Google’s excellent and neglected note-taking app is getting some much-needed formatting options and overall love. Here’s hoping it’s not the last time.

  • AutoTL;DRB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    321 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Good news for Android-toting Google Keep users: you’re finally getting the text formatting options the app has so desperately needed for years.

    Google announced this week that the ability to bold, italicize, and otherwise transform text in your notes is rolling out now, and you should start to see it in the app soon.

    (I don’t have it yet, but Mishaal Rahman and a few others actually spotted the feature ahead of its official launch, so it seems to be coming fast.)

    And actually, Google has been paying an unusual amount of attention to Keep recently: users got a new homescreen widget earlier this year, and you can now open multiple Keep windows at a time on your device.

    That makes users reasonably worried that Google might at any moment kill the app, as it has so many others, as part of some cost-cutting or refocusing initiative.

    The formatting options will presumably be available on the web and iOS at some point, and they make Keep even more powerful on top of that simple interface.


    The original article contains 483 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • I_Miss_Daniel
      link
      fedilink
      91 year ago

      I am assuming someone will write a converter / exporter and that we’ll have at least a week’s warning before it gets its place in the Google Graveyard.

      If Google Takeout outlives it, we might already have one.

  • Czarrie
    link
    fedilink
    English
    271 year ago

    I’m pretty certain they wanted to migrate everyone over to Tasks for a bit there, I got a few reminders to import my Keep lists to it, but for some reason they were struggling with basic feature parity with Keep and it overall didn’t really make a whole lot of sense, as it just seemed to be a more complicated tool that struggled to be integrated with voice reminders.

    It’s impressive to me that the same company that makes Google Maps seems to struggle so much with a basic note taking app

    • mFat
      link
      fedilink
      English
      111 year ago

      The same company that makes Google maps can’t add search function to Google Authenticator on android (iPhone version has search).

    • @theragu40
      link
      English
      71 year ago

      Which is so silly because it should be relatively obvious that people use keep for more than Tasks. But this is Google we’re talking about so nothing should surprise me.

  • CALIGVLA
    link
    fedilink
    English
    171 year ago

    Little too late, switched to Obsidian and haven’t looked back.

    • zephyrvs
      link
      fedilink
      English
      71 year ago

      Same here. I’m using Syncthing to keep states synched between my MacBook and Pixel. All I’m missing is a shared grocery list for me and my girlfriend.

      • @Wet
        link
        English
        21 year ago

        Same here!

        I’ve been wondering if it could be accomplished using ignore patterns in Syncthing to only share a specific Obsidian folder/directory and put everything shared in there. Yet, this may probably be too much friction for a grocery list and Keep will work fine while it lasts.

      • brainfreeze
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        If you’re okay with a low-cost annual subscription, AnyList is fantastic for grocery/recipe lists, and it’s cross-platform.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        11 year ago

        Any pitfalls you encounteres when setting up syncthing? Is that useful documentation you followed?

        • CALIGVLA
          link
          fedilink
          English
          11 year ago

          Setting up syncthing for Obsidian is super straight forward, you just point it to your vault folder and done. Haven’t run into any problems yet.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        21 year ago

        I’ve been using Markor + obsidian for quicknotes.

        I created a quicknote.md in obsidian and point markor too it. This allows me to very quickly open that note in Markor, copy and paste from apps directly into that file. Then later I can decide to flesh them out in obsidian.

        I’ve been using one note at work and it’s actually pretty good and allows easy cross compatible sharing with colleagues.

    • @Maraval26
      link
      English
      11 year ago

      I see from Obsidian website that syncing costs 8 USD per month. Looks expensive for a basic feature.

      I’m using Joplin which is great (and free).

      • CALIGVLA
        link
        fedilink
        English
        21 year ago

        You can use third party solutions to sync between devices, I use syncthing and it’s seamless.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    131 year ago

    I find keep terrifically useful. But it is not supported by Google Takeout, so when they turn it off, I’d lose everything. I’m currently trying out sNotz from f-droid as a replacement.

  • Paradoxvoid
    link
    fedilink
    English
    121 year ago

    I really wish they didn’t have to kill third party integration with smart speakers for this. Google bait and switch at its finest.

      • Paradoxvoid
        link
        fedilink
        English
        51 year ago

        You could use Google-assistant smart speakers to add things to specific non-Keep shopping lists - e.g. Any.Do and Bring are two that spring to mind. Google killed this integration a few months back to force users into using Keep if they wanted to retain this functionality.

  • Pxtl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    12
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    No interest in styling, I have docs for that. Big features I’m missing are:

    • single-note 1x1 shortcut widget (not the full single note widget – which is nice! But not a simple homescreen 1x1 link to a specific note),

    • better management for pictures attached to a note (brightness/contrast/crop, re-sorting them, etc).

    • Copy-paste for checklists. How is that not a thing?

    • bring back letting me use google Assistant to add stuff to my Keep shopping list.

    • jelloeater - Ops MgrA
      link
      English
      21 year ago

      You still can add items via assistant. It’s just you get duplicates sometimes.

  • Rootiest
    link
    fedilink
    English
    121 year ago

    Yay basic formatting.

    Keep should have had MarkDown support from the start

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    71 year ago

    I really enjoy this Google app it is my current one

    In the FOSS world, Carnet is at parity IMHO and can import Keep notes.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    51 year ago

    Their last update to the home screen widget ruined the styling and usability of it. Made all the controls and notes take up a ton more space by turning them into big dumb child buttons, leaving way less room for actual content. I switched to Zoho notes.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    31 year ago

    Is there a way to mod the app to make it easier to export files and make the documents accessible from the file explorer?

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    21 year ago

    I have always wanted to use keep as my main note-taking app, but no import option and not being to store most attachments mostly kills it for me. Most of my notes have some form of attachment. Mostly images, but PDFs and a couple of others are also in there. I’m sticking with apple notes for now. Yes, I have tried all the others and still do.

    • @anonymous_bot
      link
      English
      11 year ago

      What (app) do you use on Android? Or are you just an iOS user?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        01 year ago

        I think that on android the only really good option is probably Evernote. Not a bad option and I know it gets a lot of criticism but evernote can pretty much take anything you give it and is extremely flexible. The fact that it’s cross platform is a bonus.