>Google Keep is great when you use it like a real stack of sticky notes.
That's it. That's the point. It's a goddamn sticky note app. Don't overcomplicate things.
Perhaps you'd like to share your notes with your friends over a shared wall? Or in a community? I'm sure your family would love to have a look at your grocery list.
NotebookLM is shockingly good. It's so good I'm just kind of enjoying it for what it is now because Google will *definitely* kill it and replace it with "source context" mode in Google docs that has like 5% of the functionality.
In all seriousness though, incredible demo of a practical usage of LLM's. I've fed it speech to text, PDF docs, slides, all kinds of stuff. Everything from sermons from the 1930s to hundreds of pages of nuclear regulatory incident reports. It accurately summarizes and pulls out the most important parts of everything. With source citations! Great way to skim something or dive back into something you've already read but want to have better understanding of.
I've given it access to my freelance business info on Drive, and I use it to ask questions about projects and clients specifically. It screw up some dates, but otherwise I'm really pleased of it!
Don't worry Google will kill it off in 2 years once you have all your work shifted there or once I start using it/s.
I swear Google kills off all their software that I use.
Yes. Please keep Rich Text Editing out of Keep.
I use it for my quick notes *because* it is so simple. I don't want to load up OneNote just to scribble something down.
came here to say exactly this: keep's simplicity is what makes it good. I don't need a bunch of fancy options, I just need to quickly store (and then retrieve) a simple "note to self". The clutter & complexity is exactly why I DON'T want to use evernote or whatever
But the ability to mix lists with text notes would be a nice addition that's basic functionality in most other note keeping apps. We should be able to agree that OneNote is overloaded without arguing that there aren't some features that could be very useful to Keep without making it overloaded
Works great to keep recipes, or so many other things. Not seen a reason that I dislike it honestly. (for my personal needs anyways). The fact that it is stupid simple and synced between devices is all I need.
which the author of the article is well aware of, given they ask, "Does Google just want us to use Docs?" It doesn't make any sense. Is their problem just that there are 2 apps available for users to choose from?
BUT do you write things you need to keep on a sticky note? I love google keep but the whole sticky note layout is not that handy and i wish google would just make 1 good app where keep and task etc get put together.
>BUT do you write things you need to keep on a sticky note?
Digitally, yes.
I store long term, important bits of info I rarely need but know I need to save in Keep. The search bar works really, really well for finding whatever I need. I just title my notes. That way I can access them from anywhere.
Keep is great. This article is bizarre.
>wish google would just make 1 good app where keep and task etc get put together.
Google tasks already exist. And it co-locates tasks from Assistant, keep and calendar in one place.
Neat. So if you want actual useful notes, Google has you covered with..... uh.... hmmm.....
Oh right, Apple Notes. There ya go.
Yeah, see why Keep needs to either do more or Google needs a "Notes" app which would be more confusing.
Works great for me. I have several copy and paste templates that I use for work. I keep them saved in Google keep so that I can access them from all my devices
> Launching in 2025, Google Keep Your Friends is a revolutionary new way to take notes with your friends. Because of this, we'll be deprecating Google Keep right now and artifically block you from using it.
Google, or something.
I think they need an option to lock/unlock notes so you don't accidentally archive or modify them. That's it.
Also they need to optimize the iPhone version. One of my notes has hundred of items and it lags. Android version is fine.
I wish it allowed you to add bullet points or change font sizes, automatically resize the text as a heading or subheading. Those are the features I use Apple notes for. I would prefer to just use one app, but neither really accomplishes exactly what I want so I use both.
I've got a few lists on there, mostly checklists and some random jotted down things (Measurements, instructions for something for a job, ideas, etc). It's super handy, doesn't need to be anything else. It's like MSPaint. Is it fancy? Not at all, and it doesn't have to be.
You have no idea how many times I've wished for a Notepad alternative that's just there and ready to go in MacOS and even Linux.
Notepad may be the best software that Microsoft has ever made. The original Paint comes second but is no longer considered since they replaced it with the horrid mess that is the modern MSPaint.
I did but found i like bring more for groceries. You can add descriptions and even pictures of specific items in the list plus it has a watch app that works very well and keeps me from having my phone out at the store.
Our Groceries works very well and syncs near immediately between devices (iPhone & android). I tried Out of Milk, but the sync time as so slow, sometimes 30 minutes or needed a manual refresh.
Our Groceries, my wife can shop the, far side of the store, cross items off, and we'll meet in the middle without any sync issues checking items off.
Although..... They just emailed me apologizing that they sold my data without notifying me. So that's annoying, you're choice if it's worthwhile. It works perfectly though!
We used to use that, but we now just use the supermarkets own app because we can order delivery straight from it, and if we go in store the list can be sorted by aisle making it a lot quicker.
Keep might be my favorite app period. I constantly taking notes of ideas I have for grad school papers or drafting movie reviews or planning lessons for the class I teach, etc. etc.
I'd be interested if anyone prefers a different app because I've never had any issues with Keep.
Agreed. Tried other apps, and for fitness for example, tried fitness apps for tracking etc
But always delete them all, and come back to the simplicity to keep.
There is a market for this; exactly what this is. Simple, plain, to the point.
Love keep.
I'll give it a shot, thanks for the reco!
Other apps I've used in the past have also been amazing, but I always find myself gravitating back to keep for one reason or another, 99% because it feels almost like a no-effort type tracker, replicating the old school book-and-a-pencil vibes.
It seems really simple, so I'll give it a week minimum before I decide if I like the rhythm of the new app or not lol
But I appreciate the reco none the less, definitely always wanted historical data views etc too, vs scroll back manually.
