Draftback

The archaeology of great writing

What is Draftback?

Draftback is a unique Chrome extension designed to provide a playback of the revision history of any editable Google Doc, akin to travelling back in time during the writing process. Aside from giving a new perspective of viewing data, Draftback ensures user data privacy by not sharing data with third parties and limiting data access to docs.google.com to fetch the necessary revision data.

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Extension stats

By: https://jsomers.net

View on Chrome Web Store

Users: 500,000+

Rating: 4.13 (120)

Version: 0.0.19 (Last updated: 2024-10-11)

Creation date: 2020-08-01

Risk impact: Moderate risk impact

Risk likelihood: Moderate risk likelihood

Manifest version: 3

Host permissions:

*://docs.google.com/*

Size: 959.49K

Email: js*****@gmail.com

URLs: Website

Ranking

# 954 ▲ 2

Other rankings

#23470 in Workflow & Planning ▼ 11

#12 in google docs keyword 50 ▲ 2

#15 in document keyword 30

#59 in sheets extension keyword 12 ▼ 4

#83 in data privacy keyword 37 ▼ 5

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Other platforms

Not available on Firefox

Not available on Edge

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Extension summary

Analyze keywords

Draftback lets you play back the revision history of any Google Doc you can edit. It's like going back in time to look over your own shoulder as you write.

I designed the extension to be as careful as possible about user privacy. No data is collected by me. User data is stored locally on the user's computer and it is only stored/collected there so that future replays of an already-replayed document will go faster.

It's possible that Google itself collects some user data on every one of its extensions, in which case Draftback wouldn't be an exception.

OTHER NOTES

With Draftback, your data is kept entirely private. Draftback was purposely designed so that you could play back your own docs without having to share them with a third party. This is -your- data; Draftback just lets you see it in a new way.
Draftback only needs access to docs.google.com to get the revision data for playback—but that data never leaves your own browser.
Draftback has been tested with large documents, but you may run into trouble with REALLY large docs. If that happens, shoot me a note ([email protected]) and I'll try to get to the bottom of it.

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.

Pros

Useful for tracking writing processes and development
Helpful for teachers to detect plagiarism
Great for students to prove their writing authenticity
Provides valuable insights into writing habits
Ability to recover lost work

Cons

Glitches and inconsistent functionality reported
Privacy concerns regarding the recording of keystrokes
Outdated interface and lack of updates
Does not work well with Google Classroom
Limited to Google Docs only

Most mentioned

Glitches in functionality
Usefulness in educational settings
Privacy and ethical concerns
Plagiarism detection
Interface issues and lack of updates

User reviews

This has been working well for me but I have a recent document that just shows up as blank. Any suggestions?

Kimberly Curtis, 2024-11-01

I wanted to use this to help detect AI. I have a piece of work that is more than 90% AI generated using GPTZero, ZeroGPT and Grammarly AI check. However, when I use Draftback, it shows the student typing out each character. Now, they could be copying word for word from their phone or another window, but how can I prove that. It's odd to me a student can write an entire paper in 24 minutes, but I can't prove they copy and pasted. SO, it's a bit frustrating when truly trying to detect AI, and students are catching on to what programs teachers use and how they work ... any guidance? Or, perhaps I am reading the Draftback stats wrong?

Jennifer J Jungwirth, 2024-09-11

This is an amazing tool. It inspired us to develop a similar extension, "Process Feedback," designed primarily for students and teachers. That one allows sharing the writing process to others and downloading the writing process as a PDF to submit to a teacher.