Wednesday App Review: Google Keep

Keep

I am a compulsive note taker. I simply can’t help it–there are so many things going on, I just feel the need to write them down so I don’t forget something. I even have color-coded notebooks at my desk for taking personal vs. work-related notes. By the end of the day, it’s pretty normal for me to have anywhere from three to five slips of paper in my pocket and two to three tacked up on the wall, all covered in little notes, lists and memos to myself. Some of them are legible and make sense, like: “pick up eggs.” Others are neither, and were probably written by aliens. Most of them end up lost by the time I actually need them, and all of them are inconvenient. That was before I decided to try Google Keep for this week’s review. Now, I have a dozen legible color-coded notes all saved safely on my smartphone and it’s awesome. Of course, I might be a little biased. Anything that keeps me from having a shower of notes fall out of my pocket like bread crumbs throughout the day is a total win in my book. screenshot keepGoogle Keep lets you can create several different kinds of notes including text, photo, voice recording (with transcription) and lists. The text is the one I use the most, although being able to snap a photo, write a quick memo and save it will be incredibly useful when shopping. Also, the lists have little boxes you can check to digitally cross off the item; an action that is surprisingly satisfying. The app allows users to set reminders attached to notes, which will show up in your notifications. Reminders can be location based or simply set to a date and time. The interface of Google Keep is incredibly smooth and sleek without a ton of confusing bells and whistles to distract from the actual nature of the program. It is a note taking app–nothing more, nothing less. You can label your notes and color code them to find them quickly. Swipe them away to the archive when you’re done, or delete them entirely. Like most things Google, this app is very well executed and is extremely intuitive. When it first debuted in 2013, a lot of people slammed Google Keep because it doesn’t have as much connectivity and options as other similar apps like Evernote or OneNote, although it does allow for sharing of notes via email, text, Facebook or other cloud drives. But despite that, Google Keep isn’t trying to be Evernote or OneNote. What it is trying to be is a simple note app that allows for easy  memos. And it succeeds. With the widget embedded on one of my home screens, I can swipe to the right and with one click start tying a new note in. No signing in, no waiting for anything to sync–it’s so elegant you almost don’t even notice it. It’s almost as simple as a piece of paper with the added bonus of, ya know, NOT being a piece of paper. As another bonus, all notes from Google Keep are saved to Google Drive, so they can be accessed from anywhere you have internet. There is also a Google Chrome extension and a website to complete the Google ecosystem. Google Keep is not available for iPhones but is available in app form for Android users. There are also a couple hacked versions that are not associated with Google available on the Windows Store, but I’d be cautious about them as they don’t’ have Google’s backing or support. However, anyone who can access the internet can use Google Keep via this page. The Android app is completely free to use, as is the connecting website. To sum it up: If you are a note-taker with an Android and you don’t have Google Keep, then I don’t know what you’re doing with your life. Go download it, and I promise you won’t be sorry. ]]>

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