Made an offline, privacy-first notes app. Would love your thoughts.

Hi everyone,

Over the past few months, I've been building an Android app called Petals because I wanted a notes app that truly respects privacy.

Most note-taking apps today encourage cloud sync, accounts, subscriptions, or AI features. I wanted something much simpler:

• 📝 Create notes quickly
• 🔒 Everything stays on your device
• 📶 Works completely offline
• 🚫 No account required
• 🎤 Record voice notes
• 📷 Attach photos
• 📍 Save locations/maps
• 🔗 Store links and references
• 🎨 Clean Material Design interface

The goal wasn't to compete with feature-heavy apps like Google Keep or Obsidian. Instead, I wanted a lightweight personal journal and notes app that opens instantly and keeps your data private.

Some features I'm planning next:

• Better organization
• More customization options
• Improved search
• Home screen widgets
• Backup/restore improvements

I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from Android users:

• What features are missing?
• What would make you switch to a new notes app?
• Any UI/UX improvements you'd recommend?

If you'd like to try it, here's the Play Store link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=petals.careernotes.com

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any criticism or suggestions are welcome—I'm actively improving the app.

Unlike other productivity apps TaskLoco goes with your flow.

It’s visual and spatial so you can actually focus because you can literally see what you’re doing

TaskLoco is visual sticky-note storyboard for tasks, events, docs, notes, media & files.

Anyone can TRY IT FREE @ (https://www.taskloco.com)

I haven't seen any new app store analytics data since May 1. I updated screenshots and added new features. However, the data hasn't been updated for 3/4 days now.

Is anyone else facing similar issues?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dictawiz-voice-to-text/id6759256382

A few weeks ago I posted here asking what a capture tool would actually need to work for an ADHD brain, because my ideas kept dying in voice memos. It took me a while to come back because the app was stuck in review, but it’s finally out.

Full disclosure, because you’ll work it out from the dates anyway: the app was already built and sitting in App Store review when I asked that question. I didn’t mention it because I wanted honest answers about the problem, not feedback on my thing. Those are different questions and you only get one of them once people know you’re selling something.

So I’m not going to claim this thread shaped what shipped. It didn’t. It shaped how I think about it, and what I build next. That’s the honest version.

The thing I had wrong. I thought the problem was capture. u/DonWithAmerica said voice memos are a nightmare because he can’t be bothered to listen to himself trying to find the right words for concepts still forming in his mind. Recording was never the hard part. Listening back is worse than never recording at all. I’d built the right thing for the wrong stated reason, which is a weird feeling. The app never makes you replay anything: you talk, it comes back as a summary, key points and tasks, and the audio just sits there in case you want it. I’ve replayed maybe three notes in six months.

The workflow that already existed. u/stonetelescope described doing record, transcribe, dump into Gemini, tell it to pull out the gold, put it into Keep. Manually. Every time. That’s my entire product done by hand, which told me two things: the demand is real, and the only thing I’m actually selling is deleting four steps.

The criticism I still can’t answer. u/Raukstar said the tools take away the work you need to put in, so no refinement, no reasoning, no critical thinking. I think that’s the strongest argument against this entire category and I don’t have a clean rebuttal. Where I landed is that there are two kinds of thoughts: ones you need to work out, where paper genuinely wins, and ones you just need to not lose (bring bread, call the dentist back, the thing you promised someone on a call). The second kind doesn’t deserve reasoning. It just evaporates. I only built for the second kind.

The thing I’m actually changing. u/Responsible_Camp_559’s ctrl+i inbox, dumping a thought without losing your place in the branch. Every tool makes you navigate somewhere to write it down, which is exactly the moment you lose the thread you were on. Mine still does this. You have to open the app. That’s the next thing I’m fixing and I wouldn’t have prioritised it if he hadn’t described it that precisely.

What it does: you talk, it transcribes and organizes into a title, summary, key points and tasks with reminders. Works in Arabic and English including mid-sentence switching, which was selfish, I needed that. You can share WhatsApp voice notes into it and get the summary without listening. And you can ask questions across everything you’ve recorded instead of scrolling back.

iPhone only for now. Free for 5 notes a month, paid above that. Notes stay on your device and your iCloud, not in a database of mine.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/actionnote-voice-to-tasks/id6789915282

Not asking for anything. If you want to tear it apart, that’s more useful than upvotes.

UPDATE: somebody actually made it after they saw this post 🥹👏✨

go and check it out! it’s perfect, Thanks you!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductivityApps/comments/1vjtxky/i_was_bored_last_night_and_inspired_by/

…

Hi everyone, I really need help! Please

I've been searching and testing a lot of note-taking apps, but I can't adapt to any of them! I find them all too visually cluttered with too many tools, and I simply can't find one that works for me. I've made some drafts of what I have in mind (but I haven't finished it yet). Does anyone know if there's an app like that? Where I can put a PDF and have the option of space for annotations on the sides? Not above or below, just something that allows me to annotate on the side (either blank or with lines) and the text (PDF) stays in the middle?

I also don't like when one of these note-taking apps has AI; I want something with a simple UX/UI like that.

Please, if you know, let me know because I'm one step away from trying to develop this 😭.

Tbtw i have a lenovo tablet

We are building a free note taking app for students, and we are inviting students & professionals who take notes for longer sessions to share their reviews. This will help us improve the software and contribute to a greater cause.

here is the app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pronotes-notes-pdf/id6785798544

and please join our discord as founding users: https://discord.gg/7MmHbfwq9

note: we do not collect any data from users except feedback about how they feel about the app. Constructive criticism is completely fine.