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Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves (strflow.app)

219 points by eguchi1904 ↗ HN
This project began when I realized that despite trying many fantastic note-taking apps, I often defaulted to dumping notes into chat apps like Slack or iMessage. I wanted to bring that effortless “text yourself” note-taking experience to a dedicated note-taking app.

Originally developed as a macOS app, Strflow is now also available for iOS. Strflow is designed to make note-taking as quick and intuitive as possible, centered around a chronological timeline UI.

Here are some of its features:

* Tag system

* Rich editor with text formatting, images, and note linking

* Global shortcuts for quick access

* Share extension

* Encrypted iCloud backup & synchronization (becomes end-to-end encryption if you enable iCloud’s Advanced Data Protection)

Hope you find Strflow interesting. I’m happy to answer any questions.

## Some implementation details some of you might be interested in:

* The app is implemented natively using Swift.

* On macOS, it’s based on AppKit, and on iOS, it uses UIKit, with SwiftUI used partially.

* The editor intensively utilizes TextKit.

* The sync engine is custom-built using CloudKit.

207 comments

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enriquto
You will take self-texting from my cold, dead hands.
benoliver999
Signal has a 'note to self' function and it's perhaps a sad reality that this is my most contacted person
csmeyer
I’ve been in the habit of emailing myself a lot, I’m excited to give this a try! I had thought of building this myself, so I’m glad I don’t have to :-)
rolfus
I'm also emailing myself a lot. It works well but every time I do it it feels wrong and shameful. Like, I know there are better solutions but I just won't make the effort.
eguchi1904
I’m glad to hear that. I’m relieved we didn’t end up releasing competing apps!
ramon156
The whole point of self texting is that its easy, quick and just works. If I don't have an apple product, I already can't access this app. Cool idea but not very useful when the labor is there.
attilakun
What's the labor?
vidyesh
Using yet another app.

I use Obsidian, OneNote for note taking and I can easily create a note just for taking quick notes when using my phone but I still self text on multiple messaging apps because those are something I already use, they are quick and simple.

Having yet another note taking app just puts my reliance on that app and keeps it for a purpose, it also becomes a barrier of sorts for me to enter quick text, that I now need to do it on separate new app/platform.

dougdimmadome
I get your argument but I see real value here.

Texting yourself is an imperfect solution to the problem. Note taking apps like obsidian also have "labor" in that you have to pick a location for your note, maybe navigate a folder structure etc. This is a "stream" of notes which is closer to how some of us work. I sort of want my reminders to disappear upwards into the past and not clog my interface, but still be searchable.

maxpage
There is something in it. I find myself often sending notes to myself on various social media messaging apps :)
AlecSwanky
Sounds great, I would use this. Will there be an android version?
toyg
> The app is implemented natively using Swift [...] On macOS, it’s based on AppKit, and on iOS, it uses UIKit, with SwiftUI used partially.

So I guess the answer is likely to be no.

eguchi1904
Thank you! I’d love to work on an Android version if time permits, but currently, it’s a lower priority compared to adding other features. Sorry about that.
TuringNYC
whatsapp's and slack's text-myself was such a killer-feature for me! however, i think that was because i was already inside those apps constantly.
compootr
This sounds like memos[0] with the asterisk that I must pay the apple corporate overlords to use it, trust you with my data, and ultimately lock myself into what you allow me to do with my data

memos is FOSS, and I run it on my machine, without the need to trust you. it also has a nifty API around it

[0]: https://usememos.com/

toyg
A self-hosted docker-based system has a different audience from an Apple AppStore app. Don't be that "dropbox is just ftp and rsync" guy.
quaintdev
Love memos. I've it running on my Pi server and it's really good. It doesn't get in the way of note taking. After a while you forget about app itself and just get used to the interface for noting things down.
PMunch
Haven't heard of self-texting before, didn't even know it was possible. But I've been having a similar idea to this based off-of writing in a physical notebook. Basically my notes there end up sequentially, and I was missing this with my digital tools. My idea however was more of a "book mode" for a regular note-taking app where notes would be placed one after another on a long scrolling page.
dewey
This somehow seems to be a solution in search of a problem. The reason people use self texting is that they _don't_ want to use another app. Not because the existing apps are somehow missing features.

> I often defaulted to dumping notes into chat apps like Slack or iMessage

What makes you think people think differently about this app?

If people wanted all these features they would already all be covered by Apple Notes (Including the quick note feature, included in the OS when you mouse into the bottom right corner of your screen) but for free, encrypted and synced to all devices.

hnbad
Another benefit is that self texting means you have access to your notes wherever you have access to your messages. Using another app makes that more tedious.
HarHarVeryFunny
Yeah - another place to have to check for messages seems to be cluttering mindspace rather than helping.

