Bebop Notes

By chance I came across the iOS note-capturing app Bebop, by Jack Cheng. Jack is making this app with some very interesting and original ideas in mind:

• The app is available for iOS and it has a single field for capturing text based notes, and nothing else. It starts up fast, there is no delay you have to wait for until you can take a note. The focus of the app is on capturing information, and not manage it. You can cycle through your 3 recent notes (8 for the Pro version) with a single tap and then modify text for each note.

   Note

  On my phone, currently the cycle through is not showing notes of captured web page links that are taken with the share function. I´ve contacted Jack to see if there is a way to come around this issue.

   Note

  As of Sep 27, Jack fixed the above issue and even informed me via email. This refers to version 1.1.0 of Bebop Quick Notes, which also has a couple of refinements and new features.

• Each note is stored as a plain text file in the format .txt or .md on the file system, and replicated with the help of iCloud across your devices. Once on your Mac, you can pick them up with any text editor.

• You cannot organize your notes into any kind of structure with the app, because Jack assumes organizing is a job better done on your Mac (he calls the concept BYOMA – Bring Your Own Mac App). You have to decide what app to use for that, in my case, I decided to use iA Writer to pick up the files from Bebop and process them further.

• Other than the mentioned limits, the app is open(minded). You can create as many notes as you want, there is no sign in, no ads, and no tracking. Any kind of data you create is stored on your personal iCloud instance. Bebop is an elegant tiny app, that will not lock you in some sort of magic you cannot get out anymore. I bought the one-time pro version to have the share extension, which allows to create Bebop notes from anywhere, where sharing is possible. E.g., I capture links of interesting websites this way and process them later into my blog-writing.

Jack describes his design process in An iOS App for Capturing Notes as Text Files.

I’ve long relied on quick text notes for capturing fleeting ideas. I’ve tried almost every notes app imaginable, from Apple Notes to Evernote to Bear and Obsidian. What’s worked best for me is a combination of two things: 1) a speedy way of searching, reviewing, and organizing notes from my Mac and 2) a phone interface dedicated to – or rather, singularly obsessed with – capture.