Beta. The iPhone & iPad app is in beta and not on the App Store yet. Leave your email on the home page to get access.

The Orb

The Orb at the bottom of the screen opens the menu: Search, Latest, actions on this note (Share, Attach, Sketch, Lock, Read-Only, Archive, Read aloud, Widget, Delete) and new notes from the clipboard, an image, the camera or audio.

Updated for iOS 1.65

The Orb

Design Intent: One control at the bottom of the screen, under your thumb, instead of a toolbar across the top. Everything that is not typing starts at the orb.

Opening the menu

  • Tap the Orb to open the panel. Tap the Orb again, tap the dimmed background, or run an action to close it. It also closes when the keyboard comes up.
  • While it is open, two side orbs appear: Settings on the left and New note on the right.

The destination bar

  • The capsule between the panel and the Orb switches between Ephemeral notes (your stack) and Slotted notes (nine permanent notes — see Slotted notes).
  • Two chips sit beside it: The Void (deleted notes) and Archived (opens Search with the archive filter and the caret in the search field).

The actions

  • Antinote: Search, Keep on / Allow sleep (keeps the phone from dimming or sleeping while Antinote is open; it stays on until you turn it off, even across launches), Latest / First. Latest jumps to the newest note; press and hold it and it becomes First, which jumps to the oldest note in your stack. The tile keeps whichever you chose last, across launches and your other iOS devices, until you press and hold it again. On a wide iPad window Search opens as a sidebar beside the note rather than a sheet — see Search.
  • Toggles that are on — Keep on, Lock, Read-Only, Archive, Lock screen, Billboard — show as a filled button, with the label naming what the next tap does.
  • With a hardware keyboard or the Apple Pencil the Quickbar docks at the bottom of the screen with no keyboard under it; the Orb and the planets lift to sit above the bar, and come back down when it goes.
  • While the tutorial space is open, a Leave tutorial capsule in the theme's warning colour sits above the panel (on an iPhone in landscape, New note from gets its own panel to the left and Leave tutorial sits under it, so nothing scrolls) — see Getting started.
  • This note: Share, Attach (see Attachments), Sketch, Lock / Unlock, Read-Only / Allow Edits, Archive / Unarchive, Read aloud, Widget (pin the note to a widget), Lock screen / Unpin (the note on the lock screen as a Live Activity — see Widgets), Billboard / Exit billboard, Delete.
  • Sketch opens a blank canvas for your Apple Pencil (or a finger) with the standard pen, pencil, marker and eraser, and room in every direction — pinch to zoom, drag to move around. Done trims the drawing to what you drew and attaches it to the note as an image. Tap that attachment later and the canvas comes back with every stroke still editable; Done saves over the same attachment. The Sketch button is also available for the quickbar, and under Attach's options.
  • Billboard shows the note as a sign: its text in the largest size that keeps everything on screen, re-fitting when you turn the phone — for holding up at arrivals. It is per note and sticks until you exit it; an empty note can't become one. Nothing is editable in a billboard, the keyboard stays down and your text size is ignored. The Orb keeps out of the sign's way: tap the screen to bring it up for a few seconds (tap again while it is showing and a pill says "Turn off billboard mode to edit."). Swiping between notes still works.
  • New note from: Clipboard (greyed out when the clipboard has no text), Image, Camera, Audio.
  • Delete asks "Delete this note?" unless you have turned the confirmation off. Deleted notes go to The Void.
  • Audio, Image, Camera, Widget, Lock screen and Read aloud carry a crown once the trial ends — they are part of the Lifetime license.

Swiping the Orb

  • Swipe up on the Orb for a new note, right to go to the latest note, and left to enter Select mode. Up-left, up-right, down and press-and-hold are free for you to assign — any action or Quickbar button — in Settings › Gestures; a swipe with nothing assigned opens the menu like a tap. See Gestures.