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.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [B] 32 points 3 years ago (1 child)

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!

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 32 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Exportable markdown or it doesn't matter

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 28 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    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

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago (3 children)

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

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    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.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 3 years 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.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 15 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    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.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Obsidian is quite nice. No Boilerplate did a nice video on some of the cool capabilities of it.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 12 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    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.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)
    • bring back letting me use google Assistant to add stuff to my Keep shopping list.

    FYI they brought this feature back a while ago

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Oh, thanks!

    Edit: there must be a trick to it, I just checked and it still sends shopping list entries to that weird Google Assistant List thing.

    Edit2: found it! There's a Google Assistant setting. God damn the UI for this is so awful. First question it should ask when it finds I have no shopping list shouldn't be "shall I make you a shopping list" but "hey do you use Google Keep to manage your shopping? Should I switch to that?".

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago

    Yay basic formatting.

    Keep should have had MarkDown support from the start

  • source
  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago (1 child)

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

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    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.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    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.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 8 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    I need to use Keep to share simple synced notes with my partner. I've not yet been able to find an app with feature parity. Does anyone know a good app for sharing lists?

  • source
  • hideshow 14 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    It's the only way I've found to have a shared shopping list we can also use via Google nest devices too - any other options?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Yep we use Home Minis around the house for adding to the shopping list and I have Tasker on my phone open the list when it detects a supermarket WI-FI nearby.

    Thing is I've used all sorts of open source apps, I have Pi's around the house running some stuff, but Keep just works with minimal interference from me.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    Ah, so we have about 6 months to a year before they abruptly kill it off.

  • source
  • [–] 5 points 3 years 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.

  • source
  • [+] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
    [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Don't care. Switched to Joplin and it's so much better, it's not even funny.

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    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.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 2 points 3 years 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?

  • source
  • load more comments
    view more: next β€Ί