[HN Gopher] Apple Notes Expected to Gain Markdown Support in iOS 26
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Apple Notes Expected to Gain Markdown Support in iOS 26
Author : danso
Score : 66 points
Date : 2025-06-04 18:29 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.macrumors.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.macrumors.com)
| bonaldi wrote:
| > Instead of tapping buttons to bold text or create headers,
| users could type *bold* or # Header directly into their notes.
|
| Which will be _more_ keystrokes, not fewer - it 's faster to get
| to the formatting buttons than it is the punctuation keyboard on
| iOS, and even on Mac the shortcut commands are often faster too.
|
| Notes was a fanastic example of a rich-text environment, but if
| Markdown input helps the die-hards that is great, so long as I
| don't have to ever see, use or be aware of it.
| divbzero wrote:
| Apple Notes is used not only with onscreen keyboards in iOS,
| but also with physical keyboards in iPadOS and macOS, where
| familiarity with Markdown input could make it faster than
| shortcut commands.
| BrandonSmith wrote:
| I tend to copy Markdown content from other sources into Apple
| Notes. Being able to paste into Notes and have it format in the
| view is a big win.
|
| It is possible reporting is getting this wrong and the Markdown
| feature and it is just to serve use case above. As an example,
| Google Docs recently enabled "Paste from Markdown" that also is
| a huge convenience.
| geerlingguy wrote:
| Yeah, this would be huge for me; I often toss a bunch of
| notes into an Apple Notepad note just to have it in my
| pocket, and everything I write with a keyboard is markdown.
|
| This just makes it so I don't have to stare at a bunch of
| random characters and can have actual formatting. A win in my
| book!
| candiddevmike wrote:
| > I tend to copy Markdown content from other sources into
| Apple Notes. Being able to paste into Notes and have it
| format in the view is a big win.
|
| AIUI it's only Markdown export support for now
| markbao wrote:
| I think it's user preference. For me it's easier to get to the
| punctuation asterisk (basically muscle memory and <0.5s) than
| to tap the formatting menu, wait for the keyboard sheet to go
| down and the formatting sheet to go up, tap Bold, then tap the
| X and wait for animations to complete again (which I have no
| muscle memory for and need to look at every UI element that I'm
| tapping).
| derefr wrote:
| But formatting _already-typed_ text on iOS is incredibly fiddly
| (as you have to select a text span first, and iOS fights you
| every step of the way when you do this -- especially if the
| span starts or stops at something iOS doesn 't consider a
| "whole token.")
|
| Meanwhile, inserting punctuation _representing_ formatting into
| already-typed text, merely requires placing the insertion
| caret, which is much less fiddly.
| ale42 wrote:
| I first thought it was some kind of extrapolation like... at the
| rate features are currently being added, Markdown will land in
| ~2032 with iOS 26... just noticed about the new version
| numbering, I missed that news!
| jaoane wrote:
| It sounded to me like a joke, as in "markdown will be supported
| on February 30th". Then I read the article text, which seemed
| serious, and I was confused.
| lurk2 wrote:
| I would not recommend investing in the iOS Notes ecosystem. There
| is no way to export these notes with their metadata and media
| intact without using iCloud. If you need a note-taking app, go
| with Joplin instead; it supports Markdown, has both iOS and
| desktop clients, and supports self-hosted syncing.
| divbzero wrote:
| You can connect iOS Notes with any IMAP server. This supports a
| reduced feature set (no embedded images, tables, or audio) but
| does allow for self-hosting.
| lurk2 wrote:
| Interesting. Did they add this feature recently? How do you
| set it up?
|
| Embedded files (photos, video, audio, PDFs, etc.) and bullet
| hierarchies were the two things that I remember being the
| most trouble; you can copy bullet hierarchies from iOS Notes
| and paste them into another app, but they aren't detected
| when copying the note via Shortcuts. Embedded files had to be
| manually saved. I think you could Airdrop notes to a MacOS
| device, but it would wipe the date created metadata from what
| I remember.
| lblume wrote:
| No, in fact it is available since iOS 4 (2010).
|
| You just connect the account and turn on the notes
| synchronisation (right below calendar synchronisation).
