[HN Gopher] Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who kee...
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Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting
themselves
This project began when I realized that despite trying many
fantastic note-taking apps, I often defaulted to dumping notes into
chat apps like Slack or iMessage. I wanted to bring that effortless
"text yourself" note-taking experience to a dedicated note-taking
app. Originally developed as a macOS app, Strflow is now also
available for iOS. Strflow is designed to make note-taking as quick
and intuitive as possible, centered around a chronological timeline
UI. Here are some of its features: * Tag system * Rich editor
with text formatting, images, and note linking * Global shortcuts
for quick access * Share extension * Encrypted iCloud backup &
synchronization (becomes end-to-end encryption if you enable
iCloud's Advanced Data Protection) Hope you find Strflow
interesting. I'm happy to answer any questions. ## Some
implementation details some of you might be interested in: * The
app is implemented natively using Swift. * On macOS, it's based on
AppKit, and on iOS, it uses UIKit, with SwiftUI used partially. *
The editor intensively utilizes TextKit. * The sync engine is
custom-built using CloudKit.
Author : eguchi1904
Score : 172 points
Date : 2024-07-10 11:54 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (strflow.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (strflow.app)
| enriquto wrote:
| You will take self-texting from my cold, dead hands.
| benoliver999 wrote:
| Signal has a 'note to self' function and it's perhaps a sad
| reality that this is my most contacted person
| csmeyer wrote:
| I've been in the habit of emailing myself a lot, I'm excited to
| give this a try! I had thought of building this myself, so I'm
| glad I don't have to :-)
| rolfus wrote:
| I'm also emailing myself a lot. It works well but every time I
| do it it feels wrong and shameful. Like, I know there are
| better solutions but I just won't make the effort.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| I'm glad to hear that. I'm relieved we didn't end up releasing
| competing apps!
| ramon156 wrote:
| The whole point of self texting is that its easy, quick and just
| works. If I don't have an apple product, I already can't access
| this app. Cool idea but not very useful when the labor is there.
| attilakun wrote:
| What's the labor?
| vidyesh wrote:
| Using yet another app.
|
| I use Obsidian, OneNote for note taking and I can easily
| create a note just for taking quick notes when using my phone
| but I still self text on multiple messaging apps because
| those are something I already use, they are quick and simple.
|
| Having yet another note taking app just puts my reliance on
| that app and keeps it for a purpose, it also becomes a
| barrier of sorts for me to enter quick text, that I now need
| to do it on separate new app/platform.
| dougdimmadome wrote:
| I get your argument but I see real value here.
|
| Texting yourself is an imperfect solution to the problem. Note
| taking apps like obsidian also have "labor" in that you have to
| pick a location for your note, maybe navigate a folder
| structure etc. This is a "stream" of notes which is closer to
| how some of us work. I sort of want my reminders to disappear
| upwards into the past and not clog my interface, but still be
| searchable.
| maxpage wrote:
| There is something in it. I find myself often sending notes to
| myself on various social media messaging apps :)
| AlecSwanky wrote:
| Sounds great, I would use this. Will there be an android version?
| toyg wrote:
| _> The app is implemented natively using Swift [...] On macOS,
| it's based on AppKit, and on iOS, it uses UIKit, with SwiftUI
| used partially._
|
| So I guess the answer is likely to be no.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you! I'd love to work on an Android version if time
| permits, but currently, it's a lower priority compared to
| adding other features. Sorry about that.
| TuringNYC wrote:
| whatsapp's and slack's text-myself was such a killer-feature for
| me! however, i think that was because i was already inside those
| apps constantly.
| compootr wrote:
| This sounds like memos[0] with the asterisk that I must pay the
| apple corporate overlords to use it, trust you with my data, and
| ultimately lock myself into what you allow me to do with my data
|
| memos is FOSS, and I run it on my machine, without the need to
| trust you. it also has a nifty API around it
|
| [0]: https://usememos.com/
| toyg wrote:
| A self-hosted docker-based system has a different audience from
| an Apple AppStore app. Don't be that "dropbox is just ftp and
| rsync" guy.
| quaintdev wrote:
| Love memos. I've it running on my Pi server and it's really
| good. It doesn't get in the way of note taking. After a while
| you forget about app itself and just get used to the interface
| for noting things down.
| PMunch wrote:
| Haven't heard of self-texting before, didn't even know it was
| possible. But I've been having a similar idea to this based off-
| of writing in a physical notebook. Basically my notes there end
| up sequentially, and I was missing this with my digital tools. My
| idea however was more of a "book mode" for a regular note-taking
| app where notes would be placed one after another on a long
| scrolling page.
| dewey wrote:
| This somehow seems to be a solution in search of a problem. The
| reason people use self texting is that they _don't_ want to use
| another app. Not because the existing apps are somehow missing
| features.
|
| > I often defaulted to dumping notes into chat apps like Slack or
| iMessage
|
| What makes you think people think differently about this app?
|
| If people wanted all these features they would already all be
| covered by Apple Notes (Including the quick note feature,
| included in the OS when you mouse into the bottom right corner of
| your screen) but for free, encrypted and synced to all devices.
| hnbad wrote:
| Another benefit is that self texting means you have access to
| your notes wherever you have access to your messages. Using
| another app makes that more tedious.
| HarHarVeryFunny wrote:
| Yeah - another place to have to check for messages seems to be
| cluttering mindspace rather than helping.