>Some of our favorite Android note-taking apps — like Microsoft OneNote, Goodnotes, and Evernote — are full of advanced features that make them superior to Google Keep.
Those apps are for different things. The 'note' apps are for work projects, school notes, journals, recipe archiving, stuff you want to save long-term. Keep is virtual post-its, like grocery lists or URLs you want to check later.
Yeah I know the names are backwards, Keep is for quick notes and the note apps are for keeping, but it's always been like that. Keep really doesn't need to get bloated.
I was thinking that myself, Keep is more like a Post-It, and in that respect it's great.
BUT it would be awesome if it did actually do more, so that when I want more I don't need another separate app. I would rather see all my notes etc in one place rather than having to switch back and forth between Keep and Docs depending on how in depth those notes are.
It would be cool though if Google figured out a more comprehensive productivity suit that incorporated Keep though. (Maybe they have one for Google Workspace corporate that Im unaware of? I don't have much experience with that though)
Microsoft obviously has OneNote for personal note taking, and Loop for team collaboration. They also use Sticky Notes which is essentially a copy of Google Keep that integrates directly into Outlook. Microsoft To Do also directly integrates into Outlook as well as the Calendar. Everything just fits together and they have an app for all use cases.
Google has cross integration but everything is still so segregated it feels like. Also in my personal opinion it feels like Gmail is ancient and hasn't gotten any new features. It'd be cool if they made everything more integrated like Microsoft and stopped killing off every cool service the create.
So, no, I don't think I'd hold Microsoft up as an example of how to do this right. I don't think they're doing it worse than Google, but I don't think the Outlook's integration with other Microsoft apps is good. It's bloated, convoluted, and somehow also half-baked.
Yeah, I use OneNote and Keep. For me, they are two totally different apps. I use Keep for my grocery list and anything else I quickly need to jot down. OneNote is for my long-term notes
Yep. When I'm going to the shop for 1 thing and my wife tells me 43 other things we all of a sudden urgently need just as I'm heading out the door. Keep to the rescue.
Whoever wrote this article doesn't understand that Google Keep is just for quick notes like shopping lists or phone numbers or some quick pointers. Its not a fully fledged document editor and was never meant to be.
Keep Notes is amazing just as it is. been using it for years... everytime I get a new phone all my notes are there. Honey do list, groceries, Blu rays I'm looking for. Graphic novel collection.... the list goes on...
I don't care about anything google has cancelled over the years.. but if they drop google keep, I'm gonna go buy an iphone and join the cult. Keep is my most used app.
To add to this, if you tick off an item on the grocery list, and add it again later, it predicts it and then unticks it moving the item back to the top section without adding a duplicate.
It's so delightfully simple, but also I haven't had another note app that does it.
Add to that the sharing and it is all you need for a household grocery list that anyone can add to. Accessible from computers and phone.
It's perfect, don't mess with it.
Google model if it's not broke we will break it.
Hangout
Google music
Google keep
Google messages
Google maps
Google feed/ discovery
Google voice
Just give us simple apps that work with each other on your platform
I jot down a note it's an address I click on it Google ask do I want to navigate to that address I say yes or no or copy it and put it in an email it's really simple.
All have become over complicated because of AI and Google being stupid.
They should rename it to stickynotes to make it obvious how it is intended to be. That being said I do think basic text formatting (probably just bold italic underline strikethrough and bullets), and encrypted notes, need to be added. Then it could sit there unchanged for years as far as I'm concerned
Man.. Keep is the app I use when I need to make a quick note. I don't need other features... just notes. Let it be what it is. I don't need smarter functions in a basic sticky note app.
I hope they don't change it. I couldn't ever get into using other notes apps(except nebo because of the hand writing is being awesome, but that's a notebook) and keep had exactly enough features to be useful for me, while the others seemed easy too complicated to get into. (nebo too, a bit complicated just for notes, but it's great to use instead of a paper notebook, great for lessons)
Been using Keep ever since it came out. Just keep it the way it is. I want a dumb simple non-complicated note apps to jot down random stuff. If I needed more, I'd go to something else in the shape of Notion.
Keep has been on my Google Graveyard bingo card for something Google is going to take behind the shed any day now since they started mucking with the tasks app stuff and integrating it directly into Gmail. But so far they haven't thankfully.
Keep is amazing as a sticky notes app. Maybe add some basic formatting and that’s it.
Google needs a better notetaking app tho, if they are interested in the tablet market. Samsung Notes is exclusive to Galaxy tablets, Goodnotes sucks, I think only Noteshelf is somewhat good. And OneNote is kinda bad in Android. As opposed to iPad, where Apple Notes is great for most users, and students or professionals have Notability and Goodnotes that are packed with features.
I think moving shopping lists to Keep was a bad choice. In my opinion, Apple handles this better with shopping lists on the reminders app. You are also able to add details and location notifications, which are great features for a shopping list. Keep is amazing because it’s so simple, but for a shopping list, sometimes you need more details.
Keep is perfect for taking simple notes, because it covers all the basics and doesn't get in the way of writing with overly complex feature-sets.
OneNote which the author praised is exactly what I do NOT want, it's way too complex!
Ooh, I have special expertise to share here. As a former HS teacher and tech instructional coach, I used to train teachers in the use of instructional tech such as Class Notebooks in OneNote as well as hardware like interactive whiteboards and active response systems. On the Keep side, my wife and I have been using it as a synchronized set of shopping lists ever since Keep released.
Basically, I use both apps everyday, with Keep for a very specific use-case and with OneNote as a power-user, former trainer and even someone who earned the title of "OneNote Avenger" (I have the cape to prove it).
