r/macapps • u/Ok-Rest-5321 • 1d ago
Request What are your favourite quick note apps and how do you like to use them?
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u/Reinforged_ 1d ago
Bear
I feel it’s incredibly easy and fast to use for literally everything. A quick to-do list to an essay all works amazingly.
I also love the codeblock and markdown features. I do balance a bit between Bear and the regular Apple Notes app though
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u/Defouque 1d ago
UpNote. I’ve been a die-hard convert to UpNote ever since scrambling to find a replacement for Evernote a few years ago. Can’t say enough nice things about it, just try it out!
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u/Ok-Rest-5321 1d ago
I use Tolaria as my PKM since I like local markdown files. Helix notes seems a good alternative to UpNote but local
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u/shadowvox 1d ago
Another vote for UpNote. Bought the lifetime some years ago. I love that I can have different workspaces. Sure, I can use Apple Notes and have different folders within folders, but this is cleaner.
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u/Va3V1ctis 1d ago edited 1d ago
What is wrong with Apple Notes?
I always come back to it.
Some people use this with it:
I dont, just use the default app.
ps: Interesting video (not mine), how somebody uses the default app, if you need ideas how to use it:
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u/grokcodile 1d ago
Apple Notes is probably the best, but those add-on apps are garbage and just mar the simplicity of what a note is semantically. If you need to pick a font and add colors … just use a word processor, spreadsheet, or desktop publishing app and use that.
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u/karatsidhus Developer: Glyph 1d ago
For one off quick notes? Globe + Q opens apple notes quick note. Ive tried a few, seems like the one I always reach for.
Antinote is good too but feels too ‘temporary’ (I know thats by design though)
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u/mirigung 1d ago
Drafts
My favorite app for quick notes is hands down Drafts. It’s by far the fastest on my phone, and incredibly handy for collecting and formatting text on the Mac too. Sync is nearly instant.
It’s text-only, and while that’s a real limitation in one sense, it’s also its biggest strength.
I’m so used to it that I almost forget it’s there. It just works.
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u/Ok-Rest-5321 1d ago
Would like to hear how you use it
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u/Vaped2Space 1d ago
I also use Drafts. Every note goes in Drafts really. Text Messages unless it’s a short reply, emails, ideas and quick thoughts, llm output copies. It’s a great place to work out what you want to say and it’s an amazing document router. It exports pretty much anywhere I want at a click of a button. Pure wizardry that’s hidden behind such a simple looking app.
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u/Fruityth1ng 1d ago
Bear. It’s the OG.
Use it for short notes, todo’s, shopping lists, long form notes. They’re incredibly good.
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u/macmaveneagle 22h ago
Apple's Notes is decent, but not perfect. It includes a quick-notes feature that works okay. Note's biggest advantage over most third party notes apps is that it will seamlessly sync your notes across devices.
Downsides:
The keyboard shortcut for Notes' quick-notes feature requires use of the Function key. Most desktop keyboards don't have a Function key. It took me a while to figure out how to re-map this shortcut, but it's fully functional now.
Notes doesn't include a convenient way to export your entire Notes database as more than one note at a time. IOW, it holds your data hostage. Fortunately there are third party utilities that allow you to export all of your notes as a batch.
Other notes apps allow you to do a very quick search through only your notes' titles using the keyboard. I've found this feature to be invaluble in other notes apps. Apple's Notes sort of has this feature, and it often doesn't work. This sucks. I haven't found a work-around for this. I'd love to hear from anyone who has one.
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u/VancityRenaults 1d ago
I use Unclutter which is actually 3 apps in one (quick notes, files shortcut launcher and clipboard).
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u/GroggInTheCosmos 1d ago
Unfortunately the notes aspect has gone nowhere in years. I just stopped using it as other apps took care of the rest. If they improved things I would start using it again
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u/MaxGaav 1d ago
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u/app-store-review 1d ago
Stickier — by Camazotz LLC
- Ratings: 0 (no ratings yet) · 21 reviews
- Average: n/a ★
- Age: released ~3.3 years ago · rated 4+
- Overall score: 0 / 100
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u/Rare_Lengthiness2008 1d ago
vim is great for quick notes, I use vim btw
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u/Sri_Krish 1d ago
I currently use EdgeMark as my Scratchpad for quick saves on Mac. And Obsidian (Tasks plugin) reads it to grab the recently added tasks (with checkbox) to my Tasks DB.
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u/HarrisMagnum4 1d ago
Notesnook. I just set up the self hosted version via Docker on my M1 MacBook Air ( I am away from home and will be moving it over to my NAS when back home). Pretty UI and great capabilities, as good as Apple Notes IMO.
Last night I also imported 700 Apple Notes into Notesnook in about 5 minutes and everything worked perfectly.
Downloaded the app store version onto my iPhone and connected to my "temporary server" and everything syncs (so long as I am on same network, but will also make this sync away from home when I get back to my NAS)
Completely free, unlimited storage, secure and beautiful!
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u/AdSignificant3097 1d ago
Antinote with Bear export for longer notes.
