Not so long ago, if you’d asked me where I networked with other writers, I would’ve said Twitter, Medium, maybe LinkedIn.
Substack wasn’t on my radar for this.
It was just a publishing platform. A tool to send letters into inboxes. That’s it.
But fast-forward to now, and the Substack app is my single biggest growth driver. (Followed by Medium.)
And that’s both incredible and slightly terrifying.
Notes Changed Everything
Substack Notes turned the Substack app and experience into something else entirely.
Something way bigger.
What started as “Twitter but calmer” became the place where many discovered writers, got discovered themselves, and picked up new subscribers. Daily.
Before Notes, app-driven traffic okay but nothing to think about twice.
Now, the app is where the magic happens.
Followers, susbcribers, comments, paid conversions, they all come from people who find me inside Substack, not from emails landing in inboxes.
That’s huge…
It’s also a quiet shift in what it means to “have subscribers.”
And that’s something to worry about.
Hidden Shift Away From Email
For years, we heard: build an email list, because you own it.
Emails were yours. Direct contact. A line no algorithm could cut.
But on some of today’s biggest writing platforms (and social media in some cases too), that’s no longer 100% true.
Medium has already moved to a closed system: subscribers don’t equal emails anymore. If you check your dashboard now, all you’ll see is ****@****.com. You don’t own the list. You own a number on Medium’s servers.
One you can't export and take with you. Just like regular followers on social media.
Substack hasn’t gone that far, yet. But they’re on their way.
You can still export email addresses. But dig into your export, and you’ll see a little column called Email disabled: TRUE/FALSE.
That’s Substack quietly telling you: not everyone on your list gets your emails. Some only get push notifications inside the app. And that number is growing.
In other words, the app is becoming the list.
Some use smart notifications. But those are also basically in-app notifications, most of the time.
It Feels Good (But It’s Dangerous)
I can’t lie, the Substack app experience is great. I like reading there much more than scrolling to my email app.
And while you’re on the Substack app, you can also scroll Notes, drop comments, hit “like.” That’s the whole point.
Writers love the visibility and community. I love it too. It’s easier, smoother, less cluttered than inboxes. It feels alive.
But there’s a catch:
If your subscribers are conditioned to check notifications, not email, they’re not really “email subscribers” anymore. They’re app followers.
That works fine… until you try to leave.
Switch to Kit or Beehiiv and suddenly half your audience won’t even realize you’ve moved. They’ll still be refreshing Substack. And checking out other people’s content.
On Medium, you can’t even take them with you anymore. The emails are hidden. Locked in.
This is now the new phase of “email subscribers”.
A New Kind of Lock-In
It isn’t evil. It’s just platform economics.
In-app engagement looks better on investor decks.
Notifications keep readers scrolling longer.
Closed loops prevent “leakage” to competitors.
And the app experience is just smoother and more convenient for users
But for writers, this means ownership is slipping.
Your “list” is locked. Slowly. Invisibly. And dangerously easy to miss.
What To Do About It
Obviously, you could move platforms. But we all use and like Substack for a reason. It works. So, this is hardly an option for most.
So:
Check your exports. See how many Substack subscribers have emails disabled. If it’s growing, you’ll know where things are heading.
Collect outside emails. Even if it’s just a trickle, capture a parallel list on ConvertKit, Beehiiv. I use Gumroad.
Communicate clearly. Tell readers how to stay in touch beyond the app. Say it more than once. Don’t assume they’ll notice your absence.
Think long-term. Love the app, use the app, but don’t mistake platform growth for list ownership. Be ready to have a backup plan and leave.
The Bottom Line
Right now, the Substack app is my #1 growth channel.
Notes is incredible. Engagement is high. New subscribers flow in every day. Free and paid.
But let’s not kid ourselves: this growth comes with a trade-off.
Our “email lists” are starting to live in someone else’s walled garden. Just like followers on social media. That’s convenient, until the day you want to take your audience somewhere else.
That’s when you realize: the inbox was yours. The readers never were.