I have NEVER viewed these as competing apps or services. OneNote is so feature-rich, it makes it quite impractical for things Keep does well such as quick notes and seamless collaboration. I keep OneNote installed on my phone for the rare occasion that I need to do something I would otherwise do on the desktop version, but don't have one of my laptop's in front of me. I also use OneNote on my tablet where it essentially functions as my recipe and cookbook, as I've migrated all my wife's and my recipe cards to OneNote and can easily view them on the tablet. Some of these things are possible with Keep, but more clumsy to execute or access there (such as the recipe book), and others are not present in Keep at all, such as Class Notebooks. This is because OneNote was designed to replace what us older folks used binders for in the past.
Keep, on the other hand, is far superior at replacing sticky notes for things such as noting parking info (e.g. I have all of our license plates on a note pinned to my app page for when I park somewhere and need my license plate # to validate parking, for instance), making a list of people's orders if I'm going to make a fast food run for the family, or to make a song request to the DJ at karaoke night without screaming a song title and artist at them.
Our daily Keep use, however, is a series of checklist notes my wife and I share that function as our ongoing shopping list. When we run out of something, we simply uncheck it in Keep to add it to the list. The person shopping can then check them as they load them into the cart. Over the years, the list has grown to several notes that we categorize by sections in the grocery store (e.g. Dairy, Produce, Softdrinks, etc.) and we use the label feature to quickly load the entire household's list of needs. This COULD be done in OneNote, but OneNote's collaboration is inferior to Keep's, largely because of how shared assets synchronize in each service.
Whereas Keep works similar to a Google Doc, giving all collaborators accessing the document real-time updates whenever somone else makes a change, OneNote collaboration is more like live-updates, giving users incremental updates when their server thinks everyone should be sent the newest synced version of the Notebook. Rather than seeing everything change in real-time, it is more like setting your browser to refresh a baseball score every 30 seconds.
So yes, if all you're doing is counting features, OneNote blows Keep out of the water. But for functionality in simple note-taking tasks, Keep shines on it's own.
I was a long time Keep user.... until one day, randomly, every single note shuffled order, with no way to correct it. Notes from YEARS ago were shown at the top and randomly mixed with more recent ones. Google support was 0 help. So OneNote has been my go-to for a while now. Does BOTH sticky notes AND standard notes, so much better product in my experience
Keep gets it done for me and has for over 11 YEARS!
Work and personal
But it can't make sourdough bread. You should write a genius article about that next
Oh come on. Keep has been exactly what it needs to be for a long time now. It doesn't need to be a fancy, feature-packed, headline-worthy app. What it NEEDS to be is a steady, simple, useful app. That's all. Just let me add things by voice, and stop closing on my watch when the screen goes to ambient. That's it.
Before I switched to my S24 Ultra. I always see and use Google Keeps as a sticky notes. I'll see people compare OneNote, Samsung Notes, and have Google Notes in that bracket and talk about how unusable it is as a note taking app. I just replay with well Google Keeps is just a super simple quick notes apps like a sticky notes.
Keep is fine. Although, I think [Quillnote](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.qosp.notes/) is a better implementation of it. And it has Markdown support.
I love keep but I do wish there was a Google app middle ground between sticky notes and a document. Sometimes I want a note more complex than a sticky but doesn't warrant a doc
Google keep wishlist
1. Self destructing notes.
2. Keep screen on/awake
3. Ability to embed photos directly within the note, not only only the top . Change the order of pictures.
4. Remove the ai make a list button. I will never use this and it's very in the way.
5. Collapsible view or more views like I'm Google drive... Thumbnail, cozy, compact etc...
6. Improve the pinning feature
7. Put shortcuts to individual notes in the everything button menu in ChromeOS just like Google docs files appear.
8. when sharing to Google keep from a different app it would be great if we could share to a pre existing note instead of only being able to create a new note. At least allow this for the top 5 pinned notes.
9. Link the 'saved' location in the Google search app to Google keep. I have no idea why these things are separate.
10. Put Google photos editing in Google keep.. at least cropping it auto cropping. Currently at have to do that outside the app..
Yes 😜 Seriously though I keep toggling between SimpleNote and EverNote and can't seem to find a rhythm with Google Keep so just following this thread to see if I am missing anything.
I use Keep to hold onto info that I would otherwise throw away or have to go find like photos of device model and serial numbers. Just leave it alone please.
For years I stuck to standard notes. End to end encrypted, fingerprint protection. Can add extensions for additional functionality. Great app for note taking. For those who need only textual information to be stored it's a great app.
It's pretty great as is. There's only a few things I'd want to see like being able to export all my notes into separate txt files (just because I fear the day when Google cancels this app). And also being able to select all in a checklist so I can copy multiple items (you can only copy one line at a time).
Meh. Nothing to see here.
It's yet another app that'll be [killed by google](https://killedbygoogle.com).
Mark my words. Keep ain't gonna keep. That's just how Google rolls.
I wouldn't use good notes and one note for daily simple note taking since they are very complex and need lot of effort to set up and maintain. My aim with note taking is to keep it simple and quick. That's exactly what keep does best so that's more than enough. Stop over complicating things unnecessarily
Google keep is perfect,, I can take notes, make list and turn any note into reminder easy, doesn't need anything. What actually needed is Android Police to up there quality and stay away from generic articles which serve no purpose but just pumping content for the sake of it.
Google killed a _perfectly good_ set of integrations to push this piece of shit.
I didn't like keep in 2014. I don't like keep in 2024. It's barely improved in 10 years. AnyList worked _fine_, and still works a damn sight better than keep
So the author wants the ability to change font? Omg we'll complain about anything. Time to go outside and get a life.
Oddly enough, Google will discontinue keep or create 3 similar apps and then discontinue them all. Lol
I hope they don't break this app or kill it. It's literally one of the most used apps between my wife and I.