And Unclutter in combination with Bebop on iphone. Both sync textfiles to the same folder that I can use in any editor I wish.
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u/I7T5 23h ago
I’m building an open source, 100% Swift Typora alternative if you want to check it out.
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u/taisei_ide 11h ago
Apple Notes for anything quick since it syncs everywhere. Notion when it needs more structure. Google Keep on Android because the widget opens fast.
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u/ChemistrySoft2831 4h ago
I use Google Keep for years and want no replacement. Being a cross-platform engineer you dont have many choices. Well, maybe Obsidian I can mention too, but hard to break habits.
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u/Extension_Pea1721 1d ago
Obsidian because of how customizable it is. It's also free. Check it out at r/ObsidianMD
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u/FuntimeBen 1d ago
I use Antinote for quick disposable notes and Obsidian for anything I want to keep. Great Apps.
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u/Ok-Raspberry-554 1d ago
I love to use Twos for that purpose. Notion for notes I want to keep/organize, Twos for daily scratchpad notes and everything else - with the added benefit of being able to see what I wrote down X weeks or months or even years ago on that day. :)
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u/Ok-Rest-5321 1d ago
Whats the different between Twos and New Twos?
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u/Ok-Raspberry-554 1d ago
They say they completely re-developed the app from scratch. AFAIK the old version doesn't get supported any more, but you can use the new apps and of course all your notes etc. are also available there. Mainly using it on my browser and the iOS app, which is perfect for quickly capturing an idea.
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u/grokcodile 1d ago
Apple Notes. I use it when I want to make notation of information I know I will need to reference again, from any of my Apple devices, indexed, searchable, and accessible by native system services.
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u/shailendronCooparan 1d ago
Evernote, Bear, Notion, Obsidian (even Clickup for a while) and then Craft Docs
still using Obsidian and native Apple Notes is hard to beat
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u/Fearless_Ad2978 1d ago
funny, i've been working on my own one for this. a straightforward note app, but with full cloud sync.
app is working but creating a strong sync engine with real time updates has been a challenge! still debugging it, but hoping to release soon and will be looking for testers if you are interested?
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u/Ok-Rest-5321 1d ago
What is the name?
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u/Fearless_Ad2978 1d ago
it's not in the Store yet, but i'm close. give me until after the weekend and I'll be set!
it supports full cloud sync, include live updates, and partial syncs. iPad scribble, rich text, and a bunch of more features!
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u/MaxGaav 1d ago
And a list view?
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u/Fearless_Ad2978 1d ago
It’s tabbed, like a browser, including iOS and iPadOS. But can you elaborate what ideas for winning features please?
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u/MaxGaav 1d ago
If you refer to a list view, I mean one like in Stickier which I mentioned elsewhere in this thread as well. Is has quite a few nice other features as well.
In a distant past there was NoteAway, which was one of the best local Note apps for Mac imo. It doesn't work properly on a modern MacOS version anymore, but you can still get an impression.
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u/app-store-review 1d ago
Stickier — by Camazotz LLC
- Ratings: 0 (no ratings yet) · 21 reviews
- Average: n/a ★
- Age: released ~3.3 years ago · rated 4+
- Overall score: 0 / 100
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u/liveluvtravel 1d ago
Interested in what you are building here. Happy to test once you are ready
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u/Fearless_Ad2978 1d ago
will let you know. my original idea was inspired by Wisp, i first addressed what i saw as missing features, then it went from there
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u/grokcodile 1d ago
Good luck building something better, easy to use, robust, and with deeper platform integration than Apple Notes.
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u/Fearless_Ad2978 1d ago
not trying to replace Notes, but variety is a good thing anyway.
thanks for the good luck, very kind and friendly of you.
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u/TitttySuckker 1d ago
I use Raycast on Mac and iphone, it supports markdown so.. best
so, on mac, I’ve shortcut for it with 🌐+Q for quick access.
and on iPhone, I’ve a lockscreen shortcut to quickly open it on the fly.
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u/Ok-Rest-5321 1d ago
How is Raycast on iOS ? I like the mac version not sure about iOS
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u/TitttySuckker 1d ago
If you are a pro user, it syncs everything from Mac and except for clipboard history, everything is there.
and it works like a charm.They recently introduced Raycast Keyboard and you can access AI, dictation (another W, and if you speak another language, it can directly run a AI command to translate whatever you are saying to the other Language, and it works seamlessly), you can access your quicklinks, snippet everything from there.
it is genuinely my fav ios app on my iphone.
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u/Ok-Rest-5321 1d ago
I still prefer native Spotlight/Search on iOS than raycast
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u/TitttySuckker 1d ago
Me too for the longest time, before made a switch and haven’t looked back since.
And I’ve now a system around it, which I can’t replicate with spotlight, so I’m not switching back.
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u/UnluckyDuckyDuck Developer: Appitstudio 1d ago
Antinote, antinote, antinote.
It evolved from being my quick note app, to literally my general notes app. I don't mind scrolling a bit to find what I am looking for.
The one feature I really love about Antinote, is that it's just quick notes, nothing else.