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Pixate has joined Google

over 7 years ago from , Senior Designer at Google

Hey folks—some exciting news to share: Pixate has joined Google! Read the announcement here: http://blog.pixate.com/google

Google shares our mission of moving interaction design forward and arming designers with the tools they need to create the next generation of cross-platform experiences. We're thrilled to have the opportunity to continue our work on Pixate at Google.

You may have questions about the acquisition, so we put together an FAQ (http://www.pixate.com/pixate-google-faq). If you have any additional questions that we didn't answer, please let us know.

A heartfelt thanks to all of our users for your incredible support and feedback, and stay tuned for what's next. You're going to love it.

67 comments

  • Braden HammBraden Hamm, over 7 years ago

    Why is my initial reaction when Google buys something I like always sadness or disappointment?

    Hoping for the best for Pixate and their users.

    46 points
    • Ali Zendaki, over 7 years ago

      They bought Sparrow, and killed it. That's why. A slow, undignified death.

      23 points
    • Pierre de MillyPierre de Milly, over 7 years ago

      Me too. I hate when Google buys a product/service that I love.

      But I know it's probably better for them.

      4 points
    • Andrew HoltAndrew Holt, over 7 years ago

      That's always understandable, but Google is taking design tools very seriously, which is one of the reasons we were so excited to join them.

      15 points
    • brett lider, over 7 years ago

      Hi Braden. Brett here from Google. I'm somewhat close to the folks here at Google who work on design and design tools. I hope you've seen how with Form we've continued to evolve that product. And with Pixate just today, we've made the desktop editor free and the collaboration plans much cheaper. Happy to respond to specific concerns. If you're curious to read more about how we think about the future of design tools, check out this interview with Matias Duarte (lead of Material Design), Max Weisel (Form founder) and Paul Colton (Pixate cofounder), which came out today.

      http://www.google.com/design/articles/tooling-up/

      7 points
      • Sergie MagdalinSergie Magdalin, over 7 years ago

        Really great read. So many golden quotes in there.

        0 points
        • Don Muller, over 7 years ago

          The spin on this is making me dizzy. Let's see whether they are interested in the product or just the people behind the product.

          2 points
      • Braden HammBraden Hamm, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )

        I'm confident that the Pixate guys made a decision based not only on what was good for them, but for their product and loyal customers.

        I was simply stating my initial gut reaction based on how things have gone in the past, whether it's because a product got shut down, ruined, or my privacy came in to question (Dropcam, Nest).

        0 points
      • Ali AliAli Ali, over 7 years ago

        Thanks for sharing Brett

        0 points
    • Jeff CouturierJeff Couturier, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )

      Why? Because of things like Sparrow. At least for me, that's the reason. Sparrow was such an excellent mail app (the last version still is), but Google bought it and just put it on ice.

      Edit: While Inbox is supposed to be the successor to Sparrow, it pales in comparison.

      2 points
  • Pasquale D'SilvaPasquale D'Silva, over 7 years ago

    RIP sweet prince.

    25 points
    • Matias DuarteMatias Duarte, over 7 years ago

      There's no rest in sight for the Pixate!

      We have lots of exciting things we want to do in this space and with these products, check out our roundtable discussion to get a peek inside our heads as we talk about the future of design tools : http://www.google.com/design/articles/tooling-up/

      Oh, and let us know what else you need!

      27 points
      • Stefan Rauch, over 7 years ago

        I love that the VP of design at Google is on here.

        10 points
      • Don Muller, over 7 years ago

        I think people are concerned about Pixate, as THAT is the tool they love. Google's vague plans for design tools in general is not necessarily any reassurance on the future of Pixate.

        Given past experience, Google has work to do to build trust. Self congratulatory is probably not the best way to do that.

        Pixate as an independent and innovative entity would have been exciting to watch and work with. Pixate as just another Google limb won't go its own way.

        Try as it might, Google will never own design, though they may try to buy the best design products.

