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Hypothes.is (Hypothesis)

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The Hypothesis LMS app brings discussion directly to course content by enabling students and teachers to add comments and start conversations in the margins of texts. Collaborative annotation engages students more deeply in course readings and gives teachers a view into how students are reading.

With the Hypothesis LMS app, it’s now easier than ever to get started using collaborative annotation in your classes. With the app installed in your LMS or course site:

• You can enable Hypothesis on select readings (public webpages and PDFs)
• Students don’t need to install anything
• Students don’t need to sign up for or log in to separate accounts
• A private Hypothesis group including all class members is automatically generated for each course
• Everyone in the course annotates in the private group by default on all readings

Hypothesis is an organization on a mission to empower students as knowledge producers within and beyond the classroom.

The Hypothesis LMS app is free to install for testing and limited use. Contact us about our LMS Pilot Program that provides full support for schools looking to implement annotation at scale. Schools that make continued use of the Hypothesis LMS app pay an annual fee.

For more technical information about installation and how the app works, see our guidance and technical details .

To learn more about adopting open annotation at your educational institution, contact Jeremy Dean , Director of Education at Hypothesis and subscribe to news from Hypothesis .

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Not using Canvas? See our instructions for other LMSs .

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Bring Assigned Reading to Life Using Hypothesis

by Michael Hernandez | Jan 13, 2023 | Instructional design , Uncategorized

“Arguably scholarship is entirely dependent on annotation; scholarship is an exercise in annotation. Research depends on the ability to cite other research, and a citation is an annotation to that other work.” – Jeffrey Pomerantz, quoted in Annotation by Remi Kalir and Antero Garcia

For many instructors, designing a course reading list is an act of thoughtful curation and hard choices: selecting the texts that students can’t leave the course without understanding, trying to represent a variety of perspectives, and even carving out precious space for a new but exciting text to discuss and write about. As Germano and Nicholls describe it in the book Syllabus , “a reading list is both the heart that animates a course of study and the skeleton on which the course is built” (Germano & Nicholls, 69). For that reason, the concern over whether the assigned texts are being read can be particularly dispiriting. If this is a concern for you, you may find social annotation with Hypothesis a simple but effective new approach to course reading.

Collaborative annotation with Hypothesis can help you promote significant engagement with your thoughtfully selected texts, as well as a more dynamic learning community in your class. Hypothesis is fully integrated with Canvas, so you and your students can easily share annotations and interact in the margins of assigned texts. It’s compatible with online articles, PDFs, and even websites. Annotations in Hypothesis allow threaded replies, text comments, and multimedia like GIFs and videos.

Hypothesis for Canvas

While Hypothesis is an open-source service that can be used by anyone, regardless of academic affiliation, through the Hypothesis website , it has been integrated with Canvas so that instructors can set up annotation activities with greater ease and control.

Using Hypothesis through the Canvas integration offers the following benefits:

• Setting up annotation activities either in connection with Canvas modules or as assignments
• The option to attach a rubric to annotation assignments in order to give participation points, a grade for specific annotation work, or written feedback to guide students’ academic reading
• The ability to assign different annotation activities to specific student groups you create in Canvas

Initial Assignment Setup

If you’d like to create an annotation assignment in Canvas, the process is very similar to the process you normally follow to create an assignment, with a couple of small changes.

• Start by clicking Assignments in the left navigation bar of your Canvas course.
• Click the + Assignment button in the top right corner.

• Click the Find button.

• Once you’ve added your text to annotate, click Select .
• After completing any other assignment setup like due dates, you can click Save and Publish when you’re ready to share with your class.

Planning Engaging Annotation Activities

As with any kind of online discussion activity, it’s a good idea to provide a specific prompt rather than an open request to annotate, which may leave students feeling adrift at first, especially if they haven’t been in the habit of annotating or doing so with others. Some instructors find it helpful to break annotators into groups and assign specific themes to annotate on, terms to look out for, or page ranges to cover for the benefit of the entire class.

Academic Technology Solutions also offers a variety of blog posts to support you in this planning, like “ Social Annotation and the Pedagogy of Hypothesis .” Hypothesis also shares starter assignments and insightful examples of how educators have used the tool to promote significant learning through assigned texts.