|
| What _might_ be useful, if done well, would be adding tags to
| messaging similar to GMail 's use of tags in lieu of folders,
| as a way of grouping related messages (e.g. notes to self).
| OTOH, maybe with message search, perhaps "AI" assisted, it
| might not be needed.
|
| One use case for this sort of occasional "notes to self" and
| later search/gathering that I've been thinking of recently is
| for a shopping list, but it would have to involve basically
| zero effort to be useful. The idea would to allow you to say
| things like "shopping list: milk, bread", then next day
| "shopping list: cat food", then next day "show shopping list",
| or something similar.
| hartator wrote:
| Yeah, Slacking one-self is reassuring because you Lonnie it
| won't be lost or forgotten.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| I understand your point. For me, though, existing apps like
| Slack or iMessage were insufficient because, at the end of the
| day, they aren't "note-taking apps." By creating a dedicated
| note app combined with a chat-style timeline-focused UI, I feel
| that the speed and quality of note-taking have improved.
|
| However, I understand that it might not be for everyone, and I
| appreciate your feedback!
| Dwolb wrote:
| Honestly I love the direction and I do this all the time.
|
| If you could 1) integrate directly with iMessage so I'm
| literally just texting and 2) have your interface provide me
| some sort of LLM summary tool/weekly digest/remind me of
| things smartly (I dunno it's up to you to figure out), I'd
| probably do this.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you! 2) is an interesting idea. I plan to add
| functionalities that can smartly suggest and categorize
| notes in the future. Thanks for the suggestion!
| bozhark wrote:
| What did I do last year?
|
| Last month?
|
| Last week?
|
| How does that correlate with what's ahead?
|
| Something like that would keep me from relearning the
| same stuff over and over would be very helpful. I suffer
| from a TBI and do my recall/remember well. Whenever I do
| technical work, I have to constantly relearn steps. Would
| be nice to have those steps easily accessible, without
| effort from the user.
| JohnFen wrote:
| It is really interesting how different people are in their
| preferred solutions. The thing that I've learned makes an
| application good for note-taking is a lack of features.
| Simplicity is key for this use case for me. Even on the
| desktop, my "note-taking" app is just notepad on Windows,
| kwrite in KDE, and a very bare-bones text editor on my phone.
|
| None of this is even remotely a criticism of your effort. I
| was just pondering how different people can be in their
| needs.
| dylan604 wrote:
| > The thing that I've learned makes an application good for
| note-taking is a lack of features.
|
| The best featureless app I've ever used for taking notes is
| the pen and paper sitting next to me for the specific
| purpose. Admittedly, it's not convenient at any time other
| than sitting at the desk and focused. There are plenty of
| studies about the process of writing notes vs typing notes
| when it comes to long term retention. There are times where
| I'm wrestling with a problem that is just a bit more data
| than my L1 cache (my head) can remember and need to offload
| some of the data to RAM (scratch pad), but I can just jot
| down the data without actually looking at it. Even being
| able to try to sketch data has helped. I have yet to ever
| find an app even remotely as effective to the point, I'm
| stopped trying anything else. If it ain't broke, don't fix
| it.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > The best featureless app I've ever used for taking
| notes is the pen and paper sitting next to me for the
| specific purpose.
|
| True! At work, I carry a pencil and small notepad for
| this reason. But outside of work, I don't always have one
| at hand and so other methods come into play.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you. I can relate to the importance of simplicity.
| When there are too many features, I find it distracting and
| difficult to focus on the content I'm writing.
|
| There really are so many different needs when it comes to
| note-taking apps, including my own. This discussion has
| highlighted that for me once again.
| lelanthran wrote:
| > Even on the desktop, my "note-taking" app is just notepad
| on Windows, kwrite in KDE, and a very bare-bones text
| editor on my phone.
|
| I've done this years ago in my .bashrc and use it almost
| daily: alias todo='vim ~/.todo'
|
| I suppose I should change `~/.todo` to `/.todo.md` for
| syntax highlighting, but the list is already quite large
| and I'm not adding in anything that isn't absolutely
| required.
| j45 wrote:
| It's also a form of journaling throughout the day whether
| it's a note, thought, reflection.
| benatkin wrote:
| > I feel that the speed and quality of note-taking have
| improved
|
| In your case you've gotten over any learning curve and you're
| accomplishing three things at once - taking notes, testing
| your app, and giving yourself satisfaction that you've built
| something you can use, so of course it's going to feel
| better! But it's more important what potential users think
| because they're less biased and there's more of them. However
| you seem to be at least slightly dismissive here.
| hexmiles wrote:
| As a counter: I love the concept, I often message myself not
| because I don't want to use another app, but because I like the
| workflow and the UI. Most notes app work with a concept similar
| to files organized in a structure (be tags or folder) instead
| chat app are primarily chronological, also the UI is more
| oriented for quick addition than most note's app; I get that
| this don't make sense for everyone but an app like this is
| exactly what I want.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you, your kind words are very encouraging. Your
| perspective closely aligns with the issues I was trying to
| address.
| realjohng wrote:
| For a note taking app, launch speed is critical. Keep it
| super fast.
| golly_ned wrote:
| I text myself notes, and it's not because I don't want to use
| another app, but because I like the streaming append-only log
| style of notes. I don't like how hard it is to search through
| them stores in iMessage. I've thought about building an app
| like this, just since I haven't been able to find one. So the
| problem does exist, though it's not for you.