        2 points
      • Pasquale D'SilvaPasquale D'Silva, over 7 years ago

        I need you to not acquire FramerJS.

        3 points
  • Afnizar Nur Ghifari, over 7 years ago

    Make it free Google :)

    11 points
    • Andrew HoltAndrew Holt, over 7 years ago

      Pixate Studio is free now, and we made the cloud a lot cheaper. :)

      13 points
      • Afnizar Nur Ghifari, over 7 years ago

        Is there any chance, we can use the google drive for the cloud?

        0 points
        • Andrew HoltAndrew Holt, over 7 years ago

          Sure, you can share your Pixate files any way you please (Dropbox, Drive, etc.). The Pixate cloud makes the process of sharing a lot more seamless, especially with a broader team of non-designers, so it's your call. We'll likely integrate into Drive in the future, but that remains to be seen.

          2 points
  • Paul @StammyPaul @Stammy, over 7 years ago

    Congrats team! Lots of us at Twitter use and love Pixate. Super easy to onboard designers onto it.

    6 points
  • Sergie MagdalinSergie Magdalin, over 7 years ago

    Great news for the team! I'd love to know what was the biggest deciding factor for the acquisition. How do you think joining forces with Google will help Pixate reach its original vision? Seems risky to add more cooks to the kitchen for such a fresh and very design-centric product.

    5 points
    • Andrew HoltAndrew Holt, over 7 years ago

      We were impressed with how dedicated the Material team is to elevating design in general (not just for Android), and very much felt we'd be able to expand our reach while maintaining the same vision.

      0 points
  • Dan CortesDan Cortes, over 7 years ago

    Pixate Studio is free & cloud starts at $5! Holy moly, that's awesome. I can get my company to pay for software, but this is huge for all the indies, students, and tinkerers out there. Love it. Big hug from me to you guys.

    5 points
  • Taylor PoeTaylor Poe, over 7 years ago

    Will the Pixate team be collaborating with the Relative Wave Form team going forward (now both at Google)?

    3 points
  • ja krish, over 7 years ago

    @Pixate had two shades of google before the join. Will there be any change in logo ? @GoogleDesign http://bit.ly/1Kk8Zmb

    2 points
  • Bruno BarrosBruno Barros, over 7 years ago

    I'm really happy for the Pixate team, as long as Google keep it alive. Pixate is probably the best prototyping tool out there.

    2 points
  • Adam T.Adam T., over 7 years ago

    I'm happy for the team as it's probably validation (and a good payday), but inside I can't stand to see corporate behemoths snatch up small companies. All in the name of "tech" I suppose.

    2 points
  • Tes MatTes Mat, over 7 years ago

    I just finished a mega blog post about five different tools - Form, Framer, Origami, Pixate & Proto.io - the day before this news. (and now had to update half of it: Form, another Google property, also launched a big update yesterday)

    Anyway, here it is. I compared these five tools by recreating the IFTTT onboarding.

    1 point
  • Don Muller, over 7 years ago

    Ah, it was all too good to last. Sorry to hear of Pixate's fate, though, I guess you can't blame the Pixate people for following the money nor Google for taking the opportunity to wrench the heart out of a brilliant startup. It's business.

    Asking Pixate what their future will be is laughable. Unless, like me, you dropped money on licenses in the past few weeks for a product they knew will be free shortly after I paid for it. That isn't funny.

    As a person who bought Snapseed for desktop before Google bought and killed it, I know how this will go. And NO, the Google alternatives are never the same, as they are invariably created to feed the Google machine. There are a number of rumors already about Pixate stalling iOS support. :-(

    Let's look forward to the next Pixate and enjoy the innovation when they carry the torch. There are plenty of new exciting startups filling the space left by those acquired by corporations.

    I do hope the Pixate people like working on the Gmail UI project, it's beginning to show its age ;-)

    1 point
  • João FaracoJoão Faraco, over 7 years ago

    I'm hoping for the best. Google has a well-documented design spec, and now it needs an official prototyping tool to complement it. I have been loving Pixate especially for how it can emulate Material Design's transitions and animations, but haven't seen significant improvements lately. I hope Google can help them push these updates faster.