You might also consider the five affordances of annotation, adapted and paraphrased from the recent book Annotation from MIT Press, to help you communicate to students what you consider a meaningful annotation:

• Providing information : The work of providing context can help the annotator and make the text more accessible for others. Students can be prompted to research, define, and elaborate on ideas in the text, even bringing in links to outside sources when relevant.
• Sharing commentary : Comment has been a constant presence outside of academic life ever since social media began to saturate our daily lives. This form of annotation can include the dissent to or endorsement of other opinions, denoted by likes, downvotes, emoji reactions, and more. It can also include the use of a hashtag to organize or associate an excerpt with a larger discussion. Short, reactive, asynchronous notes come naturally to many readers today, particularly digital natives, and can be powerful when brought to class reading.
• Sparking conversation : The act of thoughtful dialogue in the margins has the potential to bring more life to the text. What starts as a reply to the author can become a spirited debate among readers. Encouraging the use of threaded replies and multiple modalities can also support self-sustaining and substantial conversation.
• Expressing and questioning power : Deliberately questioning the text and providing counterpoints can help bring our reading past the level of summarizing, rephrasing, or noting core ideas.
• Aiding learning : As preparation for discussion, you may be interested in providing your own annotations and then inviting your students to interact with them. A demonstration of your own interaction with the text may help model future reading. You might consider adding your own notes within the Hypothesis activity in advance or providing them as examples on your Canvas page.

It is also important to note that annotation’s benefits apply across many fields of study, including STEM. For an example of how annotation has been employed in STEM education, take a look at Science in the Classroom’s expert-annotated research papers .

Upcoming Workshops

Looking for additional support using annotation in your teaching? Hypothesis has two upcoming workshops to help UChicago instructors find opportunities to make class reading active, visible, and social.

Annotation Starter Assignments in Hypothesis – January 31, 1:30-2:30 PM

Small Group Annotation and Creative Ways to Use Social Annotation in Your Course – February 2, 1:30-2:30 PM

ATS will also be offering its own workshop, Student Engagement Through Digital Annotation , on February 3 from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM. This workshop covers not only the practices of digital annotation and the use of Hypothesis, but also how to annotate in Canvas and access tools for making more texts compatible with digital annotation.

Please consider joining us!

Additional Technical Guidance and Support

For more information about using Hypothesis, please see the following excellent guidance created by Hypothesis:

• Using the Hypothesis App with Assignments in Canvas
• Using Rubrics in Canvas with Hypothesis
• Using the Hypothesis LMS App with Modules in Canvas
• Using Canvas Groups to Create Hypothesis Reading Groups
• Hypothesis and Screen Readers (crucial for accessibility)

Interested in the books mentioned in this post?

• Read Syllabus by William Germano and Kit Nicholls at the UChicago Library
• Read  Annotation by Remi Kalir and Antero Garcia at the UChicago Library

For live support creating and configuring annotation activities for your course, please contact ATS or join us in office hours .

Image by Hans from Pixabay

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Getting Started with Hypothesis

• Last modification date Updated On August 14, 2023
• Categories: Hypothesis
• Categories: annotation , assessment , collaboration , Getting Started

Hypothesis  is a social annotation tool. It allows for sentence-level note taking or critique on top of classroom reading, news, blogs, scientific articles, books, terms of service, ballot initiatives, legislation, and more. In Canvas, it is available as an external tool link as a module item or through an External Tool Assignment, but will not appear in the Course Navigation menu of a Canvas course.

Find answers to frequent questions about Hypothesis at  Hypothesis FAQs . 

For setting up graded annotation activities, see  Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Assignments in Canvas .

For setting up graded group annotation activities, see Using Canvas Groups to Create Hypothesis Reading Groups .

For setting up ungraded annotation activities, see  Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Modules in Canvas .

To provide students a larger annotation window, check the box next to  Load in a new tab  when creating a new Hypothesis assignment or module item in Canvas. 

For setting up annotation activities with CAMP or VitalSource materials, see Utilizing the Course Materials + Hypothesis Integration .

For information on grading Hypothesis assignments, see Grading Student Annotations in Canvas .

For information on grading Hypothesis assignments via rubrics, see Using Rubrics in Canvas with Hypothesis .

Use the Hypothesis tool to create OCR copies of PDFs.

PDFs added to Canvas for use in Hypothesis must be published. Unpublished files will deliver an error when a student tries to open it to annotate.

We recommend caution linking to Google Drive files, as students living abroad have reported access issues.

Document annotations will not transfer during Canvas course copy. See Canvas Course Import or Copy and Hypothesis for more information.

Accessibility Tips

It is possible to use  Hypothesis with your keyboard .