|
| And it's plainly not the case that if people wanted these
| features they would be built into Apple apps. There is a
| massive ecosystem of iOS apps for exactly the reason that the
| Apple apps don't cover everything. Same for any case where
| there's a startup vs. an incumbent.
| pdimitar wrote:
| Sure, but I just use a personal Telegram channel for this.
| It's quite well-searchable too, and it serves me 95%
| perfectly.
| mmcclure wrote:
| This is my flow too. I know it's silly, but 90% of why I
| pay for premium is just for the tags in my saved notes
| messages.
| IOT_Apprentice wrote:
| What about using a discord server?
| suriya-ganesh wrote:
| Discord is much much slower than the telegram client IMO
| pdimitar wrote:
| Discord is generally snappy but nothing beats Telegram.
| It just feels like the only remaining desktop client that
| actually makes use of native OS facilities.
|
| Plus there are scripts to back up the said channels. With
| Discord I haven't checked (but maybe there are as well).
|
| So mostly (1) Telegram is still snappier and (2) Telegram
| was there first, more or less, at least on my own
| timeline of checking chat clients.
| dheera wrote:
| I just use a 1-person Slack message for this. Split
| categories into channels.
|
| I can also write my own plugin bots to respond to specific
| queries.
|
| I considered Discord but I hate its UI, especially every
| time I go to the website it wants to do a phone
| verification. F that, I'm out. If you are a nonessential
| "fun" app you need to be as low friction as possible.
| mcintyre1994 wrote:
| I use Slack for this too, mostly because its reminders
| work great for me. If messages are anywhere else I keep
| losing/forgetting them. I wrote a Raycast plugin that
| takes a screenshot and sends it straight to my Slack,
| then I add whatever reminder I want from there.
| pdimitar wrote:
| I admit Slack's reminders are a pretty neat addition.
| Wish Telegram had that.
| brewdad wrote:
| I use Signal's Note to Self. It's often easier than dealing
| with a notes app or file syncing for one offs or
| interesting links I want to read on another device.
| alsetmusic wrote:
| I email myself notes and reminders as a way to time-shift
| them. I send to my work account so that I see them the next
| day, as I don't have a position that requires me to be
| available or respond during off-hours. It's a way to reduce
| how many reminders I have blasting notifications on my
| devices, a sort of mental cheat / hack by spreading them out.
|
| The only time I text myself is to get data from a personal
| device and a work device. All my "real" notes still go in a
| plain-text Simplenote document that syncs between my devices.
| I've started using Apple Notes just in the last few months
| even though I've had access to the app since its inception
| (call me old-fashioned and a curmudgeon about plain-text, I
| guess).
| emeril wrote:
| try resophnotes as a good clean windows client for
| simplenote if you haven't already
| havefunbesafe wrote:
| I think the problem was OP wanted to build an app, and the
| solution was building the app. Totally fine!
| dewey wrote:
| This is fair, and I've done a fair share of that myself!
| codegeek wrote:
| Not always. I do text/slack myself to make a note at times
| because it is the fastest way to log something and come back to
| it later. If a tool creates a note out of it with all the other
| goodies, it may not be a bad thing. I however agree that I have
| to test something like this but having lost my mac notes
| recently, I am seriously considering a notes tool that is super
| easy to log.
| whalesalad wrote:
| I actually want an app like this, but I want something cross
| platform and web based so I can use it on mac/linux/phone.
| j45 wrote:
| Not always.
|
| There's an app called Voiceliner that is quite decent for a
| different use case but capturing notes nonetheless.
|
| Audio notes are usually much quicker than typing on a phone.
|
| Helping people capture their thoughts happens in many ways, and
| it's valid.
|
| I have been using apps like this for a very long time, and it's
| an unfair advantage because it can seem like I don't forget
| much, when really I reinforce remembering it by recording it
| somehow and working through actioning it (or sharing it to get
| help)
| sensanaty wrote:
| I write "notes" to myself all the time not because I don't want
| to use another app, but because I prefer the chronological,
| quick way that those kind of notes work. I'm too chaotic for
| regular note taking, I've tried a million times, so for me the
| flow of just dumping a stream of consciousness down for me to
| read through later on works much better than trying to organize
| dozens of files.
|
| I'll definitely be checking this app out, personally!
| pjot wrote:
| Same here - I'll typically leave my message to myself as
| unread as a visual reminder to go back to it.
| arjvik wrote:
| What I'd love (and what has been on my to-do list of things
| to write) is an app that I can literally text, which takes my
| notes and collects them somewhere. Would love to get some
| real searchability, etc while still not needing to launch
| something seperate to send notes!
| danem wrote:
| In obsidian I have a template to insert a timestamp. I have a
| "Work Log" file I refresh each month where I just jot down
| whatever with the timestamp. No further organization
| required.
| hidelooktropic wrote:
| To me it doesn't need to be a solution-to-a-problem so much as
| a different paradigm for using a familiar tool that is more
| pleasant to use.
| EGreg wrote:
| I like the simplicity, and good job for shipping it.
|
| "Privacy. Always. We promise"
|
| This kind of stuff always gets me thinking. Why should I trust
| random app developers? I don't even trust giant corporations with
| this.
|
| I have seen Chrome extensions bought out and silently changed.
| And I have sold iOS apps myself!
