Medium launches TK, a private writing app for notes and small groups

Medium, the blogging site, has launched a new app called TK. It is a place to take notes, keep a journal and share your writing with private groups of friends or fans. It is free on the web, Android and iOS, and a desktop app is promised soon. The Verge reports it is Medium's biggest launch in almost a decade.

What it does

At its core, TK is a bare-bones note app. It leans toward daily journal-style notes and longer writing. The Verge compares it to an ultra-minimalist version of Evernote, another note-taking app. Notes are easy to find again later.

An AI model is built in. You can point it at your notes to help organize them, search them or give feedback on your writing. The name is also a shortcut. Writers often type TK as a placeholder for a detail they still need, because those two letters rarely sit together in normal words. In the app, typing TK lets you call the AI to fill in the missing information.

Sharing in private groups

You can share a note by link or email, much like a Google Doc. People you invite can write, comment and leave emoji reactions.

You can also add writing to a Library, which is a private blog for a group. Early Libraries center on a topic. Some groups share book projects, swap recipes or post poetry drafts. A Library can have a few members or a few hundred. Nothing in it is public. Only the group sees it.

TK does not measure pageviews or reward writers for traffic. CEO Tony Stubblebine says the aim is feedback and encouragement, not the drive to be noticed.

Why Medium is doing this

Medium moved to subscriptions in 2017 and stopped chasing ad money. Now it faces a new problem. Search engines and chatbots send less traffic back to websites, and Medium relies on Google for a large share of its visitors. Stubblebine says that pushed the company toward private blogging, or in his words, taking everything underground.

What is not known yet

TK is free today, but the Verge notes it could become a new way for Medium to earn money. Stubblebine floated one idea: bundle the best material from a Library, such as recipes, and charge people or AI agents for access. That is an idea, not an announced plan. The material also does not say whether TK will add paid features. Stubblebine says similar features are coming to the main Medium site soon.