Additional Resources

• Comparison of Annotation Tools: Hypothesis and Perusall
• Hypothesis FAQs
• Social Annotation Tips
• Social Annotation
• Introduction to the Hypothesis LMS App for Students
• Annotation Tips for Students
• An Illustrated Taxonomy of Annotation Types
• Hypothesis instructor guides
• Hypothesis workshop slides
• Ideas for Using Hypothesis

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Teaching Resources

Resource Overview

Guide on using Hypothesis, a social annotation tool used for collaboration, interactive reading, annotation, and discussion.

Hypothes.is (or Hypothesis) is a social annotation tool that places a conversational layer on top of texts to support collaboration, interactive reading, and engagement. Adding Hypothesis to readings in Canvas can increase active discussion right on top of PDFs and webpages, enabling students and instructors to add comments and start conversations in the margins of a course reading.

For more ideas and technical support, email the EdTeam team  or schedule a consult . You can also reach out to Becky George, WashU Customer Support Specialist at Hypothes.is, to get individual help and ideas for using Hypothes.is by emailing her or scheduling a consult with her.

• WashU licensed
• Seamlessly integrates with Canvas Assignments, Groups, and SpeedGrader
• Shared annotations and replies as well as private highlights and notes
• Use with webpages or searchable PDFs
• Can split students into small reading groups
• Ability to annotate with images, links, and videos
• Student resources, including instructions , tutorials , and guides on best practices and annotation types
• CTL managed and supported

Hypothesis makes reading active, visible, and social. A metanalysis conducted by Novak et al in 2012 suggested that social annotation tools can “lead to learning gains in higher education” (p. 47). In particular, the study found that social annotation activities contribute to “improved critical thinking, meta-cognitive skills, and reading comprehension” (p. 47). Preliminary findings in the same study also suggested that using social annotation “promotes motivation for reading and contributes to higher frequency of positive emotions and lower frequency of negative emotions” (towards the reading). In addition, Brown and Croft (2020) argue that social annotation is an inclusive teaching practice because of how it promotes collaborative knowledge building.

• Increase engagement on a reading assignment by asking students to share reactions, personal connections, or questions about a text. Such annotations make the reading experience social and spark conversations between students.
• Familiarize students with the expectations and objectives of your course by having them annotate the syllabus. This not only ensures that students read the syllabus, but also helps build community from the start .
• Help students read a difficult text together. In the instructions, ask students to raise questions about confusing concepts, share how they interpret the text, and add links to resources that define terms, provide examples or elaborate on concepts raised in the text.
• Help students do more close reading by asking probing questions or directing students to important parts of the text. Open the text in Hypothesis as a student would and add your prompts as annotations. Consider these 10 different types of annotations .
• Use a text or a section of a text to model how you would engage with it. Open the text in Hypothesis and add annotations to share your own responses, analyses, and meta-comments. You could also use this opportunity to introduce students to annotation etiquette , or best practices that make annotations more useful for others.
• Synthesize annotations using tags. Make sure that you and students add specific tags to your annotations such as by concept, topic, or comment type (e.g., “metaphor” “love” “resource” “follow-up”). This will allow you to search for this tag and quickly identify themes across annotations.
• Include multimedia in annotation by showing students how to add external images and videos in comments and replies. These can be immediately viewed in the comments window.
• Get ideas from the Hypothesis teacher community at Liquid Margins which meets regularly to discuss ideas for social annotation. All past recordings are available on YouTube .
• Discussion Board Alternative: Students benefit from conversations that take place within a text. This can keep their conversations specific and grounded. Students can post questions and then respond to other students’ questions OR you can place questions within the text for students to respond to.
• Comparative Activity: Students work to closely analyze a series of texts looking for commonalities, dissimilarities, or other points of importance for future discussion.
• Close Reading Practice: Students often fly through short complex texts too quickly. A Hypothesis activity can slow them down and encourage them to engage in slow, careful reading. Students may be tasked with adding definitions to unfamiliar words, grappling with passages that seem critical or patterns that stand out in the text, and linking to other texts or theories that a passage seems to allude to etc.
• Rhetorical Analysis: Students might be tasked with marking and explaining rhetorical strategies that they encounter in a text.
• Multimedia Writing: Students use Hypothesis to create a collaborative multimedia text by annotating a written text with images and video.
• Creative Writing Exercise: Students could respond creatively and collaboratively to a written text. It could also be used as an exercise (e.g. annotate “x” text in the voices of characters from a prior text).
• Syllabus Search : Students annotate for specific important course details such as due dates, course goals, and resources. This is a great beginning activity to build community and help students identify how your course relates to students’ personal and professional goals.
• Jigsaw Multiple Texts : Students are split into separate groups where each group reads a different text. After becoming “experts” on their assigned reading, they split into new groups with experts of other texts to teach each other about the text that they read.