|
| Capitalism and Competition and Closed source Centralized software
| distribution just makes me always worried. Whatever promises are
| given ("open"AI!) can be either false already or enshittified
| tomorrow.
|
| And then who is foolish for trusting it?
| https://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-im...
|
| Why not use open source?
|
| Actually, the main reason is The Web. It doesn't have an
| effective way to guarantee a file at a URL will be static, the
| way, say, IFPS does. And same goes for the App Store. Telegram
| struggles to tell you how to do verified builds.
|
| I think we may need a "trusted app" with IPFS based distribution,
| and various auditing agencies publicly signing software updates.
| It doesn't need to use a blockchain because code only ever
| accumulates, so it's a crypto CRDT essentially. But it could be
| replicated across many networks including DHT based ones like
| IPFS, Bittorrent and Hypercore.
|
| That at least reduces a user's Trusted Computing Base to the OS
| and one app (like a crypto wallet or an authenticator or browser)
| that they trust. There should be a way to never update that app
| via the app store.
|
| Frankly, I think privacy will never get better than that because
| the manufacturer can technically always exfiltrate stuff (as
| Windows already does and touted with Recall).
|
| But for running TRUSTED PROGRAMS, at least, I feel there can be
| blockchains and other decentralized networks. Trusted programs
| (ie smart contracts) are valuable for communities to trust code,
| even if it doesn't enforce privacy.
| Tiberium wrote:
| Telegram's Saved Messages (essentially self-texting) is also
| commonly used for saving info, somewhat recently they even added
| tagging and the ability to view messages that you forwarded into
| there per chat (so you can see all messages that you ever saved
| from some group you're in). Of course it all lives on their cloud
| and is not local.
| bayesianbot wrote:
| Though tagging is only available for the (kinda pricey) Premium
| subscription.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Tagging is actually available for free, so just wanted to
| correct that.
| bayesianbot wrote:
| Huh? I just tried tagging a message, which opens a popup
| for Telegram Premium. Also web search brings up "Tags are
| already available to all Telegram Premium users." from
| Telegram website - it's an old post, but I don't see
| anything anywhere that says otherwise. Or do you mean
| #hashtags?
| naught0 wrote:
| They're (OP) almost definitely referring to their own
| service which has tagging built in for free.
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| I made a web app with a similar goal, but with one additional
| feature: the text field is also the search field, as you type a
| new note, the existing notes get filtered based on the text of
| the new note: https://thinktype.app
| wonger_ wrote:
| Very novel feature I haven't seen in other notetaking apps -
| well done
| jmhammond wrote:
| This is really neat. It reminds me of my use of Notational
| Velocity from (holy cow!) almost 20 years ago.
| https://notational.net/
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| One difference between notational velocity and thinktype is
| that thinktype has no concept of a title. You write full
| notes in the searchfield, and you see full notes as results.
| unstatusthequo wrote:
| Maybe rethink the name? People who text themselves can't even
| think of the Notes app, which is what they are literally making,
| let alone "StrFlow" which will definitely not be top of mind.
|
| TxtNote? NoteChat? Note2Self? TextMe? Txt2Self?
| toyg wrote:
| My girlfriend doesn't even self-text, she just texts me random
| stuff on whatsapp followed by "ignore that". When I told her
| about this app, she said it sounds great and she'll check it out.
|
| I personally think there is something there. The app-switching
| problem is real though; maybe it would work better as a
| Whatsapp/Telegram bot.
| heliodor wrote:
| You can pin yourself to the top of Whatsapp and write to
| yourself. Explain that to her. It's what I do and it's been
| phenomenal.
| toyg wrote:
| Yeah but you're still limited to the chat mode - you can't
| consume the data in any other way. With a bot, you could
| provide some sort of other interface - either via bot
| commands, or an alternative web view, with fancy exports etc.
| vidyesh wrote:
| Congrats on the launch!
|
| The app looks simple and good but I struggle with the idea that I
| need to use yet another app for this. The reason for self-texting
| is that I am already using that app and now I can send quick
| notes to myself for later.
|
| The odd thing is, I use most and all the messaging apps for this
| for some reason. My quick notes or links or text snippets I want
| to store are in multiple apps I already use.
|
| Not an app for me but good luck!
| msravi wrote:
| A couple of questions. The notes seem to be markdown, which is
| good. But where are they stored? Are they just markdown files
| stored in an accessible folder? How easy is it to "export" the
| notes?
|
| I use "self-texting" on WhatsApp for temp notes that I know I
| won't need beyond a couple of days and don't mind losing and
| Obsidian for others.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| The notes are stored in a SQLite database. You can export your
| notes from the macOS app by going to the menu bar and selecting
| File > Export. This allows you to export the notes in JSON
| format, which includes various metadata and markdown
| representations.
|
| I also definitely plan to extend the export functionality to
| support markdown in the future.
| greenthrow wrote:
| MacOS and iOS already have the Notes app which already syncs
| across your devices....
| cpursley wrote:
| Yeah, and they suck. I have a folder on my iPhone called
| "iCrap" as most of Apples native apps are hot garbage.
| Void_ wrote:
| I made something similar, except by recording audio memos:
| https://whispermemos.com/
| bonaldi wrote:
| Quick thoughts:
|
| - This is a good fit for how I manage to-dos: a stream of actions
| that I can tag and process. But with no simple way to remove a
| tag or mark a thing as "done" I can't filter the tag streams and
| see only undone items
|
| - PS14.99 to use Apple's iCloud syncing which a) I already pay
| for and b) is free to you feels a bit much.
