VERIFIED Download Best Notes App For Android
Vernell Steakley
When deciding which Android notetaking apps to download and use, first consider what your actual needs are. For example, are you planning to keep your notes mostly as plain text notes, or do you need to add media to them? Additionally, do you need to use your notes in other software such as Microsoft Word? Are you happy to just save locally or in the cloud? In such instances, you will need to look at the features to see whether the app satisfactorily answers such questions or not.
This has become a lot more simple as smartphones have become a common device for use by business as well as general consumers. While note-taking apps are one of the simplest of the best business apps available it is often one of the most essential, especially when it comes to quickly putting down new ideas, inspirations, or general reminders before you forget.
Whether you're just typing text, writing with a stylus, or scribbling with your finger, there are a lot of different note-taking apps for Android out there. Some are focused on just taking notes, while others come with more features and functionality, such as adding multimedia, which can turn your smartphone into a digital notebook, or workbook.
Additionally, while note-taking apps were originally focused on a sole user, these days many now also come with options for collaboration, such as sharing files and folders with colleagues from the notes you make.
Google Keep is a pretty decent productivity app for teams, too. You can easily share notes and collaborate with others. Other features include color-coded labels, reminders and the benefit of multi-platform support. The app is free to download from the Play Store.
Material Notes is a streamlined app that allows you to create notes, to-do lists and reminders. These are all color-coded and stored within a card-style interface to keep things better organized, and to make it easy to find relevant information. You also get the ability to mark important notes with stars, and these are saved within a category based on the urgency of projects.
Keep My Notes is a note-taking app for Android that comes with a number of neat features. For starters, you can create handwritten notes using a finger or stylus, plus there's also the option to create notes using a built-in text-to-speech feature.
There are also various formatting options available to bold, underline, or italicize - among other things - plus the ability to add audio to your notes. Even better, for added security, you can password protect notes.
Notes can be set up like sticky notes on your home screen, and notes can even shared with other apps. There are different light or dark themes available, and the display can be changed to portrait for phones and landscape for tablets.
Classic Notes is one of the simplest apps listed, and this is probably one of its selling points. While it allows for taking basic notes, it doesn't do much more, so people not so use to smartphones and apps should be able to get a lot of use from it without becoming so confused by features and options present in other apps. It's free to use, but contains ads.
To test for the best Android notetaking apps we first set up an account with the relevant software platform, then we tested the app to see what sort of features and tools were available for our notes. We also looked to see if we could export our notes to other platforms, and also share them with other users. The aim was to push each software platform to see how useful its basic tools were and also how easy it was to get to grips with any more advanced options.
Evernote lets you take notes, format them, add images, make to-do lists, as well as search and share your notes with remarkable ease. Even with the free version, you can sync your notes across two devices allowing you to, for example, record ideas on your phone on the go and then find them in front of you when you open your laptop.
The paid versions have some useful features that might come in handy for those of you who are looking to do more than just take notes. For instance, all paid plans allow you to add reminders and notifications to ensure your note is brought back to your attention at the right time. But for casual note-takers, the free plan will do just fine.
Android rating: 4.3
Pricing: Free with advanced plans starting at $0.50/mo
Ideal for: those of you who like to take notes and develop them further right there in the app
iOS rating: 4.7
Pricing: Free with advanced plans starting at $1.49/mo
Ideal for: people who use notes apps for work and want to organize a lot of information
Advanced markup options and in-line images will keep your notes organized and looking good. The themes are also worth a mention. They will literally make anything you write look cool and professional, which makes the app exciting to use.
Apple Notes offers easy note-taking, free sync across devices, adding photos, tables, and all sorts of attachments. It even features an in-built document scanner that can help you save some time every now and again. Its powerful search function will allow you to quickly locate notes and attachments. Share things easily with editing permissions or as view-only.
iOS rating: 4.4
Pricing: Free trial with plans starting from $5.99/mo
Ideal for: people who like to write lengthy and detailed notes or need an app to manage their writing
BlackNote is a simple, minimal note taking app. It works like most note apps with a host of standard features like organization, the ability to take list notes, widget options, and stuff like that. However, this one packages all of it up in a sleek, easy-to-read UI. You can also search notes, favorite notes for easier recall later, and lock the app to keep prying eyes away. The free version contains ads and the $2.99 in-app purchase removes them. This is a solid overall note taker.
If we missed any of the best note taking apps for Android, tell us about them in the comments. Check out all of our app lists by clicking here.
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Digital note-taking is a must-have skill. You already take your Android phone everywhere, don't you? There's no point in carrying an additional notepad when you can install a notepad app instead. But with so many Android note apps to choose from, how to know which is the best option for you?
Keep is great for quick notes and reminders. You can create text, handwritten, photo, or voice notes, and create lists and reminders as well. You can keep them organized using labels, and Google's search prowess also makes it easy to find what you're looking for once you've got a lot of notes to work with.
Google Keep will do a good enough job for many people, especially if you're a big Google user and want to access your notes on other devices or the desktop, as they're automatically synced to your Google account. But there are better options out there.
Plus, there are plenty of lesser-known Microsoft OneNote features, like clipping from the web, inserting multimedia files, tagging and searching notes, drawing with your finger, and more. Despite all that, it has an easy learning curve and it looks clean and modern.
Dropbox Paper is a notes app that stores every note on the cloud in your Dropbox account. If you don't have internet access, you can edit while offline and the changes will sync once you're back online.
Other useful features include note sharing and online collaboration (so your friends and family can view and edit notes with you), folders for organization, checklists, due dates, annotations and comments, and integration with other productivity tools like calendars.
Treat it as a simple notes app and you can't go wrong. It supports Markdown, which makes it easy to format your notes and access them in other apps (you can sync your notes online). It's well implemented too. There's a toolbar to help with the formatting so that you don't need to bother with Markdown's fiddly syntax, which is hardly suited to Android keyboards.
Dig deeper, and there's an awful lot going on. You get a tabbed interface, backlink and graph views to see the relationships between connected notes, and support for things like plugins and templates.
Notesnook is the best Android note-taking app if privacy is your biggest concern. When you first launch the app, you have to choose the level of protection you want: everything unlocked, your notes locked when you close the app, or everything locked even when the app is running in the background. And whichever you choose, your notes are encrypted on your device.
FiiNote is a multipurpose note-taking app that's similar to the likes of Microsoft OneNote, but nowhere near as popular. It has support for both typed and handwritten notes, along with a number of other advanced features.
In contrast to Bundled Notes, Simplenote is one of the most lightweight notes apps for Android. If you're tired of overly bloated apps with features you'll never use, take a look at this. The app has some organizational features like note tags, while backups, synchronization, and sharing are all available if you create a free account.
But if you plan on keeping thousands of notes, look elsewhere. Simplenote is all about speed and efficiency. It's especially good for older phones that just don't have the hardware to keep up with modern feature-heavy apps. Use it if you just want your notes app to stay out of your way.
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