• Brown, M. & Croft, B. (2020). “Social annotation an inclusive praxis for open pedagogy in the college classroom.” Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1-8.
• Novak, E. et al. (2012). “The educational use of social annotation tools in higher education: A literature review.” The Internet and Higher Education, 15, 39-49.

Get Started

Hypothesis is fully integrated into Canvas. You’ll find it under Assignments and External Tools.

Here’s a great page designed to walk faculty through social annotation and using Hypothesis: https://web.hypothes.is/getting-started-with-canvas/

Hypothesis Tutorials

• How to set up and grade a Hypothesis Activity
• Quick 2-page overview

Additional Tutorials from Hypothesis (external links)

• How to set up Hypothesis readings through Canvas Assignments  
• How to set up Hypothesis readings through Canvas Modules  
• How to set up Hypothesis reading groups in Canvas  
• How to grade Hypothesis annotations in Canvas  

Ideas for How to Use Hypothesis

• Starter assignment ideas
• User-submitted assignment ideas
• NEW! AI Starter Assignments with ChatGPT
• Instructions for Students
• A student guide to Hypothesis in Canvas
• An Illustrated Guide to Annotation Types
• Annotation tips for students
• How to sync Hypothesis readings for imported Canvas courses

Related news and events

Hypothesis workshops series – fall 2024, new hypothesis feature coming soon.

Hypothes.is Social Annotation

Introduction.

Hypothes.is is an open source tool/plugin for social, collaborative asynchronous annotation . Collaborative annotation is an effective methodology that increases student participation and engagement, expands reading comprehension, and builds critical-thinking skills and community in class. Annotation can also increase faculty, student and cognitive presence in classes. Annotating together makes reading visible, active, and social, enabling students to engage with their texts, teachers, ideas, and each other in deeper, more meaningful ways. 

To join our UMB Hypothesis course in Blackboard, where you can experience Hypothesis in a sandbox environment and learn about it, log into Blackboard.umaryland.edu and then come back here and click on this link (won't work if you aren't logged in!). 

Basically, Hypothes.is is a layer of conversations on top of the open web and PDF documents. With it, you and your class can:

have private group dialog about open web content (web pages, newspapers, blogs, wikis, etc.) 

highlight and take notes on class readings, PDFs and open web content

reply and respond to other group members' comments - have dialog and discussion about readings

check for understanding of concepts in readings

help ensure that students have read and processed readings prior to class

and much more... 

How to Get Started - Exploring (Non-Blackboard Integration)

The main thing you need to do to get started is add the extension to your browser. We highly recommend starting with Google Chrome browser, and installing the extension/plug-in from this website .  However if you'd prefer to use a different browser, you can also add the Bookmarklet on this page to your browser. 

Once you have installed and enabled the Hypothesis extension or bookmarklet, you can click to view the examples below, and see all the annotations on these web pages.

To view the annotation layer on the following examples, you must have the Hypothes.is extension installed and enabled on your browser (see above). Here is an example of a web article with Hypothes.is annotations , and another, a blog post that has annotations , Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem on CNN, or an article on Wired Magazine's website with annotations and discussion. You never know where you might see public annotations on web pages! But all annotations need not be public, you can also annotate privately for yourself, or privately with a group of your choosing.     

Blackboard Integration

It is possible to use the Hypothes.is LTI plugin in Blackboard to automatically set up accounts for all instructors and students, as well as a private group for each class that uses it. When Hypothesis is added to a course the app will automatically create a private group for that course. The app will also provision accounts for all students and instructors in the course when they launch the app for the first time. This means that students can begin annotating readings in Blackboard without creating or logging into a separate Hypothesis account. See a video webinar on using Hypothes.is in Blackboard .

These Blackboard-based Hypothesis accounts operate differently than public Hypothesis accounts in the following ways:

They are domain-specific: They only work within the Blackboard instance in which they were created, not on the open web.

They are separate from regular Hypothesis accounts: Users who have created accounts through the public Hypothesis service will be given new and separate accounts for use within the context of Blackboard.