| dchest wrote:
| "- PS14.99 to use Apple's iCloud syncing..."
|
| Obviously, this isn't priced based on the cost of materials.
| Almost no software is.
| kirykl wrote:
| There's maybe some value in branding as 'stream of consciousness
| note taking' instead of 'replacing texting', to which it just
| adds more steps for the same thing.
|
| To replace texting can I text a phone number that feeds into this
| app?
| dougdimmadome wrote:
| I've been look for exactly this! (or planning to build it)
|
| I abuse the telegram "Saved" channel to send myself thoughts,
| notes, reminders, pics, etc as if I'm chatting to the me who's
| back at his desk.
|
| I wanted to get away from that and not rely on telegram.
|
| Unfortunately I'm an android user so I'll probably have to keep
| using Telegram for the time being. Is there an android client in
| the works?
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you! I can really relate to that habit. Unfortunately, I
| haven't started working on an Android version yet, so it
| doesn't seem likely to be available soon. Sorry about that.
| sva_ wrote:
| You can also message yourself in Signal
| J_cst wrote:
| Self messaging is also available in WhatsApp
| NayamAmarshe wrote:
| Yeah but the whole experience of using WhatsApp is kinda sub-
| par compared to Telegram.
| delecti wrote:
| If you aren't opposed to Google, "Keep" seems to be fairly well
| suited for this kind of thing. You can share to it easily on
| android, it supports a bunch of organizational things (labels,
| colors, archiving) but they're not in the way if you want to
| ignore them, and the browser version works great. If you're
| attached to the chat style, then it might not be _perfect_ ,
| but it's easy to use it as a continually appended log style
| experience.
| nusl wrote:
| Currently I use a personal Discord server for this. Will give
| this a shot, seems really useful.
| jcynix wrote:
| One more app? I'm skeptical. https://xkcd.com/927/ is about
| standards, but it could easily be about apps instead.
|
| My note taking takes place either classically via email with mutt
| in a terminal, not with these gargantuan desktop "apps", or with
| existing apps like Blitzmail on Android, or Joplin. Joplin just
| needs a WebDAV server to store notes and is available for
| multiple platforms, so I can easily swap notes between mobile and
| desktop/laptop.
| oulipo wrote:
| There's also the "Defer" app which works both on iOS and osX with
| a nice UX for quick todos https://apps.apple.com/us/app/defer-
| task-inbox/id6480421520?...
| Seylox wrote:
| Kind of reminds me also what Google Wave could have been, if it
| wasn't killed.
| _flux wrote:
| Pretty cool, but I think I'll stick to using Matrix for the same
| purpose (in particular as I'm not an Apple user).
|
| But I admit a custom app would be nice, still using Matrix for
| storage.
| entropyie wrote:
| My number one problem with notes apps is that they _all_ take too
| long to open a new note, and try to sync themselves when opened,
| often slowing everything down. Especially if you have a slow /
| choppy connection (fully offline is usually ok, but barely online
| is the worst).
|
| I have a literal supercomputer in my pocket, yet not one app
| let's me open and start writing a critical note in less than
| 500ms.
|
| To this day I still use plaintext editors on my desktop to dump
| short strings or notes into, because they load faster than any
| other app. And don't try to be clever with smart quotes, fonts
| and butchering my code snippets.
| happyopossum wrote:
| > yet not one app let's me open and start writing a critical
| note in less than 500ms
|
| IME Apple Notes does this with Quick Notes (accessible a bunch
| of different ways depending on platform) on iOS and macOS.
| wonger_ wrote:
| What are the different shortcuts/ways to open Notes? And do
| you know if these shortcuts are available for other app
| developers, or are they dedicated solely to Notes? Just
| curious
| rsanek wrote:
| try Google keep. there's a shortcut you can make that with a
| single tap from the homescreen creates a new note and brings up
| your keyboard for typing. after you're done you don't have to
| even click save to persist it. it also auto syncs in the
| background.
|
| I've been using it on iOS for years
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| And you can invite others to share a note and edit it
| together in real time. My family uses this feature for
| shopping lists. Any of us can add things to the list and when
| one of us does some shopping they just trick the items off.
|
| And it works offline and in the web browser.
| vladxyz wrote:
| Just as a counter-example, my workflow works very quickly for
| me:
|
| On mobile, my launcher has four pinned favorites on the
| homepage - one of which is a shortcut to go straight to the new
| note activity in my notes app. From typing up this comment I
| can swipe up to home and touch that button in (probably?) under
| 500ms and type in a new note.
|
| (launcher = KISS Launcher, notes app = Joplin. though I'm sure
| similar things work with other launchers and note apps.)
|
| It is unfortunately an electron app on desktop, but I'm
| invested enough that I never close it, and can start a new note
| just as quickly (super + 1 to launch it from my task bar,
| ctrl+n to start a new nearly plaintext note). This is the same
| on my windows and Linux computers. MacOS (as it is with most
| things) is somewhat more annoying: I keep a Space dedicated to
| Joplin and never collapse to the icon, which allows me to
| similarly go two chords - ctrl+9, cmd+n - to a new note.
|
| Joplin doesn't need sync to complete before opening a new note.
| sturza wrote:
| I had the same speed issue and i solved it using email drafts.
| They sync automatically and i have rich text.
