Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#1

Post by eguchi1904 » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 11:54 AM UTC

This project began when I realized that despite trying many fantastic note-taking apps, I often defaulted to dumping notes into chat apps like Slack or iMessage. I wanted to bring that effortless “text yourself” note-taking experience to a dedicated note-taking app.

Originally developed as a macOS app, Strflow is now also available for iOS. Strflow is designed to make note-taking as quick and intuitive as possible, centered around a chronological timeline UI.

Here are some of its features:

* Tag system

* Rich editor with text formatting, images, and note linking

* Global shortcuts for quick access

* Share extension

* Encrypted iCloud backup & synchronization (becomes end-to-end encryption if you enable iCloud’s Advanced Data Protection)

Hope you find Strflow interesting. I’m happy to answer any questions.

## Some implementation details some of you might be interested in:

* The app is implemented natively using Swift.

* On macOS, it’s based on AppKit, and on iOS, it uses UIKit, with SwiftUI used partially.

* The editor intensively utilizes TextKit.

* The sync engine is custom-built using CloudKit.

Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves
strflow.app

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#2

Post by enriquto » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:06 PM UTC

You will take self-texting from my cold, dead hands.

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#3

Post by csmeyer » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:08 PM UTC

I’ve been in the habit of emailing myself a lot, I’m excited to give this a try! I had thought of building this myself, so I’m glad I don’t have to :-)

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#4

Post by ramon156 » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:10 PM UTC

The whole point of self texting is that its easy, quick and just works. If I don't have an apple product, I already can't access this app. Cool idea but not very useful when the labor is there.

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#5

Post by maxpage » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:10 PM UTC

There is something in it. I find myself often sending notes to myself on various social media messaging apps :)

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#6

Post by AlecSwanky » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:11 PM UTC

Sounds great, I would use this. Will there be an android version?

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#7

Post by attilakun » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:13 PM UTC

ramon156 wrote: post #4

The whole point of self texting is that its easy, quick and just works. If I don't have an apple product, I already can't access this app. Cool idea but not very useful when the labor is there.

What's the labor?

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#8

Post by TuringNYC » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:16 PM UTC

whatsapp's and slack's text-myself was such a killer-feature for me! however, i think that was because i was already inside those apps constantly.

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#9

Post by compootr » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:18 PM UTC

This sounds like memos[0] with the asterisk that I must pay the apple corporate overlords to use it, trust you with my data, and ultimately lock myself into what you allow me to do with my data

memos is FOSS, and I run it on my machine, without the need to trust you. it also has a nifty API around it

[0]: https://usememos.com/

Re: Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves

#10

Post by PMunch » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 1:19 PM UTC

Haven't heard of self-texting before, didn't even know it was possible. But I've been having a similar idea to this based off-of writing in a physical notebook. Basically my notes there end up sequentially, and I was missing this with my digital tools. My idea however was more of a "book mode" for a regular note-taking app where notes would be placed one after another on a long scrolling page.