As part of my job as a tech writer, and as part of my ongoing efforts to get organized at some point, I\u2019ve tested a whole pile of note-taking apps<\/a> through the years: the simple, the sophisticated, the quirky, the AI-powered, and on it goes. It\u2019s a popular app category, and there\u2019s no shortage of options.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Amid all these different choices, one of the apps that I find myself regularly coming back to is Google Keep<\/a>. It\u2019s fast and easy to get around, it works on just about any device, and once you dig a little deeper into its colorful sticky note interface, there are plenty of useful features to take advantage of.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Whether you\u2019re a current Google Keep user looking to do more with the app or you\u2019re wondering whether Google Keep has enough to tempt you away from whatever note-taking system you\u2019re using at the moment, these are some of its most appealing features.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Right from the start, the colorful Post-it note look of Google Keep gives you a neat way of arranging your notes: yellow for to-dos and blue for shopping lists, for example, or whatever suits you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are 11 different pastel colors to pick from besides the default white, and on top of that, you\u2019ve got nine background pictures you can use instead, covering themes like celebration, places, recipes, and music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n These backgrounds can be swapped around at any time by clicking on the paint palette icon<\/strong> at the bottom of every note.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Google Keep borrows a trick from Gmail with labels: individual notes can have multiple labels, so something can be tagged with \u201cfamily\u201d and \u201curgent\u201d or \u201cideas\u201d and \u201cvacation.\u201d It\u2019s a handy way of bringing order to your notes, even as their numbers grow into the dozens or hundreds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Labels can help you with searches as well. As you would expect from a Google product, Google Keep has a search function that\u2019s fast and accurate: click inside the search box at the top of the web interface, and you can limit your query to notes that match a certain label (or category or color).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On the web, your labels are listed to the left for easy access. To apply a label on an open note, click the three dots at the bottom of the note, then Add label<\/strong> (or Change labels<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you want to be able to check off items in a list, it\u2019s easy: in an open note, click the three dots<\/strong> (or the plus icon<\/strong> in the mobile app) at the bottom of the note and select Checkboxes<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Google Keep lets you collaborate on notes with other people, too, without the feature ever getting overly complicated. Click the collaborator icon<\/strong> on an open note (the figure with a plus next to it), then enter the email addresses of the contacts you want to share it with. (On the mobile app, you\u2019ll find the icon by clicking on the three dots at the bottom of the screen.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You don\u2019t get to see who makes which edits like you do in Google Docs, but you do get updates when someone makes changes to a note, and you can see at the bottom of each note who your collaborators are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As with collaboration, reminders are a genuinely useful feature implemented in a straightforward way. You can get notifications from the Google Keep app at a specific time or even when you reach a specific place (if you\u2019ve got the mobile apps installed). Reminders can be set to repeat, so you could set up a household chore list that gives you a nudge at the same time every week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n To set a reminder on the web version, just click on the little Remind me<\/strong> icon at the bottom of each note (which looks like a small bell), then set the options as needed. On the mobile version, the icon is at the top of the screen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sometimes, you create a note that you want to be able to find immediately. In that case, you can pin the note to the top of your list by tapping the pin icon at the top of the note. However, be careful about overusing this; I sometimes find that if I pin too many notes, they become just as difficult to find as if I didn\u2019t pin them at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can not only add images to notes using the image icon at the bottom of the note but you can also extract the text from them as well. In the web version, just click the three dots, then Grab image text<\/strong>. In the mobile version, tap the image, then the three dots<\/strong> in the upper right and Grab image text<\/strong>. As long as the letters in the photo or in your drawing are legible enough, you get a copy of them printed underneath \u2014 something that can be very handy if you are, for example, taking a photo of a business card.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can add hand-drawn scribbles. In the web version, click the three dots<\/strong> and then Add drawing<\/strong>; in the mobile version, click the plus icon<\/strong> and Drawing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Notes can be quickly converted into documents in Google Docs by clicking on the three dots at the bottom of a note and choosing Copy to Google Docs<\/strong>. (In the mobile app, click the three dots<\/strong> and select Send > Copy to Google Docs<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are a few additional features that are available in Keep\u2019s mobile apps for Android<\/a> and iOS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nChange the look<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Apply labels to notes<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Make a to-do list<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Collaborate<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Set reminders<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Pin your note<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Grab text from images<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Scribble away<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Turn a note into a Doc<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Mobile app only<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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