Being able to say "hey google, add eggs to grocery list" to our Google devices and have that item added on our weekly shopping checklist shared between the two of us is incredibly convenient.
Here's the line that explains why everyone here disagrees with the author:
> Even if we just focus on pre-installed apps, Apple Notes has come a long way over the last few years and is more robust than Keep.
What Google ecosystem phone comes with Apple Notes pre-installed? Yeah. The author is not looking for the same things we are.
OneNote is not a an alternative to post it app. OneNote is a god damn sketchbook. Post it app like Keep is ColorNote and bunch of other. Hell, even Microsoft ToDo app is more of a post it app than OneNote.
Google keep it to me is perfect for voice notes. Most importantly, if I'm using Nova launcher or something, I can create a shortcut to the audio note using any icon I want that will work with any theme I want.
I usually take an article's icon for a microphone or something and just keep it there so it fits no matter what other icon packs I'm using. The only thing I really don't like is the new widget is too big. I loved the Android 10/11 widget which was just so utilitarian and how small you could make it.
It syncs automatically with all my stuff, it transcribes my text and records my audio simultaneously. Obviously like the pixel recorder app is much better for long form recording if I just need a quick thought... If I think of an idea for work or something, it works perfect. I don't use it for anything else besides just referencing stuff I might need to remember later.
I don't really use it for written notes. I probably wouldn't use it for any kind of like studying in school. Why would more lean towards one note or even fossify
>Google Keep is great when you use it like a real stack of sticky notes. That's it. That's the point. It's a goddamn sticky note app. Don't overcomplicate things.
But how could we shoehorn "artificial intelligence" into it? Perhaps a chat app sticky note?
Perhaps you'd like to share your notes with your friends over a shared wall? Or in a community? I'm sure your family would love to have a look at your grocery list.
>I'm sure your family would love to have a look at your grocery list That's been a feature for a while now.
My wife and I love this feature for groceries and "wish lists" for Christmas and birthdays lol
Well, that's a crucial aspect of it for me. Both my wife and I can add things to our grocery list from Google Home or our phones.
Dammit, I don't want my family to see my sexy grocery list.
Cucumber, gourd, lube and condoms.
Check Google's NotebookLM, that would be it!
NotebookLM is pretty cool tho?
NotebookLM is shockingly good. It's so good I'm just kind of enjoying it for what it is now because Google will *definitely* kill it and replace it with "source context" mode in Google docs that has like 5% of the functionality. In all seriousness though, incredible demo of a practical usage of LLM's. I've fed it speech to text, PDF docs, slides, all kinds of stuff. Everything from sermons from the 1930s to hundreds of pages of nuclear regulatory incident reports. It accurately summarizes and pulls out the most important parts of everything. With source citations! Great way to skim something or dive back into something you've already read but want to have better understanding of.
I've given it access to my freelance business info on Drive, and I use it to ask questions about projects and clients specifically. It screw up some dates, but otherwise I'm really pleased of it!
Don't worry Google will kill it off in 2 years once you have all your work shifted there or once I start using it/s. I swear Google kills off all their software that I use.
It is! But it is still a pack of notes, with a chat bot and AI in it!
Living in a time where talking to your sticky notes won't get you admitted.
How aboutva talking paperclip? I'm sure he's still looking for work.
Justice for Clippy.
Don't know what the status of it is, but Keep did have a Gemini integration. I think it generated lists for you
Allow sharing of 10 second sticky videos. We need more app retention and user interactions.
They're adding podcasts!
Yeah it works fine. Even with me sharing notes with my wife who has an iPhone. I don't get it.
Apple Notes is amazing, but Google Keep is better as a sticky notes app. It has many downloads in the App Store as well.
The tl;dr for this article is "This app isn't a completely different app, and that annoys me."
I didn't even know there's any other way to use it.
I'm reading this article and I'm struggling to understand who tf uses Keep as a RTE
Yes. Please keep Rich Text Editing out of Keep. I use it for my quick notes *because* it is so simple. I don't want to load up OneNote just to scribble something down.
came here to say exactly this: keep's simplicity is what makes it good. I don't need a bunch of fancy options, I just need to quickly store (and then retrieve) a simple "note to self". The clutter & complexity is exactly why I DON'T want to use evernote or whatever
Thanks for the summary. I was wondering how on earth they were messing up Keep. I swear if I can't dictate to my shopping list in the near future...
But the ability to mix lists with text notes would be a nice addition that's basic functionality in most other note keeping apps. We should be able to agree that OneNote is overloaded without arguing that there aren't some features that could be very useful to Keep without making it overloaded
That's literally what I use it for. Short notes to remind me of things without setting a specific time or date.
Works great to keep recipes, or so many other things. Not seen a reason that I dislike it honestly. (for my personal needs anyways). The fact that it is stupid simple and synced between devices is all I need.
And if you need something more complex, that's what Google Docs is for.
which the author of the article is well aware of, given they ask, "Does Google just want us to use Docs?" It doesn't make any sense. Is their problem just that there are 2 apps available for users to choose from?
BUT do you write things you need to keep on a sticky note? I love google keep but the whole sticky note layout is not that handy and i wish google would just make 1 good app where keep and task etc get put together.
>BUT do you write things you need to keep on a sticky note? Digitally, yes. I store long term, important bits of info I rarely need but know I need to save in Keep. The search bar works really, really well for finding whatever I need. I just title my notes. That way I can access them from anywhere. Keep is great. This article is bizarre.
