I’ve been putting together a Chrome extension for Google Keep that basically adds an unlimited tagging layer on top of Keep notes and searches.

You can:

• create your own custom tags
• group/manage tags
• instantly search combinations of tags
• save complex searches
• one-click insert tags/dates into note titles
• sync your tags/searches across Chrome browsers

The tags are just plain text added to your notes, so they remain searchable/exportable even outside the extension. So in reality, you dont even need to use this extension - it just makes this method a bit quicker.

Example note title:
2026-05-15 - Vendor Followup // ##tasks ##vendor ##waiting
(Our extension can quick add today's date at the start of the title, and then the tag collection after. I stick to working in the title field so we're not fighting against note types - like checklists).

Since Keep is quick to search, we merely just work with the URL to provide 'tag search' results. My extension doesn't read your notes and the only data saved is the tags (saved to google servers for the sync feature).

I originally built this for myself, but just curious if there’s interest from other Keep users before I spend more time polishing it up.

https://preview.redd.it/6rvjb6qynj1h1.png?width=624&format=png&auto=webp&s=3f50e4a14f128d22e9b552da55f192aa993c5f47

I’ve added a specific rule to my Instructions for Gemini telling Gemini to "always search my Google Keep notes before answering questions."

However, it seems to ignore this instruction entirely. It only retrieves information from my Keep notes if I explicitly command it to do so in the chat (e.g., "Search my keep notes for..."). If I just ask a general question that relates to my notes, it doesn't trigger the tool automatically.

Any workarounds or prompt engineering tips would be appreciated!

So I’ve been using Google keep for 4 years now. I’m a heavy user. Some days, I spend 10–12 hours on Google Keep.

I like Google Keep because of its simplicity and reliability.

But there haven’t been any visible changes in Google Keep for a long time. I’d honestly be ready to pay a few dollars ($4–5) every month if I could get some new features.

Features I want

1. Better search
2. More labels (no cap)
3. Smaller grids (so it’s possible to see 30–40 notes at once)
4. Nested folders/categories. For example: Business folder (main)
   • Business questions
   • Business execution
   • Office insights
   • Product management questions
   • Design questions
   • etc.

I don’t really need anything else at the moment.

I was thinking that replicating Google Keep for my own needs wouldn’t be that hard.

But while replicating it, a lot of developers miss the things that make Google Keep good:

1. Simplicity (no headache or slowness like Notion)
2. Extremely fast
3. Reliability

I’ve been building software for 5 years now. I can probably build a usable product in 2 weeks. But building something when no one is using it feels shitty.

How many of you are fed up with Google Keep and want a tool like this?

I’ll be honest - I would copy the Google Keep web UI because, in my opinion, they’ve already cracked it. It’s just so simple and easy to use.

List down your frustrations with Google Keep and the kind of features you want.

I’m not interested in building RAG, graph systems, AI memory for notes, etc. There are already too many note-taking apps in the market. None of them solve my actual problem, so those second-layer features are out of the conversation for now.

Also, would you be willing to pay around $1–2 per month? I’d need a VPS to host the backend.

The 4 sloth sticker images below appeared at the top of a private google keep note I have titled "ai engineering" without my doing. According to the note, it says "Last edited May 3, 2026". I noticed the image May 8.

https://preview.redd.it/snmbowkogc0h1.png?width=1214&format=png&auto=webp&s=679b91c1565e4497fea6cd7aabc1238d929de333

There are no links/urls in the keep note's content or ever in it as far as I recall. This would have been the simplest explanation, but the content is just plaintext and bullet points.

Could this be a syncing glitch on Google Keep's side / an extremely rare distributed systems problem? The note is private, not shared with any collaborators, and my laptop should not have been exposed to anyone afaik...

I'm worried about security of the notes I have.

Misc.: The images are apparently from an old sticker set someone made for the Google Allo app a long time ago.

FYI I made a post in a google community page about it too, but it got marked "irrelevant content" which doesn't make sense to me: https://support.google.com/docs/thread/431891429?hl=en&sjid=585520018553207575-NA

I saw a similar post made a year ago that has the same sloth, but their conclusion that someone edited it can't be my same issue because my note is private. Very strange that it is the same sloth sticker style: https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleKeep/comments/1esecgp/weird_image_at_top_of_keep_document/