| dunham wrote:
| I wrote python code to extract the notes years ago[1], but
| it's bit-rotted, so it no longer supports tables, raw
| stroke data, or the newer features like equations. Maybe
| I'll update it someday, but I'm not using notes at the
| moment and have too many other things going one.
|
| https://github.com/dunhamsteve/notesutils
| Gigachad wrote:
| I just use it like I would a physical notepad. Throwaway notes,
| shopping lists, measurements, etc.
| subjectsigma wrote:
| From the article:
|
| "Apple is working on supporting the ability to export notes in
| Markdown from Apple Notes, which is something third-party apps
| have supported for years."
|
| Am I misunderstanding or is that the feature you were asking
| for? If not then what does the article mean by export?
| nkmnz wrote:
| proper access to pdfs _already stored in notes_ would be good,
| too.
| howmayiannoyyou wrote:
| Notes: I'm stuck with this and wish I could leave, but the combo
| of security and attachments leaves me with few options. Notes is
| buggy, lacks interoperability, has crap AI integration, etc.
| BUT... the real pain is Apple Messages. The inability create
| folders, rules, etc. is insanity. At a time when most comms are
| instant why would you not offer users the same level of
| organization they enjoy with email, or with other IM platforms?
| zamadatix wrote:
| The MacRumors article claims Markdown input formatting but they
| source this from a 9to5Mac article which only seems to claim
| Markdown exporting.
|
| Edit: The article has since been corrected.
| neepi wrote:
| Markdown export would be appreciated. My number one concern
| with Notes is that it is 100% opaque file formats (weird
| serialisation inside SQLite and no api). Backup to markdown
| would be great.
| briandoll wrote:
| I've been all-in on Bear for iOS and MacOS and have never once
| missed Apple Notes functionality
| tlhunter wrote:
| Microsoft notepad is also getting markdown support. It's a very
| interesting coincidence!
|
| Overall, I'm surprised to see markdown become mainstream so
| quickly.
|
| https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2025/05/30/text-fo...
| ttoinou wrote:
| It took "only" 20 years
| dmkolobov wrote:
| Quite honestly, I'm surprised it's taken this long. It's been
| 21 years since one of their biggest evangelists wrote the
| format!
| dadrock wrote:
| Interesting, considering MS just announced the same exact feature
| in the new Notepad app on Windows 11 last week.
| cyberge99 wrote:
| I switched from Evernote to Upnote and now that I have X-url-
| callbacks and I can link into notes, I've found my note utopia.
| puttycat wrote:
| In case anyone else had no idea where the 26 came from:
|
| https://9to5mac.com/2025/06/03/exclusive-ios-26-messages-car...
| tacker2000 wrote:
| This link has the actual info:
| https://9to5mac.com/2025/05/28/ios-26-coming-next-month/
|
| They are rebranding it to reflect the year, a la FIFA 26
| mdeeks wrote:
| I really hope Apple Notes makes this something that's opt-in and
| I don't have to see. Thankfully it sounds like it is an export
| only feature.
|
| I think there is a bifurcation of people who like markdown and
| people who like rich text. And both groups have strong opinions.
| Apple Notes was my goto rich text editor. Fingers crossed that
| they aren't making this worse for us.
|
| Related: I switched away from Bear notes because personally I
| find markdown hideous to look at. This post made me go back and
| check on it today and it looks like Bear notes now supports
| hiding markdown right after you type it. This seems like a really
| good compromise, though I still don't like that I see it when I
| place my cursor on it. Worth a shot if you're a "never markdown"
| person like me.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| You hate reading unrendered markdown? I've looked at markdown
| so much that my brain renders it in my head.
| DevKoala wrote:
| I would have killed for this back in 2022.
|
| I take all of my notes on ChatGPT now, and for more structured
| data I have built specialized tools/agents, and even small front
| ends like for my portfolio management track.
|
| It's crazy how different my world used to be back then; note apps
| feel so primitive now.
| kupopuffs wrote:
| I'm sorry, are you saying that you sent all your notes to
| ChatGPT as prompts? How do you recall or get your notes back?
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