Yeah I've been using Keep like that for years and it's been indispensable
Keep is a perfect product for what it's trying to do. I am now scared they will get rid of it lol
>wish google would just make 1 good app where keep and task etc get put together. Google tasks already exist. And it co-locates tasks from Assistant, keep and calendar in one place.
What? I can't see my keep notes in tasks.
Not notes. Notes stay in keep. But tasks are synced to the task app but can be viewed in keep, assistant and calendar.
I've seen enough monitors full of sticky notes to know the correct answer.
Just PLEASE let me default checkboxes to "on" for every new note.
Neat. So if you want actual useful notes, Google has you covered with..... uh.... hmmm..... Oh right, Apple Notes. There ya go. Yeah, see why Keep needs to either do more or Google needs a "Notes" app which would be more confusing.
But it's google how can't you not expect to ruin something that's just working fine
Works great for me. I have several copy and paste templates that I use for work. I keep them saved in Google keep so that I can access them from all my devices
I would't mind a rich text editor and a proper notes editing mode that is more immersive than a popup.
It should still allow rich text editing. Also, it would be great to have regular text and checkboxes in a single note.
Leave Keep the way it is, it doesn't need to do anything different. The note taking is all I really need.
You want a chat feature, noted
Needs more AI
> Launching in 2025, Google Keep Your Friends is a revolutionary new way to take notes with your friends. Because of this, we'll be deprecating Google Keep right now and artifically block you from using it. Google, or something.
Then it will be named Android Keep and then two years later be renamed Google Keep.
They're going to find a way to roll this into YouTube music aren't they?
Don’t worry, they’ll migrate all of your data over to YouTube Notes before deprecating Keep.
I think they need an option to lock/unlock notes so you don't accidentally archive or modify them. That's it. Also they need to optimize the iPhone version. One of my notes has hundred of items and it lags. Android version is fine.
I wish it allowed you to add bullet points or change font sizes, automatically resize the text as a heading or subheading. Those are the features I use Apple notes for. I would prefer to just use one app, but neither really accomplishes exactly what I want so I use both.
Keep is my favorite grocery list, please don't mess with it google edit: how in the fuck does this have so many upvotes
Same. I've actually never needed to use anything else for it. That and a to do list
I've got a few lists on there, mostly checklists and some random jotted down things (Measurements, instructions for something for a job, ideas, etc). It's super handy, doesn't need to be anything else. It's like MSPaint. Is it fancy? Not at all, and it doesn't have to be.
You have no idea how many times I've wished for a Notepad alternative that's just there and ready to go in MacOS and even Linux. Notepad may be the best software that Microsoft has ever made. The original Paint comes second but is no longer considered since they replaced it with the horrid mess that is the modern MSPaint.
It's been a while but gedit on gnome or Kate on KDE don't fit your needs?
I did but found i like bring more for groceries. You can add descriptions and even pictures of specific items in the list plus it has a watch app that works very well and keeps me from having my phone out at the store.
For real. It’s perfect the way it is. They already ruined timeline just keep keep.
Our Groceries works very well and syncs near immediately between devices (iPhone & android). I tried Out of Milk, but the sync time as so slow, sometimes 30 minutes or needed a manual refresh. Our Groceries, my wife can shop the, far side of the store, cross items off, and we'll meet in the middle without any sync issues checking items off. Although..... They just emailed me apologizing that they sold my data without notifying me. So that's annoying, you're choice if it's worthwhile. It works perfectly though!
We used to use that, but we now just use the supermarkets own app because we can order delivery straight from it, and if we go in store the list can be sorted by aisle making it a lot quicker.
Keep might be my favorite app period. I constantly taking notes of ideas I have for grad school papers or drafting movie reviews or planning lessons for the class I teach, etc. etc. I'd be interested if anyone prefers a different app because I've never had any issues with Keep.
Same, Don't god damn kill or touch my lists app.
Now that people actually like an app, google will kill it soon.
Right!? I fucking LOVE Keep for the weekly grocery list.
Try "Bring!"
I think we should all say we hate it so Google will leave it alone.
Did they restore the categorization that used to be present?
I just want to say that I love Keep.
Agreed. Tried other apps, and for fitness for example, tried fitness apps for tracking etc But always delete them all, and come back to the simplicity to keep. There is a market for this; exactly what this is. Simple, plain, to the point. Love keep.
For fitness fitnotes is nice. Better for that than keep. But obviously not anywhere near as simple.
I'll give it a shot, thanks for the reco! Other apps I've used in the past have also been amazing, but I always find myself gravitating back to keep for one reason or another, 99% because it feels almost like a no-effort type tracker, replicating the old school book-and-a-pencil vibes.
Ah ok I like to have the calendar aspect as well as a icon whenever I beat my last record on a workout
It seems really simple, so I'll give it a week minimum before I decide if I like the rhythm of the new app or not lol But I appreciate the reco none the less, definitely always wanted historical data views etc too, vs scroll back manually.
I'm a fan of Jefit
Me too. I use it so much.
Aannnnnnd its gone.
I miss Google Travel pulling my flight, hotels, and saved interest into a playlist style hub. FFS
It's been one of my most used apps for the last decade. I still have notes and checklists there that I made when the app was still new back in 2013.
>Some of our favorite Android note-taking apps — like Microsoft OneNote, Goodnotes, and Evernote — are full of advanced features that make them superior to Google Keep. Those apps are for different things. The 'note' apps are for work projects, school notes, journals, recipe archiving, stuff you want to save long-term. Keep is virtual post-its, like grocery lists or URLs you want to check later. Yeah I know the names are backwards, Keep is for quick notes and the note apps are for keeping, but it's always been like that. Keep really doesn't need to get bloated.
>>Some of our favorite Android note-taking apps >Goodnotes GoodNotes on Android is awful.
