Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
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Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#2Hi HN! After months of private beta, Obsidian is now finally available for Android and iOS!
Obsidian is a personal knowledge management app that works on top of a local folder of Markdown files [0]. Because "local" often means your computer, for the longest time, it has been a pain to access these notes on the go.
Our original plan was to build fully native mobile apps. Instead, we decided to build hybrid web apps. Hybrid web apps gets a lot of hate, and for good reason. There's heavy performance penalty for running JavaScript. Animations are often janky. A lot of native capabilities are restricted.
We know everyone's favorite argument for using the web stack. "We're a small team, and it's just not possible to....". Sure, we're also just two developers, but that excuse gets old.
We see it in a different way. We leverage hybrid web apps not as a shortcut, rather, we use it to put power in the hands of our users. This has always been a key principle driving Obsidian's development.
Obsidian is one of the few apps out there that lets users customize every aspect of the app. Themes and CSS snippets let users completely change the interface. Plugins [1] let users augment the GUI [2], run macros [3], build databases [4], synchronize with other apps [5], and much more.
It's unprecedented for users to have access to this kind of power on their mobile devices.
Now, it's reality, thanks to the web stack. Get it at https://obsidian.md/mobile
[0]: https://obsidian.md [1]: https://obsidian.md/plugins [2]: https://github.com/liamcain/obsidian-calendar-plugin [3]: https://github.com/SilentVoid13/Templater [4]: https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview [5]: https://github.com/renehernandez/obsidian-readwise
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We have a vibrant community of passionate users: lawyers, database engineers, dungeon masters, medical students, CEOs and CTOs under their alternate identity. You can find them on Discord and our forum at https://obsidian.md/community
We're also launching on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/obsidian-for-mobile
Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#3I'm a note-taking power nerd who has used all the buzzy apps on Macs. Obsidian is by far the best — it's become my personal journal, my knowledge base, a quick and dirty blog, a place to keep loose notes.
The development velocity of the (TWO PERSON!) team behind this app is ridiculous. They're constantly pushing updates, and seem to handle all facets of app development with aplomb.
No affiliation, just a happy user!
Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#4I'm a note-taking power nerd who has used all the buzzy apps on Macs. Obsidian is by far the best — it's become my personal journal, my knowledge base, a quick and dirty blog, a place to keep loose notes. The development velocity of the (TWO PERSON!) team behind this app is ridiculous. They're constantly pushing updates, and seem to handle all facets of app development with aplomb. No affiliation, just a happy user!
Don’t forget their cats!
Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#5I love using Obsidian and it is where all my notes live.
Last year when I was searching for wiki-type note taking tools, I stumbled upon many of them including Roam Research, TiddlyWiki, and then Obsidian. Obsidian is what I chose because of how it stores my data - markdown files.
And it does not lose any functionality even if it uses markdown. Bidirectional linking, block references, heading references, a beautiful graph - Obsidian features almost every feature you need.
It is also very customizable. You can use custom themes and build your own plugins to work better.
Though the only thing I think needs improvement is the outlining ability - it does not feel very intuitive in Obsidian. This is the reason I use LogSeq along with Obsidian. Now this also shows why interoperability is necessary, I do not have to worry about any data lock-in. I am free to use any notes editor along with Obsidian.
Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#6I've absolutely been loving Obsidian since I started using it, which was only 3 months or so ago. But the plugin ecosystem has well and truly hooked me in. It's brilliant that they have a mobile app now, I can easily use it as an inbox/dump now.
The features I'm waiting for (I know they're in development) are the WYSIWYG editor and hopefully some integration with dynalist, the other amazing app from this team. Once that's done and dusted, this will be awesome.
Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#7I am still very surprised that Apple allows this kind of CSS/plugin power. I wonder if the reason is that Obsidian is so popular among a lot of influential iOS users, that rejecting it would be a huge PR disaster. :D
Anyway, it is good to see Obsidian going strong. I am a happy user since the very beginning!
Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#8Obsidian is just too great. They really focused on what matters deeply to the PKM crowd and found an elegant way to serve that need
Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#9How long is the promotional pricing for Obsidian Sync intended to last? From what I've seen of Obsidian Mobile, that's probably the smoothest way to synchronize vaults (understandably so), and I'd like to make sure that pricing isn't something I have to rush testing out the mobile version on.
Re: Show HN: Obsidian for Mobile – Plain-text knowledge base on the go
#10I am still very surprised that Apple allows this kind of CSS/plugin power. I wonder if the reason is that Obsidian is so popular among a lot of influential iOS users, that rejecting it would be a huge PR disaster. :D Anyway, it is good to see Obsidian going strong. I am a happy user since the very beginning!
App Store allows external code if it strictly runs under WebKit and JavaScript Core. There's a few more general restrictions (like the additional functionality must be free or use IAP).