| rubymamis wrote:
| Give a shot to my note-taking app! https://www.get-plume.com
|
| It stays hidden in the background, and you can summon it
| immediately using a shortcut key like control + N on
| macOS/Windows key + Shift + N on Windows.
|
| It also starts very fast from scratch since it's a Qt C++ app,
| not Electron.
| andai wrote:
| The key aspect of self texting is frictionlessness. On that note,
| has anyone used Notational Velocity? I've been looking for
| alternatives for years and haven't found anything that comes
| close.
| napbree wrote:
| I like the format, an idea to take unstructured data and try to
| turn it into a plan (could be a paid extra?) would be for a
| language model to take a stab of taking the data and turning it
| into a live contextualised overview per notes.
|
| That's then taking the pain away from trying to organise the
| unstructured thoughts
| champagnepapi wrote:
| Wow this is pretty cool! I'm gonna give a try. For me, this is
| actually what most of my slack usage is. Just writing notes to
| myself and then occasionally messaging others.
| al_borland wrote:
| I used a journal app that worked like this for a little while. I
| ultimately stopped for a couple reasons.
|
| 1. It didn't allow editing of past posts. It was on the roadmap,
| but never came. To fix a typo or something, I'd have to copy the
| note, paste, fix, post again, delete the bad one.
|
| 2. I was always worried about putting anything important in
| there, as longevity was always a question. There was an export
| option, but if I remember correctly, it was in JSON. Which is
| fine I guess, but the idea of having to write some kind of parser
| to take that and turn it into something I'd actually want to put
| into whatever solution I might have in the future kind of annoyed
| me.
|
| Does your app allow for editing past posts? How is data stored,
| markdown in a folder I can simply browse, or some kind of DB?
| nusaru wrote:
| To answer your first question: no, past posts can't be edited
| (at least not in the iOS app).
|
| Answer to second question:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40927209
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| To clarify, you can edit past posts in the iOS app by tapping
| on them.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| You can easily edit both the date and content of past posts.
| Notes are stored locally in a SQLite database. You can also
| export your notes in JSON format from the macOS app by going to
| the menu bar and selecting File > Export. I plan to extend the
| export options in the future to support other formats like
| markdown.
|
| Regarding privacy, it is my top priority. Data stored in the
| cloud is encrypted with your iCloud Keychain, and I have no
| means of accessing it. If you enable iCloud's Advanced Data
| Protection, it becomes end-to-end encrypted, so even Apple
| cannot see your data. For more details, please check our
| [privacy policy](https://strflow.app/privacy-policy).
| ants_everywhere wrote:
| I use a variety of note taking systems, but one I use for quick
| notes is Signal. It's always there, syncs to my devices, I trust
| the encryption and privacy stance, and it has a reasonable search
| implementation. As a bonus, I can easily forward notes from other
| conversations, like reminders my wife sends me.
| kirubakaran wrote:
| It looks great! I'm building https://histre.com/ and I find that
| some people do prefer to use a chat app they're already using. I
| built a Telegram bot so that they can keep taking notes on
| Telegram and not have to switch, but still get all the benefits
| of a real knowledge tool: https://histre.com/features/take-notes-
| with-telegram/ Perhaps you could build something like that to
| ease the transition?
| justusthane wrote:
| This looks potentially neat, but I'm having a ton of trouble
| figuring out what this actually _is_ from your website.
| kirubakaran wrote:
| Thanks, I need to fix that.
|
| It is primarily a knowledge management tool with a ton of
| integrations to get data in, and also get it out easily, has
| powerful search etc.
| dewey wrote:
| Like the other commenter I also had a very hard time connecting
| your main landing page to that Telegram feature. I even checked
| if you accidentally posted the wrong url.
|
| A lot of landing pages (especially built by technical people)
| have the same issue, they list a bunch of "features" but don't
| talk about the actual problem that is being solved.
| kirubakaran wrote:
| Yeah that's 100% my problem. I'll work on it. I really
| appreciate the feedback.
| blackbear_ wrote:
| Apologies for the self-promotion, but as several people here
| mentioned Telegram already...
|
| From a similar motivation of minimizing friction when taking
| notes, I created a Telegram bot that saves all messages you send
| it into a Google Spreadsheet. Hashtags can be used to split the
| text into columns, if so desired. Besides jotting down quick
| thoughts, this is very handy for short-form journaling such as
| tracking expenses, workouts, mood, period, etc., with the added
| bonus of easy charting and summarization from within the
| spreadsheet. It also supports pictures and other attachments that
| are uploaded automatically to Google Drive.
|
| Feel free to check it out, all feedback is appreciated:
| https://t.me/gsheet_notes_bot
| sintezcs wrote:
| Looks really interesting! Is it open-source? I'd probably
| prefer to spin up my own bot instance, if it is possible
| knoebber wrote:
| Like any good yakshaving programmer, i built/use my own note
| taking / TODO app. Now I want to implement a feature where I can
| send a SMS to my app, and it will save the text/media to my
| database. Seems like a lot less friction than using the UI on my
| phones browser if I just need to save a quick note.
| Sakos wrote:
| This sounds like exactly what I'm looking for, it sounds and
| looks great. Unfortunately, don't own an iPhone. Any plans to
| make an Android version?
| andrei-akopian wrote:
| I read through the comments, here are the "core" issues/features
| an app like that has to meet:
|
| - 1. Fast startup - 2. Fast adding an extra note - 3. Editing -
| 4. Sync - 5. Crossplatform - 6. Easy to forward messages - 7.
