Simplenote Android Review

SimpleNote was originally an Android app that was bought out by Automattic, the people behind WordPress. Since this time the app has been further updated in the Android, iOS and Mac versions.

The idea behind the app is to make it super easy and simple for users to create a quite text based note about a subject and then forget about it. A series of notes can be added.

The hands-off approach to the app is so much that you do not even title each note; it takes the first line of the note as the default title of it to save time.

The beauty in this type of note taking is that the app is open is a second or less and you can get right into viewing a note, editing one, or adding a new note. There is no wadding through many options, trying to find the right area to begin adding your note. It is almost instant, yet stays organized with an alphabetized list of notes to choose from.

Design

Design has recently been updated to use the new Material Design from Android 5.5 Lollipop. There is a dark theme option to cut down on eye strain late at night. Updates have also been made to the code in order to ensure that Simplenote is compatible with the latest version of Android OS too.

Flatter appearance, full color blocks and subtle layout cues are the approach here.

All Notes

On the All Notes page, a toolbar at the top offers the menu in the top left which can be tapped (or a swipe from the left side of the screen will bring open the menu for you). The current note is shown in the toolbar and the Q for search is in the top right.

The different notes are displayed in alphabetical order with the initial title and an excerpt (which can be customized for length) is shown below the title to get a better idea about the contents of each note before selecting it.

A blue pen icon is displayed in the bottom right of the screen (much like with the Gmail app) to start a new note.

Viewing a Note

When viewing an individual note, the toolbar changes to a back arrow to go back to the All Notes page, an information icon which reveals how many words have been written with a Publish button, and an options feature where offers to either Share content with others or Move the note to the trash. There is the additional option to tag the note which helps with searching as tags are treated like categories within Simplenote.

Menu

The menu can be brought up using the top left menu icon or by swiping from the far left side of the screen.

The two top options are to see All Notes or notes that have been sent to Trash.

The tags are then shown in the order that they were created. There is an edit option to go to the tags screen and make changes.

At the bottom there is the Settings gear icon to make global app changes as needed.

Text only

The notes are fast and quick to sync because they are text only. This means not bullet points or nice numbering system. It is ASCII text all the way here. This will not please those who want something more flashy, but really the point of using Simplenote is to be able to keep a short list of important notes that can be written up quickly and accessed even faster. Presentation within the note isn't really the priority here.

Syncing

Syncing is performed automatically with any updates to the notes.

It is worth pointing out that sometimes a note doesn't upload fully due to an internet connection disruption, in which case you may discover much later that you're missing half your note. There are backup versions kept with the ability to restore from an older note, but in some cases this was insufficient and data was still lost. Also, sometimes notes tended to disappear and has to be recovered from the list of notes in the backup (as if it had been archived).

This reduced the trust with using Simplenote to store important information. However, when using ResophNotes (see below) it is possible to make a copy of the notes folder with the TXT files in them for your own peace of mind.

Cross-Platform

Simplenote has an Android app, an iOS app, a desktop one for the Mac and one for Kindle. There still is no native PC desktop app which is surprising. However, ResophNotes is a Windows app that can access your Simplenotes from the server, display them, edit them and re-sync them back to the cloud for you. It remains an effective solution for Windows users.

Verdict

Simplenote is an excellent, quick way to make text notes and refer to them easily. Loss of small parts of data notwithstanding, the app is still recommended.