Android Note taking apps for real time collaboration

fakemishra

fakemishra

Contributor
On iPad, Goodnight worked wonderfully. But on android, though there are a lot of options, they do not have real time sync feature.
There are two that I have tested: Notewise 《 with monthly fee and li.ited storage 》 , One note [ doesn't import pdf in good resolution].

Do you guys know any other good options?
 
desi_gamer said:
neNote has better collaboration features with office 365 subscription. People on the forum share it for less than INR700/yr per account.
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I do have that subscription and you are right- it does let you collaborate real time. However, the problem is in the quality of pdf "imports". They become blurry as you import them in your notebook. Would have been such a great option though.
Madxo said:
Why don't you use googledocs.
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It does not have a pen writing ability
 
Ho
fakemishra said:
I do have that subscription and you are right- it does let you collaborate real time. However, the problem is in the quality of pdf "imports". They become blurry as you import them in your notebook. Would have been such a great option though.

It does not have a pen writing ability
Click to expand...
How about evernote
 
Madxo said:
Ho

How about evernote
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Evernote is the worst of them all- if you consider its stylus support. I liked Zoho Notebook- Indian, cheap and pretty good. But they let you work on pdf. So, in nutshell no use to students per se.

Evernote is more like an organiser with a typing first philosophy. I am looking for 'writing first' app.

If you have Samsung tablet, Samsung notes is a perfect choice
 
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Can you elaborate what you meant by onenote not importing pdf properly?
If possible share a screenshot too.

I prefer to attach a file in onenote, so it can open it with type of tools avani on windows/android.

Real time sync, is amazing at onenote but often it gives issue and become very very pesky, you are adding/editing anything on android/windows which is not all syncing in same note/sticky note.
 
Futureized said:
Can you elaborate what you meant by onenote not importing pdf properly?
If possible share a screenshot too.

I prefer to attach a file in onenote, so it can open it with type of tools avani on windows/android.

Real time sync, is amazing at onenote but often it gives issue and become very very pesky, you are adding/editing anything on android/windows which is not all syncing in same note/sticky note.
Click to expand...
It is a well known issues with Onenote: pdf is inserted as "images" which are very scaled down versions of the original. Essentially you "print" to onenote for inserting pdf and even if you set dpi to 1200, it doesn't make much of a difference.

You are right. With respect to syncing, onenote does work well. But I work with lot of pdf and need to write on the pdf itself- low resolution is pretty irritating to be honest.

I have tested almost all android alternatives to goodnotes and only two fare well: samsung notes and notewise.
 
There are some third party addons which makes working with pdf easier, read on reddit.
You may have to spend some time on r/onenote searching for pdf solutions.
 
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Yes, I have heard of them as well. But I am a linux user and not much has been done in Linux for that. Moreover, reviews of those add ons is not great either. OneNote is what it is. Just not for serious academic guys
 
fakemishra said:
I have tested almost all android alternatives to goodnotes and only two fare well: samsung notes and notewise.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have been using Samsung notes for the past six months now. Have found it hard to migrate to other note taking software despite Samsung notes one glaring shortcoming related to sync availability. It's hard to access the files on a Windows machine if your not running it on a Samsung branded laptop/desktop. Of course there is a registry hack to get Samsung notes running on Windows but the sync doesn't happen properly or atleast it did not sync properly. otherwise I've found it to be ok for note taking. And as you indicated it imports pdf properly and allows you to annotate and write on them pdfs directly.
 
Do you want handwritten notes or typed notes?

If it's the latter then Keep is the simplest, most robust app you can work with. Surprisingly it gets most of the job done.
 
Standard Notes - Cross-platform note taking app. Which i been using it for 2+ years. Unfortunately no real-time collaboration.

But I've found a couple of apps that might fit what you're looking for:

* Turtl (https://turtlapp.com/): This open-source app allows you to share content and features client-side encryption. However, it doesn't seem to offer real-time functionality. The only drawback I noticed is that you need to download the app to access it.
* CryptPad (https://cryptpad.fr/): I'd recommend this one. It's also open-source and uses zero-knowledge encryption, which is a big plus. You can share and edit notes in real-time, and it also offers additional features like sheets and other text views. Both apps are completely free, with optional paid plans if you need more features.
 
Did you try Samsung Notes? It is fantastic! But it requires the other person also to be using a Samsung device and have a Samsung account. There's also Goodnotes on Android. It is being updated, so you might get the sync feature soon!
 
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