They cannot create their own private groups: A private group is automatically generated for courses where the Hypothesis Blackboard app is installed. Neither instructors nor students will be able to create additional private groups within the Blackboard context.

They do not have access to Hypothesis profile and group activity pages: This is something we plan to address in the near future so that teachers and students can view their annotated comments and conversations outside of the context of a particular document.

Even though these guides are listed for Blackboard they display a Post to Public option when using the tool but since this is installed in Blackboard the only options are to Post to the Course or a Private Post to the user.

Creating Hypothesis-enabled readings in Blackboard

https://web.hypothes.is/help/creating-hypothesis-enabled-readings-in-blackboard/

For a PDF-Based Activity

There are 2 main options for using a PDF for your reading: Upload or use one already in Google Drive, or use one already on the open internet by URL.  (This could be a blog post, wiki page, magazine article, etc. ( but with no paywall or login credentials required to view it !) NOTE: It is also possible to use files that are uploaded into Blackboard but it is a bit more convoluted . See the bottom of this page for more info and steps .)

Make sure your PDFs are accessible! This quick OCR tool converts photocopied/scans to accessible text! 

For most folks setting up and using a Google Drive account will be the easiest way. Anyone can set up a free account at https://drive.google.com and you can upload your PDFs to a folder that account to get started. We suggest a folder for each class you teach that uses Hypothesis annotation.

Next we will create the Hypothesis Activity item in your course content/modules folder in your Blackboard course:

In a content or module folder, use the Build Content menu to select Hypothesis. Provide a name for your reading/annotation activity, and choose whether or not this is a graded activity (and how many points it is worth, if so.) These are the only 2 settings you need to fill in. Do not upload an attachment here(!) , click Submit to save this item. 

Click on the Hypothesis activity you just created in your Bb course and you will see boxes to either Enter URL of web page or PDF , Select PDF from Blackboard or Select PDF from Google Drive . Note: If you choose Select PDF from Blackboard you will need need to take additional steps. Please see the section titled Using Existing Blackboard Course Files below for specific instructions. If you choose Select PDF from Google Drive, please review this article for specific steps.

After you have entered that URL, you are ready to click the item in your course content to launch Hypothesis. All students will have to do is add the Hypothesis extension and click that link to launch the PDF. Below is an image that depicts the things students can do to view annotations, add their own, reply to others, and have dialog about the content:

Grading Student Annotations in Blackboard

https://web.hypothes.is/help/grading-student-annotations-in-blackboard/

Helpful guides to getting started using Hypothesis in Blackboard

https://web.hypothes.is/help/lms-faq/#getting-started

Introduction to the Hypothesis LMS App for Students

https://web.hypothes.is/help/introduction-to-the-hypothesis-lms-app-for-students/

Annotation Tips for Students

https://web.hypothes.is/annotation-tips-for-students/

An Illustrated Taxonomy of Annotation Types

https://web.hypothes.is/blog/varieties-of-hypothesis-annotations-and-their-uses/

Adding Links, Images, and Videos

https://web.hypothes.is/adding-links-images-and-videos/

FAQ for all LMS

https://web.hypothes.is/help/lms-faq/

NOTES on Blackboard Hypothesis Copying from Semester to Semester

Blackboard Hypothesis assignment items (in Blackboard) are separate from the annotation data itself. The former "live" on Bb servers and the latter live on Hypothes.is servers. So, for example, if you delete a Bb Hypothesis reading assignment in Blackboard, that does NOT mean you have deleted the highlights, annotations and discussion. That all lives on Hypothesis servers, separately. 

This has a few ramifications:

When you copy a reading assignment from course to course - it sets up a new Hypothesis private group for each course - meaning, it starts fresh, with no annotations or highlights. 

If you want to pre-populate a Hypothesis reading with highlights and annotations that you share with all students in your class, you can do so, but when you copy your course to a new semester/section, those annotations will not copy with the Blackboard Hypothesis activity item. There is a separate (and complicated) process for copying Hypothesis annotations and highlights from one section to another (and we don't recommend it.)

We DO recommend providing detailed instructions to students for the Hypothesis activity, that may include screenshots or pointing to specifics in the document - but to do this in the assignment description in Blackboard, rather than using your own highlights/annotations. 

Keep in mind, in terms of moving or copying items in Blackboard: if you move a Hypothesis reading activity to another course, the Bb item will copy, but again, NOT the associated annotations. 