    1 point
  • Josh LeeJosh Lee, over 7 years ago

    This is super cool. Very happy for the team and Google.

    1 point
  • John ChouraJohn Choura, over 7 years ago

    Congrats, I've been with you guys since the beginning and have loved the product. I hope the acquisition means that your product development cycles will speed up, and we'll see some new features quicker.

    :)

    1 point
  • Thiago Dias, over 7 years ago

    What a great news! Thank you Pixate and Google to make it free for everyone! :p

    1 point
  • Jeremy RouxJeremy Roux, over 7 years ago

    Awesome news. We love pixate here!

    1 point
  • Dustin RhodesDustin Rhodes, over 7 years ago

    Congrats Justin & everyone else at Pixate!

    1 point
  • Sky WinstonSky Winston, over 7 years ago

    Hey Justin, congrats on joining Matias & team. I see that Relative Wave's Form has just been updated as well. It seems to me that Pixate & Form are really two approaches to the same problem. Did you discuss this overlap with Google and wonder at the confusion this might cause? For example, why would I choose Form over Pixate if I'm designed for iOS?

    0 points
  • Me Chai SweeMe Chai Swee, over 7 years ago

    I once saw Apple persistently using their product Keynote to do amazing prototyping in a common sense way. It is simple, but maybe simple is not what people want these days.

    0 points
  • Matthew O'ConnorMatthew O'Connor, over 7 years ago

    This is awesome, but since losing the web app I can't get my prototypes back!? I have logged in using studio, but nothing. Very strange they killed the webapp without letting us take our projects off first.

    0 points
    • Andrew HoltAndrew Holt, over 7 years ago

      Hey Matthew, you can definitely get your prototypes from your cloud account. If you were on the free plan, you have a 60-day trial of the new cloud plan. Studio doesn't yet allow you to load prototypes directly off the cloud, but we'll be making this integration more seamless in the future.

      Just sign in with your existing credentials. Email us at support@pixate.com if you run into any issues.

      0 points
  • H S, over 7 years ago

    foo

    0 points
  • David AlandíDavid Alandí, over 7 years ago

    great news!

    0 points
  • Some DesignerSome Designer, over 7 years ago

    Cool, I found the price was a little high anyway.

    0 points
  • Jesus GallentJesus Gallent, over 7 years ago

    Pixate = <3

    0 points
  • Laurens SpangenbergLaurens Spangenberg, over 7 years ago

    It's pretty awesome to see all the parties involved in this right here on DN.

    0 points
  • Josué Gutiérrez Valenciano, over 7 years ago

    Hope you guys the best! Maybe I prefer when Microsoft buys companies, they are less into that trend of closing everything like Google does. But, anyway, is a new adventure and I am glad for this. Good luck guys!

    0 points
  • Dennis Camacho, over 7 years ago

    Congrats!

    0 points
  • Cihad TurhanCihad Turhan, over 7 years ago

    I'm really happy for you guys. Hope Google helps you to make better product.

    0 points
  • Matt Kofman, over 7 years ago

    Congratulations, Pixate team. I can't wait to see what great things will happen in the future.

    0 points
  • Dima B, over 7 years ago

    Haha, that's amazing! You won't believe - I signed up to the Pixate 10-20 minutes before today's maintenance and was pretty upset because of the pricing and then your message pretty sure made my day!:)

    A question - how much will it cost monthly for the team of let's say 1 designer and 3 developers? (Developers will not use an editor - they will only need to get the prototypes on their devices). Thanks in advance, good luck!

    0 points
  • Asher SimondsAsher Simonds, over 7 years ago

    Congrats guys! We've been using Pixate since the beta here and love it :)

    0 points
  • Daniel FoscoDaniel Fosco, over 7 years ago

    That's rad!! Congratulations :)

    0 points
  • Tim ParkerTim Parker, over 7 years ago

    <3 Pixate.

    0 points