Simplenote is a

note-taking Note-taking (sometimes written as notetaking or note taking) is the practice of recording information from different sources and platforms. By taking notes, the writer records the essence of the information, freeing their mind from having to Reca ...

application with

Markdown Markdown is a lightweight markup language for creating formatted text using a plain-text editor. John Gruber created Markdown in 2004 as an easy-to-read markup language. Markdown is widely used for blogging and instant messaging, and also used ...

support. In addition to being accessible via most

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

s, cross-platform apps are available on Android, Linux, Windows, iOS, and macOS. Simplenote has an externally accessible

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

, allowing other clients to be written:

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Dashboard widget DashNote; nvPY, a cross-platform Simplenote client; amongst others. In addition, the macOS program Notational Velocity and the

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

utility ResophNotes can also sync with Simplenote.

History

Simplenote was originally developed by Simperium in 2008. Simplenote Premium was introduced on November 23, 2009. It removed ads and added extra features such as syncing Simplenote with

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropbox w ...

Automattic Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company most notable for WordPress.com and its contributions to the WordPress system. The company was founded in 2005. Automattic's brands and products include WordPress.com, Akismet, Gra ...

acquired Simperium and Simplenote on January 24, 2013. In September, Automattic released an Android version and later relaunched Simplenote, which suspended the premium service and removed ads for all users. In May 2016, an official client for Linux for Simplenote was released. Automattic open sourced code for its Android, Electron, iOS, and macOS Simplenote apps in August 2016, making all its client apps open source.

Reception

The application was reviewed by '' Mac Life, and others'', reviewed in the book ''Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better'', and covered in the book ''The Business of iPhone and iPad App Development''. Daniel Aleksandersen of Ctrl.blog said:

I like Simplenote and I use it every day. I’m not super-happy about the many tiny issues and inconsistencies, but it’s one of the better note-taking platforms available. Simplenote’s many apps need to iron out their differences and become a little more uniform. The differences mostly seem to be caused by one team not knowing/caring what the other was doing. The features and design are excellent but the execution isn’t uniform across platforms and leaves something to be desired on all of them.I’d recommend Simplenote to pretty much anyone, but with the caveat that they’d take the time to learn about note-recovering methods (restore-from-trash, revision history, backups, hope) before committing to the platform.

References

External links

* * {{Automattic Inc. Android (operating system) software Automattic Free note-taking software Freeware IOS software Linux MacOS text-related software Note-taking software Windows text-related software