| Stable/Trusted/(Encrypted?)
|
| 2, 4, and 5 are the main ones probably
|
| - Telegram lacks 1 (fyi I use telegram) - WhatsApp lacks 1 and
| kinda 3 - Discord lacks 1 2 and 6 (I don't remember discord
| working well offline) - All other note apps lack 2, 4, and 5
| (core features) and focus on markup instead.
|
| Feature 1 - fast startup seems to be the only problem with
| existing messengers. The best solution would be a custom
| crossplatform telegram client or similar that piggybacks off
| existing trusted messengers for sync etc.
| jskherman wrote:
| I think Telegram is plenty fast enough re:(1) on Android
| especially with a Home screen shortcut to your private Channel.
| It just gets quickly cluttered with mixing messages and file
| uploads.
| andrei-akopian wrote:
| This means we need to add management features without
| removing any of the above.
| flufluflufluffy wrote:
| do people not know about the built in dedicated note-taking app,
| literally called Notes, by default on the first page of their
| home screen
| farhanhubble wrote:
| Samsung screen off memo with a stylus has been the best note
| taking app for me. There's an option to digitise the text and
| make it searchable. The big issue is it's not cross platform.
| NayamAmarshe wrote:
| I actually like saving stuff on Telegram but the only downside is
| the absence of markdown.
|
| But it's not actually that big of a deal. Telegram supports
| tagging messages, saving files and more.
|
| This is why I was creating writedown.app, to have something where
| I can quickly post my notes like Telegram but not have it turn
| into another app accounting for Telegram's lack of markdown.
| cpursley wrote:
| This is neat but I can't seem to get the desktop version to sync
| - I even upgraded iCloud.
| srid wrote:
| Very interesting app. I wish there existed more "timeline-based
| note-taking" apps. Are there any plans to let the user
| "aggregate" these notes in some form over time?
|
| cf. "Fold" idea in https://github.com/srid/chronicle?tab=readme-
| ov-file#folds
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you! I plan to implement features like a calendar view to
| make it easier to review notes over time. The "Fold" idea in
| Chronicle looks quite interesting. I'll try it out to see how
| it works. Thanks for the suggestion!
| srid wrote:
| Effectively you can visualize a "calendar tree". So, at the
| end of 2024, the user can add a summary note to the "2024"
| node. They can also do this at month level ("2024
| Septermber"). Or at decade level. Sometimes they may want to
| add custom parent nodes spanning certain date range (if
| year/month/decade granularity is rigid for the use case). In
| the end, you just have a "tree of memories".
|
| In the end, I recommend keeping your app's UX as simple as
| possible.
| KaoruAoiShiho wrote:
| I just use google keep and apple notes, works fine for me.
| j45 wrote:
| Congrats on your launch!
|
| Simple and effective capture (ideally as few clicks and taps as
| possible) from mobile can be a huge enabler to capture those
| random thoughts that aren't.
| mraza007 wrote:
| This looks really cool. Out of curiosity how long did it take you
| to build the application
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you! It took about 2 and a half years. I worked on it
| during my free time alongside my full-time job, so it might
| feel a bit long.
| tylerdinner wrote:
| Personally I love this concept! Looks really well done and I
| would pay for it once in a heartbeat, but the subscription
| requirement is an immediate deal breaker for me. This looks like
| a $2.99 - 9.99 one time purchase. I also don't understand the
| name.
| inheritedwisdom wrote:
| Same here I'd pay 25$ one time but won't touch a subscription
| service unless there's an ongoing cost associated with its use.
| pshirshov wrote:
| E2EE?
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Yes, Strflow supports end-to-end encryption (E2EE) if you
| enable iCloud's Advanced Data Protection[^1]. For more details,
| please check our privacy policy[^2].
|
| [^1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/102651#advanced
|
| [^2] https://strflow.app/privacy-policy
| allenu wrote:
| This is really cool stuff, OP. Congrats on the launch! I like
| that you've taken an actual problem or use case you have and
| turned it into an app.
|
| I love seeing how other people solve similar problems. I've seen
| this other project [1] that is similar in idea, but the author
| there has opted to go for something that looks literally like a
| texting app. Yours looks more Slack-like, just going by the Mac
| version.
|
| Likewise, I also wanted to create an app for keeping track of
| short notes, but I thought it would be neat to give it the UI of
| something like Twitter or Tumblr, so I built Minders. [2] I have
| to admit that not all the design ideas in my particular app work
| quite well together yet (such as "hearting" and replying to your
| own posts), but I do end up using it regularly for journaling and
| keeping track of interesting links.
|
| [1] https://zhenyi.gibber.blog/gibberish-is-now-available-on-
| tes... [2] https://minders.ussherpress.com/
| wonger_ wrote:
| Another chat-like notetaking app I saw posted a while ago:
| https://site.ducknote.app/
|
| That one reminds me a bit of Discord.
|
| Love the design of yours, though.
| jwr wrote:
| I like it a lot. I currently mostly use Simplenote for quick note
| taking, but that often takes too long and I have to come up with
| a "note title", which I do not like. I just want to jot something
| down, quickly.
|
| I'll be trying this over the next couple of days. My immediate
| worry is that the app will not find its business model and will
| get neglected and then disappear in a year or two...
