Top 5 Free Note Taking Apps for Your Smartphone

Smartphones have eliminated the need to carry a number of things that we otherwise find necessary to take along. For instance, I’ve always used to carry a notebook with me to jot down a thought or idea wherever I have one.

However, now that there are note-taking apps available on smartphones, carrying a notebook has become history.

Like any other utility app, you can find note-taking apps in quite a variety offering different features. But where there’s a problem, there’s a solution, and the solution to this problem is the following list of the best free note-taking apps.

These apps have plenty of great features to better organize your notes and offer compatibility with multiple platforms. Let’s dig into the details.

Evernote

Being one of the first and most famous in this category, Evernote is almost synonymous to note-taking apps. It is available on multiple platforms and offers you to sync your notes across these platforms so you can have access to all your notes from any device you work from.

You can also add notes in the form of pictures and share them with anyone through email or Facebook. You can learn more about Evernote tips here.

Download Evernote for: Android | iOS | Windows

Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking app for Microsoft Office fans. With Microsoft OneNote, you can view your MS Excel files and Powerpoint slides, and graphs on your phone. To edit the files, open Office Web Apps on your phone’s browser and you can change text, create tables, make slides and perform many other functions offered by MS Office.

With OneNote, you can also access all your notes on your mobile devices if you sync them to your Skydrive account. The Microsoft OneNote app is free for both iOS and Android but you’re limited to only 500 notes, after 500 notes you need to purchase the unlimited version for $4.99.

Download Microsoft OneNote for: Android | iOS | Windows

AudioNote 2

AudioNote is a handy note-taking app that synchronizes audio recording with note-taking. In other words, the notes you type in by hand match up with the time stamps in the audio recording. For example, if you insert the note at minute 2:21, when you press to view the note, it will play the recording at that second.

You can add images too in place of text and sync AudioNote to Dropbox or iCloud. The free version of AudioNote offers you a maximum of 5 minutes of recording. To record longer than 5 minutes, you need to upgrade AudioNote for $4.99.

Download AudioNote 2 for: Android | iOS

Google Keep

Google Keep is a note-taking app from Google with a very simple interface. You only need to insert the title and the note to create a new note. You can also add an image to the note and a color to differentiate your notes.

So far, there is no dedicated Google Keep app for iOS. For Android, however, there is a handy widget with which you can have faster access to create or check your notes. There’s also speech-to-text feature where you just need to tap on the microphone and dictate your notes for safekeeping.

Download Google Keep for: Android | iOS

SomNote

SomNote is a user-friendly note-taking web app where you can create multiple notes, attach media files or documents and sort them up in multi-colored folders. If you are going to store a lot of notes, SomNote offers 100MB of free cloud storage for every account. Plus, with a registered account you can sync all your notes on any device you run the app on.

SomNote allows you to access different multiples of saved notes in case you mess up the most recent ones. Lastly, the thing I found most interesting is that you can secure your notes by encrypting them with a 4-digit password. How cool!

Download SomNote for: Android | iOS

Bonus: 2 More

Any.DO

Any.Do is a reminder (to-do) plus note taking app. It has an alarm reminder that can be set to ring only once or recurringly and also has a speak feature if you do not want to type.

You can arrange your notes according to dates, store them in folders or (for Android) you can pin your notes on your home screen. Interestingly, when you don’t need the notes, or you have completed all the tasks, you can delete them by shaking your phone.

Download Any.DO for: Android | iOS

Awesome Note 2

Awesome Note doubles as a task management app. You can create folders and change the color, icon and privacy settings for each folder as required. For those who like to personalize their notes, they can choose from 48 different fonts to create their notes in and add images or map locations in the note.

Awesome Note also offers you to attach alarms with your notes to remind you about the tasks you’ve set. Sync your notes via Google or your Evernote account, and if you are a Samsung Galaxy Note, user the app comes pre-installed in your device. Apart from that, it is supported only on iOS.

Download Awesome Note 2 for: iOS