December 2025 Summaries

In 2025, Knock continued to lead in the notification infrastructure category and expanded its vision to encompass customer engagement infrastructure, integrating product, marketing, and transactional messaging on a single platform. The company introduced several key features, including Guides for in-app messaging to enhance user activation and upsells, Broadcasts for one-time sends using a stateful workflow engine, and dynamic audiences for targeted messaging. Knock also enhanced developer tools by adding the Knock MCP server, facilitating faster implementations and migrations. The company collaborated with notable clients like Webflow, Headway, and Hiive to refine these innovations, resulting in increased efficiency and engagement. Looking ahead to 2026, Knock plans to focus on data activation and management, introducing features like schema management and agent mode for workflow optimization, along with core product investments to support engineering, growth, and marketing teams.

Nellis Auction, an online marketplace specializing in returned and overstock items, faced challenges with its in-house notification system as it expanded, prompting a shift to the Knock platform to enhance communication efficiency and engagement. This transition allowed Nellis to move beyond SMS notifications, introducing in-app and push notifications, which resulted in a significant increase in user engagement and site visits. The implementation of Knock also enabled Nellis to experiment with features like batching and intelligent throttling, leading to a 60% reduction in SMS costs and improved cost efficiency despite a growing user base. By adopting Knock, Nellis gained the flexibility to refine its messaging strategy without the ongoing maintenance burden on its engineering team, allowing them to focus on core auction functionalities. The move not only improved communication effectiveness but also supported Nellis's growth and expansion into new markets by providing an adaptable messaging infrastructure.

Markdown, created by John Gruber in 2004, is a lightweight markup language that uses simple syntax to format plain text documents, making them both human-readable and easily convertible to HTML. This guide explains Markdown's appeal through its portability across platforms, seamless integration with version control systems, and its ability to enhance writing focus by eliminating complex formatting distractions. Popular across major platforms like GitHub, Reddit, and Stack Overflow, Markdown supports a wide range of text formatting needs including headings, bold and italic text, links, lists, blockquotes, and images. Extended Markdown syntax, such as tables and task lists, varies by platform, with GitHub Flavored Markdown and CommonMark being notable examples. Markdown's versatility makes it suitable for various applications, from technical documentation and blogging to note-taking and academic writing. The guide emphasizes the benefits of starting to use Markdown in daily tasks to gain familiarity with its syntax, suggesting its use in note-taking apps, README files, and messaging templates.