HackerNoon’s monthly product update is here! 🚀 Explore collaborative writing with our new editor Chowa, discover the best templates for your stories with our updated blogging templates page, get to know HackerNoon anew with our latest design shift, and more!This product update reflects changes to the platform from April 7th, until July 21st, 2025.\\Say Hello to Collaborative Writing with Chowa – and the New HackerNoon DashboardYou asked, we listened. After months of ideation and development, we’re introducing your new favorite writing tool: Chowa, the collaborative text editor built for real-time teamwork.This is your space to start a blank draft and enjoy seamless collaboration, with support for multiple authors.Try it out! 🤍👉 Start Writing with Your People!📝 How to Use Chowa (pronounced like Flow-a)Click “Start Draft” under the Chowa block - you’ll land in a whole new editor.Add Co-Authors: Click “Add Co-Authors” or scroll to Story Settings to invite your collaborators. They’ll get an email and notification, and your draft will appear on their dashboard.Fill out your title and tags, and start writing and formatting your text as you goLeave Comments for Co-Authors: Click the yellow speech balloon icon in the formatting bar to leave comments, suggest edits, or chat with your co-authors.\\:::tipWant the full guide? Read it here! Explore our retro Chowa page or check out our open-source repo.:::\Your Writer Dashboard also Looks DifferentWe’ve overhauled the Writer Dashboard for clarity and speed.Now, when you click “Start Writing,” you get three clean options:Chowa: Collaborative Text Editor – Work with other authors to create your next masterpiece.Blank Draft with Editor 3.0 – Prefer to write solo? Use HackerNoon’s classic editor (you know the one).Import Story – Paste a URL from anywhere on the web and watch your content instantly load into a HackerNoon draft. You can then format or update it to fit your publishing goals.Also, a lot of writing is persistence. So as you scroll down, we moved your unpublished drafts here ordered by most recently visited. This encourages bloggers to hop back into a recent draft.💡 Need Inspiration?Click the green arrow on the right side of your screen to open:Editing Protocol – Your one-stop hub for HackerNoon’s editorial guidelines. We launched a new microsite on EditingProtocol.com to more clearly explain our human + machine approach to improving and distributing blogs at scale.Blogging Templates – Choose from top templates by keyword, popularity, or category. Click “Create Draft” to start writing immediately.:::tipLearn more about our revamped Blogging Templates marketplace.:::\\Feel the Tailwind: HackerNoon’s new look is ready to take off!We’ve revamped our design to be cleaner, faster, and cooler — embracing a smoother retro aesthetic with less clutter and more clarity. We replaced a ton of custom components in favor of Tailwind. Let’s dive in!On the Homepage, You’ll Find:Daily Top StoriesTech Categories NavigationLatest Stories PublishedTrending Blog PostsTrending CompaniesPosts by CategoryPoll of the WeekPublished On This DayNavigation Got a Tune-Up Too:Top Nav:Read: find all your favorite topics, stories, guides and more.Top Blogs: click to see trending stories, most recent stories and translations.Write Now: find all essentials writer tools and tips, writing templates and writing contestsBusiness Blogging: learn how brands can collaborate with HackerNoon to get publishedAbout: learn more about HackerNoon, its people and softwareMore: A sidebar for everything else — shop, Web3, help center, etc.\Side Nav:Use the hamburger menu (☰) in the top-right corner to access the full navigation, including:Profile Settings: Edit your profile, stats, subscriptions, and moreNotifications: Stay updated with alerts, recs, and engagement.Change Your Theme: Customize the site to your preferred lookSearch Function (powered by Algolia): Click the search icon to immediately see top 10 trending stories, categories, and topics. Once you start typing, results filter by stories, topics, people, and companies.:::tipLearn more about our navigation shifts here.Learn more about your personalized reading recommendations here.:::\Tech Category Pages & TagsEach tech category page now includes:The four trending blog posts within the categoryA podcast section (listen instead of reading!)Top 10 writers in that category (with avatars, rankings, and read counts)Infinite scroll for category-specific storiesRelated tags and trending topic-specific navigation\New Signup Experience and Simpler Profile Settings ManagementEverything starts here 👇Pick how you want to sign up – Email, Gmail, GitHub, X (formerly Twitter), or LinkedIn (yes, that one’s new!).Choose your handle – This is your public identity on HackerNoon.Complete your profile – Once your handle is approved, you’ll be taken to your profile settings so you can customize it to reflect you.\\👤 New Profile PagesWe’ve redesigned profile settings pages to help you better represent yourself. Your info and CTAs are pinned to the left, and tabs at the top let you toggle between your bio, stories, saved quotes, comments, and more.:::tipNot filled it all out yet? Click “Edit” or go to “Settings” to update your bio, work history, location, and interests. All updates happen in real-time.:::Want to manage your emails too? Go to the “Emails” tab and subscribe (or unsubscribe 🙁) with one click.\🗳 New Poll DesignOur revamped polls page is cleaner and info-rich. Each poll now includes the question, voting breakdown, and all user comments on the right side. You can even download the poll data!\💬 Commenting with MarkdownNow you can format your comments on stories and polls using markdown — perfect for emphasis, links, and cleaner replies.\Style HackerNoon to Your tasteWe’ve upgraded our theme picker for better customization — lighter, faster, and cleaner. Change themes via the hamburger menu > last icon on the right.🎨 Try out our new Minty theme while you’re at it!\\HackerNoon x Sia Foundation: Decentralizing Tech Publishing We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with the Sia Foundation, a non-profit focused on decentralized, cryptographic cloud infrastructure. Similar to our previous integration with Arweave, this partnership strengthens our commitment to decentralization. By using multiple decentralized protocols, we reduce dependency on any single provider and take concrete steps toward long-term resilience for independent journalism.Over 100,000+ stories are now backed up on Sia — with 2,000+ new articles added each month — each with its individual meta-data page, like so:Why this matters:Permanent, censorship-resistant publishingVerifiable storageSupport for Web3 infrastructureThis project supports two critical goals:Advancing the future of Web3 infrastructure through real-world adoption of decentralized storageStrengthening the foundation of independent tech journalism by protecting content from censorship, takedowns, and platform control:::tipLearn more about this partnership here.:::Cheers to a more open and decentralized internet where stories are owned by the real contributors, not by centralized entities, gatekeepers, tech & media giants.\\AI Image Editing, Built Right InOur AI Image Generator can now edit images too. Just click on an image and then the 🔄 icon (or click the featured image). You'll see an Edit tab where you can tell the AI how you'd like to change it.\\Publishing and Contests, Now Clearer Than EverWe’ve streamlined the Business Blogging Page to surface all the key info and perks up front — so you can get started quickly and confidently. Explore the new layout here!\ The Writing Contests page also has a fresh new look. Whether you're submitting to a contest or organizing one, the updated design is faster, cleaner, and easier to navigate. Check it out here!\Explore Our New Knowledge Hubs on hackernoon.techLooking for deeper insights, platform updates, or just some great reads? We’ve launched hackernoon.tech — a dedicated microsite for all things HackerNoon publishing. From new tools and announcements to niche content hubs, it’s your home for everything we’re building.\🔍 Discover These New Learning Destinations by HackerNoon:Multiverse Theory – Explore stories about the multiverse and its wildest technology theories.Newsbyte – Hear directly from technologists building the future. Founders and CEOs can be interviewed here.Computational – The strange side of computing, launched via a game to learn if visitor is human or machine.Browserology – Learn the encompassing about the history and future of internet browsers.Bitcoin Paper – The original Bitcoin white paper, annotated and explained. Footnotes FTW!\\\That’s all for now!Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on all new launches!