It’s been a little while since I’ve written an update from the MASQ UX/UI perspective, so here it is! Since the start of 2023, the MASQ team has been hard at work on 'MASQ Spaces', which as I’m sure you’ve all seen by now, is the upgraded version of the MASQ desktop feel with an almost entirely new user experience.

The idea behind MASQ Spaces is simple - turn MASQ from being a browser, to being not only a more fully featured browser – but to give it the sense you are running your own privacy-sandboxed OS, built on web technologies.

This is a huge step in creating the first truly decentralized OS-style experience!

Just over a year ago, we made the conscious decision to not try to be everything ourselves within the MASQ Protocol technology (specifically, decentralized storage), because we noticed other players already making great solutions, and we realised we are potentially one of the best foundations for a decentralized ecosystem with what we already offer.

So with MASQ Node, we decided to stick with what we’re good at (decentralized internet routing and privacy), and with the MASQ privacy browser we decided to become the interoperable web3 browser, where anybody could plug-in to what we’ve built to create the ultimate Web3 experience. This decision also allowed us to create a great dApp store, and partner up with some exciting projects which has been brilliant from the marketing perspective, with cross promotions getting us from just 3k followers on twitter to nearly 11k today purely through organic reach. Website visitors over the past 6 months have also been at all time highs!...

Web3 is and remains scattered and disjointed. MASQ Browser solves that. In the coming months, you’ll see not only the new Spaces V2 beta UI, but decentralized chat, and storage built right into the desktop. We feel that with decentralized internet routing (dVPN mesh), decentralized storage, chat, and finance – that we’ve created a tool that not only do people want, but increasingly they need.

As far as we know, no other app provides you a home for everything decentralized in one place - whether that’s your chats with friends and family, your file storage, your finance, and of course - your dVPN.

Not only are we putting Web3 together, but we’re also aiming to enhance the experience of browsing in general. Spaces V2 allows you to create groups of tabs, dock items and desktop widgets specific to a category you choose, and lets you easily cycle between them. Just drag anywhere on the desktop to create a smaller window and use it either as a widget to display some info (BTC price anyone?!), or simply have your browser windows side-by-side.

🎉We’re excited about launching Spaces V2 into beta this year and we can’t wait to share it with you!