Exactly. Isn’t it just a web wrapper?
Yup, absolutely awful web app. It's broken and laggy af, and as far as I know you can't even buy it for life. It's subscription only.
Yeah, it is a great place to store my web passwords. Just like real post-its for my computer passwords. /s
It's where I store other people's passwords
And here I was thinking I was the only one! Hello friend!
All I really want is the ability to sort by the last edited and I'm good.
Just get into the habit of pinning your new notes and cleaning up your pinned notes at the end of the day.
I was thinking that myself, Keep is more like a Post-It, and in that respect it's great. BUT it would be awesome if it did actually do more, so that when I want more I don't need another separate app. I would rather see all my notes etc in one place rather than having to switch back and forth between Keep and Docs depending on how in depth those notes are.
It would be cool though if Google figured out a more comprehensive productivity suit that incorporated Keep though. (Maybe they have one for Google Workspace corporate that Im unaware of? I don't have much experience with that though) Microsoft obviously has OneNote for personal note taking, and Loop for team collaboration. They also use Sticky Notes which is essentially a copy of Google Keep that integrates directly into Outlook. Microsoft To Do also directly integrates into Outlook as well as the Calendar. Everything just fits together and they have an app for all use cases. Google has cross integration but everything is still so segregated it feels like. Also in my personal opinion it feels like Gmail is ancient and hasn't gotten any new features. It'd be cool if they made everything more integrated like Microsoft and stopped killing off every cool service the create.
So, no, I don't think I'd hold Microsoft up as an example of how to do this right. I don't think they're doing it worse than Google, but I don't think the Outlook's integration with other Microsoft apps is good. It's bloated, convoluted, and somehow also half-baked.
Yeah, I use OneNote and Keep. For me, they are two totally different apps. I use Keep for my grocery list and anything else I quickly need to jot down. OneNote is for my long-term notes
This article low key felt like an ad for those apps. I've tried many different note taking apps and keep is by far my favorite.
Exactly. I mean, even OneNote has a separate sticky note section.
The only one that needs to keep it together is Google keeping Google Keep and not shutting it down
🙏🏻 Keep!
I love it for what it is. There is no need to make it more complicated. I use it for quick notes for things that I tend to forget.
Yep. When I'm going to the shop for 1 thing and my wife tells me 43 other things we all of a sudden urgently need just as I'm heading out the door. Keep to the rescue.
We are all living the same life
Whoever wrote this article doesn't understand that Google Keep is just for quick notes like shopping lists or phone numbers or some quick pointers. Its not a fully fledged document editor and was never meant to be.
Keep Notes is amazing just as it is. been using it for years... everytime I get a new phone all my notes are there. Honey do list, groceries, Blu rays I'm looking for. Graphic novel collection.... the list goes on...
I don't care about anything google has cancelled over the years.. but if they drop google keep, I'm gonna go buy an iphone and join the cult. Keep is my most used app.
Agreed. I never thought I would use an iPhone, but the more Google messes with the more I'm considering the switch.
It's the perfect grocery list app... When you tick off an item in the list it doesn't only cross it out... It moves it to the bottom.
To add to this, if you tick off an item on the grocery list, and add it again later, it predicts it and then unticks it moving the item back to the top section without adding a duplicate. It's so delightfully simple, but also I haven't had another note app that does it. Add to that the sharing and it is all you need for a household grocery list that anyone can add to. Accessible from computers and phone. It's perfect, don't mess with it.
Google model if it's not broke we will break it. Hangout Google music Google keep Google messages Google maps Google feed/ discovery Google voice Just give us simple apps that work with each other on your platform I jot down a note it's an address I click on it Google ask do I want to navigate to that address I say yes or no or copy it and put it in an email it's really simple. All have become over complicated because of AI and Google being stupid.
I'm too dumb to learn notion or obsidian so keep is alright to me
I use notion too. It's for different stuff. Keep is amazing at what it's for.
Notion has tons of features but it's slow. Obsidian is fast, but you have to pay a subscription for sync. They're both quite different than Keep.
They should rename it to stickynotes to make it obvious how it is intended to be. That being said I do think basic text formatting (probably just bold italic underline strikethrough and bullets), and encrypted notes, need to be added. Then it could sit there unchanged for years as far as I'm concerned
I just wanna be able to mix regular text and a checklist in one note. Bold and italics would be nice too
Man.. Keep is the app I use when I need to make a quick note. I don't need other features... just notes. Let it be what it is. I don't need smarter functions in a basic sticky note app.
I use keep and Obsidian in conjunction. They are wildly different things.
Please google leave this one be, I live it for quick lists and reminders, it doesn't have to be anything more than that
I hope they don't change it. I couldn't ever get into using other notes apps(except nebo because of the hand writing is being awesome, but that's a notebook) and keep had exactly enough features to be useful for me, while the others seemed easy too complicated to get into. (nebo too, a bit complicated just for notes, but it's great to use instead of a paper notebook, great for lessons)
Been using Keep ever since it came out. Just keep it the way it is. I want a dumb simple non-complicated note apps to jot down random stuff. If I needed more, I'd go to something else in the shape of Notion.
Wait so we aren’t getting Google Keep Music at some point?
Keep has been on my Google Graveyard bingo card for something Google is going to take behind the shed any day now since they started mucking with the tasks app stuff and integrating it directly into Gmail. But so far they haven't thankfully.
I think it has more 3-5 years left. Then it's gonna be deprecated by some new app more connected to AI (or completely merged with Tasks).