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you! I felt the same way about note titles, which is why
| Strflow intentionally adopts a style without them.
|
| Developing Strflow has been very fulfilling for me, and I plan
| to continue its development regardless of revenue. Of course, I
| aim to grow the number of supportive users and make it
| sustainable as a business.
| jwr wrote:
| > I plan to continue its development regardless of revenue
|
| I would respectfully suggest that this can be understood by
| some as a promise, and I think it is not a promise anyone
| should make. Doing things for free is not sustainable. We all
| need to earn a living, that's how our current societies are
| built. So I really hope you will get enough subscribers at
| reasonable price points to make this sustainable.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| You're right, there's nothing more certain than money. I
| aim to generate enough revenue to develop Strflow full-
| time. Thank you for your support!
| tamimio wrote:
| What I personally do is just send them to myself in SimpleX or
| Telegram, and they are available immediately on other platforms.
| ocular-rockular wrote:
| > Not FOSS
|
| > Only Apple ecosystem
|
| > Paid tier for local service
|
| :| Seriously?
| kekub wrote:
| As a developer of local applications, I take issue with the
| notion that apps should be free simply because they don't incur
| server costs. This argument overlooks several crucial aspects
| of software development:
|
| Development costs: The bulk of an app's expense lies in its
| continuous development, not in hosting. Even if backend
| services can be run for a nominal fee, the time and expertise
| required for ongoing maintenance, updates, and improvements are
| significant.
|
| Value proposition: Apps provide utility and solve problems for
| users. The price should reflect this value, not just the
| operational costs.
|
| Sustainability: Charging for apps ensures developers can
| continue to support and improve their products, benefiting
| users in the long run.
|
| Hidden costs: While server costs might be minimal, there are
| other expenses like development tools, testing devices, and
| occasional third-party services that add up.
| ocular-rockular wrote:
| It's a notetaking app pal, it's not that serious. And
| certainly not worthy of a subscription model. Kind of
| ridiculous that they're using this platform as free
| advertising for what is effectively one of those cashgrab
| apps.
| sAbakumoff wrote:
| In telegram it's called "Saved messages".
| colinflane wrote:
| I created a note with a tag. Then I deleted the note, but the tag
| remains visible under 'Tags' in the left slide panel. fwiw
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you. In Strflow, tags can be created independently of
| notes, so tags can exist even if their associated notes are
| empty.
| hagbard_c wrote:
| Or just send those notes to your own XMPP account where they'll
| show up as "Note to myself" (in Gajim) or something similar in
| other clients. You get all the facilities your clients offer on
| whatever platform you happen to be using at that time - web,
| mobile, desktop, etc. Your data is as safe as your XMPP account
| is, you can (but are not required to) run your own XMPP server -
| prosody or ejabberd or something else - on your own hardware on
| your own connection at home. Cross-platform, free, there are many
| different clients, standards-based. End to end encryption through
| OMEMO which works across an ever widening spectrum of clients.
|
| Yes, this is similar to the Telegram "Saved Messages" feature
| which is another way of doing this. The advantage of using XMPP
| is that you can run your own service using free software. Also,
| should the EU "Chat Control" abomination become reality this is
| one of the ways to avoid having the EU spy on all your traffic.
| dgid wrote:
| Built in electron?
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| No, built natively with Swift, using AppKit/UIKit/SwiftUI for
| the UI.
| the_arun wrote:
| I slack myself for this purpose.
| chresko wrote:
| This is awesome! I use the iOS notes app in a kludgy/txt way.
| This is so much better. Great work getting this out there!
| BhavdeepSethi wrote:
| This looks great! I use Signal's "Note To Self" quite heavily. I
| also use it when I want to have some pictures/files/links
| transferred between my phone and web browser (mainly for image
| uploads) without going through airdrop/dropbox.
|
| Love that this is exactly like that, but with ability to organize
| as well.
| eguchi1904 wrote:
| Thank you! It's really interesting to learn about everyone's
| "text-yourself" habits. I hope Strflow fits your needs.
| quirk wrote:
| I loved Squarespace Note, and this seems like a close relative.
| Downloading now.
| thiagocsf wrote:
| Looking forward to trying this when I have a phone that runs iOS
| 17+.
| theabhinavdas wrote:
| Haha, love this. I use WhatsApp though and am able to
| organize/categorize ideas using a community that only I'm a part
| of :)
| hidelooktropic wrote:
| Clever idea! Well done.
| jaysonelliot wrote:
| I like this a lot. It's very close to something I've wanted,
| basically a Twitter that no one else can see but me.
|
| I could see myself using this all the time, and making it my
| primary note-taking app.
|
| But I won't.
|
| Here's why. In order to make an app a trusted and regular part of
| my daily flow, I have to trust that it will always be there for
| me. This has a subscription model. That means that if the company
| who makes it goes away, I can't trust that the app will still be
| there for me. I'd happily pay a one time fee to own it forever.
| But a subscription model is a deal-breaker for me.
|
| Best of luck, hope there's an ownership-based version someday,
| I'd love to use it.
| gnicholas wrote:
| I have a different perspective. When considering purchasing an
| app, I always weigh the possibility the app will go away. This
| can happen because the back end disappears, or because the app
| is not updated and Apple phases it out (so you can't install it
| when you get a new device).
|
| Having a reliable stream of revenue makes it less likely that
| the app dev will give up on it. I don't love subscriptions, but
| I do recognize that they help ensure ongoing
| maintenance/development.
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