Non-Blackboard Use

You can also set up a free public Hypothes.is account (not necessary if you use the Blackboard integration above). NOTE: Anyone can create a free Hypothes.is account, but note that if you intend to use the Blackboard Hypothes.is LTI plugin with your UMB classes (info above) that account will be a separate account. So for exploration, we recommend you set up a standard (non-Blackboard) Hypothes.is account with a non-UMB email address (use your gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.)  

Further Resources

Podcast on social annotation to engage students -(SUNY Oswego-Margaret Schmuhl)

What is Hypothesis, how to use it, and examples -instructor resource page (Carleton College - Wiebke Kuhn)

College resource page for using Hypothesis - instructor resource page (Randolph Macon College- Lily Zhang)

Class Roster & the Social Annotation of Our Names - instructor assignment example (SUNY Finger Lakes CC - Curt Nehring Bliss)

Collaborative Online Annotation with Hypothesis - introduction to Hypothesis module example (Missouri University of Science and Technology - M. Emilia Barbosa and Rachel Schneider) Teaching students to annotate - assignment teaching students to engage in collaborative annotation (Washburn University- Becky Dodge)

The Delftia Project - how to with Hypothesis (North Carolina State University)

Printing readings with annotations - (University of Chicago- Cecilia Lo)

Student Guide to using Hypothesis - (University of California Santa Cruz- Dana Conard)

Active Learning with Collaborative Annotation (CSU Pueblo- Denise Henry)

Promoting Hypothesis after webinar- email to faculty (Middlebury- Bob Cole)

How to OCR a PDF - video (St. Stephen’s School- Jenny Huth)

Using Existing Blackboard Course Files

It is possible to link to existing Blackboard Course files, however there are several steps that are required in order to make this work by creating a course content folder specifically for use with Hypothesis.

In the Blackboard sidebar, under Course Management locate and expand Content Collection and click on your course name.

 2. In the Course Content window, click the Create Folder button and give the folder an appropriate name, such as Hypothesis Files and click Submit to create the folder.

3. Set permissions on the folder to allow students to view PDFs. This is done by selecting the small down-arrow to the right of the folder and selecting Permissions from the drop-down menu.

4. Once there, you will click Select Specific Users By Place and choose Course from the dropdown menu.

5. Under Select Roles check the box for Student, and make sure that Read is checked under Set Permissions . Then click the Submit button to save.

Once this is complete, you can upload files to this folder as you would normally. With permissions set the way they are, students will now be able to see these documents when selected for Hypothesis.

Understanding The Difference Between Annotation, Highlights and Page Notes

There are three ways in which you can mark up a document using Hypothesis: Annotations, Highlights or Page Notes. It is important to note that not everyone sees the work that is done using these three different styles.

Annotations

In it's simplest form, annotations are visible to everyone. If you annotate a fragment of a document, the annotation will appear on the right-hand side and will be visible. it is important to note that you can change the privacy of your annotations at any time by clicking on the pencil icon at the bottom right of the annotation card.

A highlight is the digital equivalent of swiping a yellow marker over a passage of text. After you select text on a page, you can use the “Highlight” button in the adder that pops up or press the “h” key on your keyboard. These are always private to you.

A page note is a whole page annotation as opposed to annotating a specific passage of text. These can be made visible or private as you see fit. The intent of a page note is to is to add text and tags as you would an annotation, but on a more global level compared to the granular aspect of a annotation.

Add Extension

Start annotating with a free personal account.

Use the Hypothesis browser extension to annotate anything, anywhere. Follow these two simple steps to get started.

Sign up for a free account.

Hypothesis is always free for personal use and collaboration. For our premium Education and Enterprise solutions, talk to our sales team.

Add Hypothesis to your browser.

Install the Hypothesis Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store. The extension also works on other Chromium-based browsers, including Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge.

For Chrome Click the button below to install the Hypothesis extension from the Chrome Web Store.

For Firefox or Safari Drag this button to the bookmarks bar, or right-click/control-click to bookmark the link.

Hypothesis Bookmarklet

How to make annotations.

Go to any page or document in your browser with the Hypothesis extension turned on. Select the content you want to annotate, and a window will open on the right side of the browser. You can also view and respond to other public or group annotations.

View our Annotation Basics for tips on using Hypothesis.

Learn more about Hypothesis.

Ready to experience the Hypothesis transformation? Complete the form to learn more.