As a part of my job as a tech author, and as a part of my ongoing efforts to get organized in some unspecified time in the future, I’ve examined an entire pile of note-taking apps by the years: the easy, the delicate, the quirky, the AI-powered, and on it goes. It’s a well-liked app class, and there’s no scarcity of choices.
Amid all these totally different decisions, one of many apps that I discover myself usually coming again to is Google Keep. It’s quick and simple to get round, it really works on nearly any gadget, and when you dig a little bit deeper into its colourful sticky observe interface, there are many helpful options to benefit from.
Whether or not you’re a present Google Hold consumer seeking to do extra with the app otherwise you’re questioning whether or not Google Hold has sufficient to tempt you away from no matter note-taking system you’re utilizing in the mean time, these are a few of its most interesting options.
Proper from the beginning, the colourful Publish-it observe look of Google Hold offers you a neat method of arranging your notes: yellow for to-dos and blue for purchasing lists, for instance, or no matter fits you.
There are 11 totally different pastel colours to choose from in addition to the default white, and on prime of that, you’ve obtained 9 background footage you need to use as a substitute, overlaying themes like celebration, locations, recipes, and music.
These backgrounds will be swapped round at any time by clicking on the paint palette icon on the backside of each observe.
Google Hold borrows a trick from Gmail with labels: particular person notes can have a number of labels, so one thing will be tagged with “household” and “pressing” or “concepts” and “trip.” It’s a helpful method of bringing order to your notes, whilst their numbers develop into the handfuls or lots of.
Labels will help you with searches as properly. As you’ll anticipate from a Google product, Google Hold has a search operate that’s quick and correct: click on contained in the search field on the prime of the net interface, and you may restrict your question to notes that match a sure label (or class or shade).
On the net, your labels are listed to the left for straightforward entry. To use a label on an open observe, click on the three dots on the backside of the observe, then Add label (or Change labels).
Now you can format your textual content in each the Android and web versions of Hold. You may make it daring, italicized, underlined, or crossed out; you may as well change the scale to an H1 or H2 heading. Search for the icon with an underlined A on the backside of the observe. (Sadly, this isn’t but out there within the iOS model.)
If you need to have the ability to test off objects in a listing, it’s straightforward: in an open observe, click on the three dots (or the plus icon within the cellular app) on the backside of the observe and choose Present checkboxes. (If you happen to determine you don’t need them, you possibly can return and choose Disguise checkboxes.)
Google Hold allows you to collaborate on notes with different folks, too, with out the characteristic ever getting overly sophisticated. Click on the collaborator icon on an open observe (the determine with a plus subsequent to it), then enter the e-mail addresses of the contacts you wish to share it with. (On the cellular app, you’ll discover the icon by clicking on the three dots on the backside of the display screen.)
You don’t get to see who makes which edits such as you do in Google Docs, however you do get updates when somebody makes modifications to a observe, and you may see on the backside of every observe who your collaborators are.
As with collaboration, reminders are a genuinely helpful characteristic carried out in a simple method. You may get notifications from the Google Hold app at a selected time and even while you attain a selected place (if you happen to’ve obtained the cellular app put in). Reminders will be set to repeat, so you would arrange a family chore listing that offers you a nudge on the identical time each week.
To set a reminder on the internet model, simply click on on the little Remind me icon on the backside of every observe (which appears like a small bell), then set the choices as wanted. On the cellular model, the icon is on the prime of the display screen.
Generally, you create a observe that you really want to have the ability to discover instantly. In that case, you possibly can pin the observe to the highest of your listing by tapping the pin icon on the prime of the observe. Nonetheless, watch out about overusing this; I generally discover that if I pin too many notes, they turn into simply as tough to search out as if I didn’t pin them in any respect.
You cannot solely add pictures to notes utilizing the picture icon on the backside of the observe however you may as well extract the textual content from them as properly. Within the internet model, simply click on the three dots, then Seize picture textual content. Within the cellular model, faucet the picture, then the three dots within the higher proper and Seize picture textual content. So long as the letters within the photograph or in your drawing are legible sufficient, you get a replica of them printed beneath — one thing that may be very helpful if you’re, for instance, taking a photograph of a enterprise card.
You possibly can add hand-drawn scribbles. Within the internet model, click on the three dots after which Add drawing; within the cellular model, click on the plus icon and Drawing.
Notes will be shortly transformed into paperwork in Google Docs by clicking on the three dots on the backside of a observe and selecting Copy to Google Docs. (Within the cellular app, click on the three dots and choose Ship > Copy to Google Docs.)
- You possibly can document voice notes by tapping on the plus icon on the backside of the display screen after which Audio (Android) or tapping the plus icon after which Recording (iOS). The created observe may have each the audio file as an embed and the transcript of the audio because the accompanying textual content. This may be particularly helpful if it is advisable shortly document a thought for later use; if in case you have the Hold Fast seize widget in your homescreen, you possibly can faucet it or say “Google, take a observe” to document your new observe.
- You can too add a photograph to an open observe by tapping the plus icon after which Take photograph. If you wish to begin a brand new observe with a photograph, simply faucet the plus icon on the backside of the display screen, faucet Picture, and choose both Take photograph (for a brand new photograph) or Select picture (to pick out one out of your photograph gallery).
Replace June fifth, 2025: This text was initially revealed on October sixteenth, 2019, and has been up to date to account for modifications within the OS and so as to add further options.