Notes 4+

I absolutely love the Notes App! I use it heavily and I rely on it insanely. For me, it’s indispensable. Firstly, the design is incredible. The rounded corners and simplicity of navigation makes everything feel remarkably modern and intuitive. Secondly, it’s productivity features are very useful. The ability to seamlessly move notes from folder to folder, the ease of making notes look presentable and keeping them safe with a biometric are all amazing. The optimisation with the Apple Pencil is also fantastic! For example, it’s ability to recognise and turn hand written words into typed text is a very nice addition. Even small things like the animations and being able to pin notes are highly appreciated. I’m also a huge fan of Quick Notes. It is an incredibly useful feature that I have used countless times in the past. Overall, I strongly believe that the Notes app is hard to walk away from and should be used as the primary note taking app for many more users!

I have been using the notes app as a complete replacement of a pen and paper notebook for almost three years. I do all my everyday note taking for work, including minutes of important meetings, in the notes app. I has been almost perfect and I chose it over other third party apps because I loved the handwriting experience from the beginning, the simplicity and the native capability to sync with my iPhone and Macbook.

However, in the last six months I have come across two problems. The first seems like a small bug, which I expected would have been fixed by now, this being that when you insert space between handwritten text you can no longer do so with precision because the text ‘jumps’ the moment you release it. This should be a small fix and it is frustrating that it has been present for so long. The second issue is much worse. It has now happened several times that after I have finished taking notes and left the application, when I return a big chunk of my notes have disappeared and I have e no way of retrieving this crucial information. Each time it happened it didn’t happen again for a while, just long enough for me to believe the issue is resolved but just when I least expect it, it happens again. This is a costly flaw and I am seriously having to consider an alternative note taking app.

I previously would have given this app 4 or 5 stars - I make so much use of it each day !! But since iOS 17 appeared ,this app has developed a shockingly long delay between one completing typing a sentence and the first words even starting to appear on the screen !! (The problem is intermittent - and not always so extreme - and isn't always there - but when it is I usually just have to abandon using it , it's so frustrating !! ). Perhaps this is a problem that you are ignoring because it's too hard to fix? Or maybe because it doesn't affect the latest phones?? (.....I am running a second generation SE - not the latest but hopefully still long way from being shoved off the apple iOS "no-upgrade available" cliff !!). I am now looking for something free - and free of bugs - to replace it with - (which will be difficult!). PLEASE FIX ASAP !! ❌UPDATE - two months on and still performing badly!! Quite how much of the problem is due to Apple - and how much due to The Notes App is difficult to say - I suspect Apple - because I am noticing - even as I type this review - that my cursor is randomly jumping to a different part of the text every line or so - it's incredibly frustrating!!! Updating all software - and rebooting my phone - especially when it's really acting up sometimes helps for a while. PLEASE FIX ASAP!!