserve more recognition?
Yes, though I use fewer niche products these days.
I want to give a special mention to Google Sheets. I am a super heavy user. I use it for countless no-code tasks because it’s just so incredibly convenient.
Here are some of the things I use Google Sheets for: bookkeeping, investment analysis, project management, tracking requirements, logging work hours, managing subscriptions, processing payroll, and more.
The cloud sync is seamless, making it accessible from anywhere, and the built-in App Script makes it easy for me to extend its functionality.
I plan to write more articles in the future to share some specific ways I use it.
As for products in my daily life—I don't have many desires. My daily consumption is quite simple. However, every two days, I visit the old man’s fruit stand near my house to buy his oranges.
Would you mind sharing your phone and computer home screens with us and a few of your go-to daily apps?
Sure, here is my desktop:
Firefox: My main browser.
Thunderbird: My main email client.
Chromium: The open-source version of Chrome. I mainly use its multiple-profile feature to keep identities separate, which is less convenient in Firefox.
Alacritty + Zellij: My primary terminal setup. This combination is extremely convenient as I often work in the command line.
Cursor: I use it instead of VSCode for coding.
Obsidian: My primary note-taking software.
Since many applications like Discord, Telegram, and Slack can be used in the browser, I don’t install their dedicated desktop clients.
Which creators do you look up to, and what admirable qualities do you see in them or their work?
Yes. Some developers I admire are @localhost_4173, @yihong0618, @tualatrix, and @kevinzhow. A creator I admire is @goldengrape.
I especially want to mention @localhost_4173—he’s a bit wild sometimes, and I hope he gives me a follow after seeing this.
These are the people who came to mind first, though I’ve surely missed some. My apologies to anyone I didn’t mention.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you envision for the future.
Hi, I’m Lyric, the creator of Quaily.
I used to be a product manager at Tencent. I now run a company in Japan, and Quaily is one of our products. The team has other members, but they are working on different projects, so for now, I’m the only one focused on Quaily.
I don’t have grand ambitions for Quaily; I just want to be able to work on it for the long haul. As for the company, I hope we can stay profitable, operate long-term, and contribute more to the local taxes.
Feel free to follow me on X or follow Quaily. You can also subscribe to my email newsletter.
What unique challenges have you faced running a global newsletter platform from Japan? How do the local culture and business environment affect Quaily’s development?
There are certainly some challenges with commercial operations in Japan, but if you don’t need to fundraise and your business isn’t confined to the Japanese market, it’s not all that different.
However, I can share a few characteristics of Japan’s business environment.
It has a kind of dual-track structure. On one hand, large corporations are deeply integrated into every aspect of daily life. On the other, there is a vast and incredibly active ecosystem of micro and small enterprises lining the streets. Many of these small businesses are hundreds of years old, a situation not commonly seen in other countries. I think this is related to the respect Japanese society has for small-scale operations and craftsmanship (shokunin kishitsu), as well as the importance placed on community and neighborhood relationships.
I also want to build a small business—one that lasts a hundred years, for a start.
About Apptisan
Apptisan is a portmanteau of “application” and “artisan”, signifying “a weekly exploration into the world of apps and the passionate artisans who create them.” Each issue is a conversation with global creators, aiming to uncover and present intriguing products to a wider audience.
For those who prefer Chinese, you can subscribe via Quaily. Creators interested in featuring their products are encouraged to submit them through our form, and we’ll be in touch promptly.
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