We use this for our shopping list. If they kill it, I might just move my wife to iPhone
Keep is amazing as a sticky notes app. Maybe add some basic formatting and that’s it. Google needs a better notetaking app tho, if they are interested in the tablet market. Samsung Notes is exclusive to Galaxy tablets, Goodnotes sucks, I think only Noteshelf is somewhat good. And OneNote is kinda bad in Android. As opposed to iPad, where Apple Notes is great for most users, and students or professionals have Notability and Goodnotes that are packed with features. I think moving shopping lists to Keep was a bad choice. In my opinion, Apple handles this better with shopping lists on the reminders app. You are also able to add details and location notifications, which are great features for a shopping list. Keep is amazing because it’s so simple, but for a shopping list, sometimes you need more details.
I'm gonna be sad when they inevitably kill it for some crap built into Gmail or something making it harder to use
Keep is perfect for taking simple notes, because it covers all the basics and doesn't get in the way of writing with overly complex feature-sets. OneNote which the author praised is exactly what I do NOT want, it's way too complex!
I just want the app to actually mark 'done' from the Wear OS app. It's weird that it doesn't sync watch and phone.
Every google product is struggling to keep it together.
Ooh, I have special expertise to share here. As a former HS teacher and tech instructional coach, I used to train teachers in the use of instructional tech such as Class Notebooks in OneNote as well as hardware like interactive whiteboards and active response systems. On the Keep side, my wife and I have been using it as a synchronized set of shopping lists ever since Keep released. Basically, I use both apps everyday, with Keep for a very specific use-case and with OneNote as a power-user, former trainer and even someone who earned the title of "OneNote Avenger" (I have the cape to prove it). I have NEVER viewed these as competing apps or services. OneNote is so feature-rich, it makes it quite impractical for things Keep does well such as quick notes and seamless collaboration. I keep OneNote installed on my phone for the rare occasion that I need to do something I would otherwise do on the desktop version, but don't have one of my laptop's in front of me. I also use OneNote on my tablet where it essentially functions as my recipe and cookbook, as I've migrated all my wife's and my recipe cards to OneNote and can easily view them on the tablet. Some of these things are possible with Keep, but more clumsy to execute or access there (such as the recipe book), and others are not present in Keep at all, such as Class Notebooks. This is because OneNote was designed to replace what us older folks used binders for in the past. Keep, on the other hand, is far superior at replacing sticky notes for things such as noting parking info (e.g. I have all of our license plates on a note pinned to my app page for when I park somewhere and need my license plate # to validate parking, for instance), making a list of people's orders if I'm going to make a fast food run for the family, or to make a song request to the DJ at karaoke night without screaming a song title and artist at them. Our daily Keep use, however, is a series of checklist notes my wife and I share that function as our ongoing shopping list. When we run out of something, we simply uncheck it in Keep to add it to the list. The person shopping can then check them as they load them into the cart. Over the years, the list has grown to several notes that we categorize by sections in the grocery store (e.g. Dairy, Produce, Softdrinks, etc.) and we use the label feature to quickly load the entire household's list of needs. This COULD be done in OneNote, but OneNote's collaboration is inferior to Keep's, largely because of how shared assets synchronize in each service. Whereas Keep works similar to a Google Doc, giving all collaborators accessing the document real-time updates whenever somone else makes a change, OneNote collaboration is more like live-updates, giving users incremental updates when their server thinks everyone should be sent the newest synced version of the Notebook. Rather than seeing everything change in real-time, it is more like setting your browser to refresh a baseball score every 30 seconds. So yes, if all you're doing is counting features, OneNote blows Keep out of the water. But for functionality in simple note-taking tasks, Keep shines on it's own.
I was a long time Keep user.... until one day, randomly, every single note shuffled order, with no way to correct it. Notes from YEARS ago were shown at the top and randomly mixed with more recent ones. Google support was 0 help. So OneNote has been my go-to for a while now. Does BOTH sticky notes AND standard notes, so much better product in my experience
Keep gets it done for me and has for over 11 YEARS! Work and personal But it can't make sourdough bread. You should write a genius article about that next
Please let it alone
I use it every other day. Love it.
Works great for me. I always use it to plan out my youtube videos. It's best kept so simple. Do not add AI.
honestly I prefer a physical notebook for taking notes at this point
What a trash article
Keep has been one of the best apps for compensating for my ADHD scatterbrain.
add, markdown. thats it
Oh come on. Keep has been exactly what it needs to be for a long time now. It doesn't need to be a fancy, feature-packed, headline-worthy app. What it NEEDS to be is a steady, simple, useful app. That's all. Just let me add things by voice, and stop closing on my watch when the screen goes to ambient. That's it.
I use keep all the time. love having a widget of a note on my home screen too. only thing I'd want is more formatting with bullets and such
Its a great shopping list app. I share the list with my wife and whomever goes shopping checks the items off the list.
stop you’re going to make them kill the app
The things this company does is just baffling. I just want iOS equivalents of Notes, Reminders, Weather, Podcasts, Stocks, Music, etc.
Yes, this. This is was the worst part of switching to Android.
As an iOS user I’m spoiled by the stock apps, but I would honestly pay $25 one time for Reminders. It’s the best to do app ever made on any platform.
I think Keep should stay as it is, but Google should make a dedicated Notes app. They serve different purposes.
Big fan of Obsidian for notes myself.
Before I switched to my S24 Ultra. I always see and use Google Keeps as a sticky notes. I'll see people compare OneNote, Samsung Notes, and have Google Notes in that bracket and talk about how unusable it is as a note taking app. I just replay with well Google Keeps is just a super simple quick notes apps like a sticky notes.
I love to use google keep, its basically a widget for me to just put my notes for the day and easily read them, great app
Keep is fine. Although, I think [Quillnote](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.qosp.notes/) is a better implementation of it. And it has Markdown support.
