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

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

#61

Post by golly_ned »

dewey wrote: post #11

This somehow seems to be a solution in search of a problem. The reason people use self texting is that they _don't_ want to use another app. Not because the existing apps are somehow missing features. > I often defaulted to dumping notes into chat apps like Slack or iMessage What makes you think people think differently about this app? If people wanted all these features they would already all be covered by Apple Not…

I text myself notes, and it’s not because I don’t want to use another app, but because I like the streaming append-only log style of notes. I don’t like how hard it is to search through them stores in iMessage. I’ve thought about building an app like this, just since I haven’t been able to find one. So the problem does exist, though it’s not for you.

And it’s plainly not the case that if people wanted these features they would be built into Apple apps. There is a massive ecosystem of iOS apps for exactly the reason that the Apple apps don’t cover everything. Same for any case where there’s a startup vs. an incumbent.

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

#63

Post by dylan604 »

JohnFen wrote: post #58
eguchi1904 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand your point. For me, though, existing apps like Slack or iMessage were insufficient because, at the end of the day, they aren’t “note-taking apps.” By creating a dedicated note app combined with a chat-style timeline-focused UI, I feel that the speed and quality of note-taking have improved. However, I understand that it might not be for everyone, and I appreciate your feedback!

It is really interesting how different people are in their preferred solutions. The thing that I've learned makes an application good for note-taking is a lack of features. Simplicity is key for this use case for me. Even on the desktop, my "note-taking" app is just notepad on Windows, kwrite in KDE, and a very bare-bones text editor on my phone. None of this is even remotely a criticism of your effort. I was just po…

> The thing that I've learned makes an application good for note-taking is a lack of features.

The best featureless app I've ever used for taking notes is the pen and paper sitting next to me for the specific purpose. Admittedly, it's not convenient at any time other than sitting at the desk and focused. There are plenty of studies about the process of writing notes vs typing notes when it comes to long term retention. There are times where I'm wrestling with a problem that is just a bit more data than my L1 cache (my head) can remember and need to offload some of the data to RAM (scratch pad), but I can just jot down the data without actually looking at it. Even being able to try to sketch data has helped. I have yet to ever find an app even remotely as effective to the point, I'm stopped trying anything else. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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

#64

Post by bayesianbot »

eguchi1904 wrote: post #60
bayesianbot wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though tagging is only available for the (kinda pricey) Premium subscription.

Tagging is actually available for free, so just wanted to correct that.

Huh? I just tried tagging a message, which opens a popup for Telegram Premium. Also web search brings up "Tags are already available to all Telegram Premium users." from Telegram website - it's an old post, but I don't see anything anywhere that says otherwise. Or do you mean #hashtags?

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

#65

Post by havefunbesafe »

dewey wrote: post #11

This somehow seems to be a solution in search of a problem. The reason people use self texting is that they _don't_ want to use another app. Not because the existing apps are somehow missing features. > I often defaulted to dumping notes into chat apps like Slack or iMessage What makes you think people think differently about this app? If people wanted all these features they would already all be covered by Apple Not…

I think the problem was OP wanted to build an app, and the solution was building the app. Totally fine!

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

#66

Post by pdimitar »

golly_ned wrote: post #61
dewey wrote: post #11

This somehow seems to be a solution in search of a problem. The reason people use self texting is that they _don't_ want to use another app. Not because the existing apps are somehow missing features. > I often defaulted to dumping notes into chat apps like Slack or iMessage What makes you think people think differently about this app? If people wanted all these features they would already all be covered by Apple Not…

I text myself notes, and it’s not because I don’t want to use another app, but because I like the streaming append-only log style of notes. I don’t like how hard it is to search through them stores in iMessage. I’ve thought about building an app like this, just since I haven’t been able to find one. So the problem does exist, though it’s not for you. And it’s plainly not the case that if people wanted these features…

Sure, but I just use a personal Telegram channel for this. It's quite well-searchable too, and it serves me 95% perfectly.

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

#67

Post by al_borland »

I used a journal app that worked like this for a little while. I ultimately stopped for a couple reasons.

1. It didn't allow editing of past posts. It was on the roadmap, but never came. To fix a typo or something, I'd have to copy the note, paste, fix, post again, delete the bad one.

2. I was always worried about putting anything important in there, as longevity was always a question. There was an export option, but if I remember correctly, it was in JSON. Which is fine I guess, but the idea of having to write some kind of parser to take that and turn it into something I'd actually want to put into whatever solution I might have in the future kind of annoyed me.

Does your app allow for editing past posts? How is data stored, markdown in a folder I can simply browse, or some kind of DB?

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

#68

Post by ants_everywhere »

I use a variety of note taking systems, but one I use for quick notes is Signal. It's always there, syncs to my devices, I trust the encryption and privacy stance, and it has a reasonable search implementation. As a bonus, I can easily forward notes from other conversations, like reminders my wife sends me.

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

#69

Post by JohnFen »

dylan604 wrote: post #63
JohnFen wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is really interesting how different people are in their preferred solutions. The thing that I've learned makes an application good for note-taking is a lack of features. Simplicity is key for this use case for me. Even on the desktop, my "note-taking" app is just notepad on Windows, kwrite in KDE, and a very bare-bones text editor on my phone. None of this is even remotely a criticism of your effort. I was just po…

> The thing that I've learned makes an application good for note-taking is a lack of features. The best featureless app I've ever used for taking notes is the pen and paper sitting next to me for the specific purpose. Admittedly, it's not convenient at any time other than sitting at the desk and focused. There are plenty of studies about the process of writing notes vs typing notes when it comes to long term retentio…

> The best featureless app I've ever used for taking notes is the pen and paper sitting next to me for the specific purpose.

True! At work, I carry a pencil and small notepad for this reason. But outside of work, I don't always have one at hand and so other methods come into play.

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

#70

Post by kirubakaran »

It looks great! I'm building https://histre.com/ and I find that some people do prefer to use a chat app they're already using. I built a Telegram bot so that they can keep taking notes on Telegram and not have to switch, but still get all the benefits of a real knowledge tool: https://histre.com/features/take-notes-with-telegram/ Perhaps you could build something like that to ease the transition?
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