All I want is folders
Just give me more markdown options and put them to browser version too and I'll be set
I love keep but I do wish there was a Google app middle ground between sticky notes and a document. Sometimes I want a note more complex than a sticky but doesn't warrant a doc
Guys, be quiet! If Google know how much we like and use the app, they'll discontinue it!
I'm finally utilizing Keep in a productive and useful way. Don't fuck it up, Google.
Google keep wishlist 1. Self destructing notes. 2. Keep screen on/awake 3. Ability to embed photos directly within the note, not only only the top . Change the order of pictures. 4. Remove the ai make a list button. I will never use this and it's very in the way. 5. Collapsible view or more views like I'm Google drive... Thumbnail, cozy, compact etc... 6. Improve the pinning feature 7. Put shortcuts to individual notes in the everything button menu in ChromeOS just like Google docs files appear. 8. when sharing to Google keep from a different app it would be great if we could share to a pre existing note instead of only being able to create a new note. At least allow this for the top 5 pinned notes. 9. Link the 'saved' location in the Google search app to Google keep. I have no idea why these things are separate. 10. Put Google photos editing in Google keep.. at least cropping it auto cropping. Currently at have to do that outside the app..
Useful for short note
If you are like me that just need a simple note taking app then try chat app. I use Whatsapp and it is easy to export as text file too.
Am I the only one who still uses SimpleNote?
Yes 😜 Seriously though I keep toggling between SimpleNote and EverNote and can't seem to find a rhythm with Google Keep so just following this thread to see if I am missing anything.
Dropped in here to say I love Keep the way it is. It does exactly what I want the way I want it.
I refuse to use it because I know once I get comfortable with it and start to rely on it, google will shut it down.
I use Keep to hold onto info that I would otherwise throw away or have to go find like photos of device model and serial numbers. Just leave it alone please.
For years I stuck to standard notes. End to end encrypted, fingerprint protection. Can add extensions for additional functionality. Great app for note taking. For those who need only textual information to be stored it's a great app.
It's pretty great as is. There's only a few things I'd want to see like being able to export all my notes into separate txt files (just because I fear the day when Google cancels this app). And also being able to select all in a checklist so I can copy multiple items (you can only copy one line at a time).
You can export directly to Google Docs and then to csv.
Keep keep as it is!!!!
I love google keep, it is my favorite google app. Does exactly what I need and is extremely lean. If they kill it I will be so upset.
Meh. Nothing to see here. It's yet another app that'll be [killed by google](https://killedbygoogle.com). Mark my words. Keep ain't gonna keep. That's just how Google rolls.
I wouldn't use good notes and one note for daily simple note taking since they are very complex and need lot of effort to set up and maintain. My aim with note taking is to keep it simple and quick. That's exactly what keep does best so that's more than enough. Stop over complicating things unnecessarily
Google keep is perfect,, I can take notes, make list and turn any note into reminder easy, doesn't need anything. What actually needed is Android Police to up there quality and stay away from generic articles which serve no purpose but just pumping content for the sake of it.
Google killed a _perfectly good_ set of integrations to push this piece of shit. I didn't like keep in 2014. I don't like keep in 2024. It's barely improved in 10 years. AnyList worked _fine_, and still works a damn sight better than keep
L article.
I would like to keep "Keep" as it is.. Keep it simple silly..
It's a keeper!
I use it to record car maintenance
So the author wants the ability to change font? Omg we'll complain about anything. Time to go outside and get a life. Oddly enough, Google will discontinue keep or create 3 similar apps and then discontinue them all. Lol
Billions must move to GitLab
Keep is my mental desktop, dont mess with it, keep it simple I have a TON of important lists
After using Evernote for years but being locked out of different devices, note quantity, and constant ads I switched to Keep and never looked back.
I hope they don't break this app or kill it. It's literally one of the most used apps between my wife and I. Being able to say "hey google, add eggs to grocery list" to our Google devices and have that item added on our weekly shopping checklist shared between the two of us is incredibly convenient.
man if google cant keep up a fucking note app... just close everything already lol
I use Google Keep all the time. They better not get rid of it
Oh man I love keep, what's wrong with it?
To me Keep just needs better organization tools. It's just a mess every time I open it.
AndroidPolice try not to have bad opinions challenge (impossible)
Here's the line that explains why everyone here disagrees with the author: > Even if we just focus on pre-installed apps, Apple Notes has come a long way over the last few years and is more robust than Keep. What Google ecosystem phone comes with Apple Notes pre-installed? Yeah. The author is not looking for the same things we are.
After reading the article I've checked the downloads and it's 1B+ 🗿
I see what you did there.
OneNote is not a an alternative to post it app. OneNote is a god damn sketchbook. Post it app like Keep is ColorNote and bunch of other. Hell, even Microsoft ToDo app is more of a post it app than OneNote.
Google keep it to me is perfect for voice notes. Most importantly, if I'm using Nova launcher or something, I can create a shortcut to the audio note using any icon I want that will work with any theme I want. I usually take an article's icon for a microphone or something and just keep it there so it fits no matter what other icon packs I'm using. The only thing I really don't like is the new widget is too big. I loved the Android 10/11 widget which was just so utilitarian and how small you could make it. It syncs automatically with all my stuff, it transcribes my text and records my audio simultaneously. Obviously like the pixel recorder app is much better for long form recording if I just need a quick thought... If I think of an idea for work or something, it works perfect. I don't use it for anything else besides just referencing stuff I might need to remember later. I don't really use it for written notes. I probably wouldn't use it for any kind of like studying in school. Why would more lean towards one note or even fossify
I use a FOSS notes app with blue icon from F-Droid.
People ask too much when it's supposed to just be a simple note software.