What might be useful, if done well, would be adding tags to messaging similar to GMail's use of tags in lieu of folders, as a way of grouping related messages (e.g. notes to self). OTOH, maybe with message search, perhaps "AI" assisted, it might not be needed.

One use case for this sort of occasional "notes to self" and later search/gathering that I've been thinking of recently is for a shopping list, but it would have to involve basically zero effort to be useful. The idea would to allow you to say things like "shopping list: milk, bread", then next day "shopping list: cat food", then next day "show shopping list", or something similar.

hartator
Yeah, Slacking one-self is reassuring because you Lonnie it won’t be lost or forgotten.
eguchi1904
I understand your point. For me, though, existing apps like Slack or iMessage were insufficient because, at the end of the day, they aren’t “note-taking apps.” By creating a dedicated note app combined with a chat-style timeline-focused UI, I feel that the speed and quality of note-taking have improved.

However, I understand that it might not be for everyone, and I appreciate your feedback!

Dwolb
Honestly I love the direction and I do this all the time.

If you could 1) integrate directly with iMessage so I'm literally just texting and 2) have your interface provide me some sort of LLM summary tool/weekly digest/remind me of things smartly (I dunno it's up to you to figure out), I'd probably do this.

eguchi1904
Thank you! 2) is an interesting idea. I plan to add functionalities that can smartly suggest and categorize notes in the future. Thanks for the suggestion!
bozhark
What did I do last year?

Last month?

Last week?

How does that correlate with what’s ahead?

Something like that would keep me from relearning the same stuff over and over would be very helpful. I suffer from a TBI and do my recall/remember well. Whenever I do technical work, I have to constantly relearn steps. Would be nice to have those steps easily accessible, without effort from the user.

gagik_co
My app tetr https://tetr.app has a couple of the things you mention, although not LLM based yet it does support alternative views and summaries (as well as special UI for tasks).
JohnFen
It is really interesting how different people are in their preferred solutions. The thing that I've learned makes an application good for note-taking is a lack of features. Simplicity is key for this use case for me. Even on the desktop, my "note-taking" app is just notepad on Windows, kwrite in KDE, and a very bare-bones text editor on my phone.

None of this is even remotely a criticism of your effort. I was just pondering how different people can be in their needs.

dylan604
> The thing that I've learned makes an application good for note-taking is a lack of features.

The best featureless app I've ever used for taking notes is the pen and paper sitting next to me for the specific purpose. Admittedly, it's not convenient at any time other than sitting at the desk and focused. There are plenty of studies about the process of writing notes vs typing notes when it comes to long term retention. There are times where I'm wrestling with a problem that is just a bit more data than my L1 cache (my head) can remember and need to offload some of the data to RAM (scratch pad), but I can just jot down the data without actually looking at it. Even being able to try to sketch data has helped. I have yet to ever find an app even remotely as effective to the point, I'm stopped trying anything else. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

JohnFen
> The best featureless app I've ever used for taking notes is the pen and paper sitting next to me for the specific purpose.

True! At work, I carry a pencil and small notepad for this reason. But outside of work, I don't always have one at hand and so other methods come into play.

eguchi1904
Thank you. I can relate to the importance of simplicity. When there are too many features, I find it distracting and difficult to focus on the content I’m writing.

There really are so many different needs when it comes to note-taking apps, including my own. This discussion has highlighted that for me once again.

lelanthran
> Even on the desktop, my "note-taking" app is just notepad on Windows, kwrite in KDE, and a very bare-bones text editor on my phone.

I've done this years ago in my .bashrc and use it almost daily:

      alias todo='vim ~/.todo'
I suppose I should change `~/.todo` to `/.todo.md` for syntax highlighting, but the list is already quite large and I'm not adding in anything that isn't absolutely required.
livrem
I take notes in emacs with org-mode. It is not simple at all, in a way, but there is nothing that gets in my way either. No distractions since all features are hidden behind keyboard combos (I disabled the menu). Never felt like I had to switch to a simpler editor for certain tasks. And it runs on my phone in Termux (syncs with git) so I just use org-mode as my note-taking app.
j45
It's also a form of journaling throughout the day whether it's a note, thought, reflection.
benatkin
> I feel that the speed and quality of note-taking have improved

In your case you’ve gotten over any learning curve and you’re accomplishing three things at once - taking notes, testing your app, and giving yourself satisfaction that you’ve built something you can use, so of course it’s going to feel better! But it’s more important what potential users think because they’re less biased and there’s more of them. However you seem to be at least slightly dismissive here.

hexmiles
As a counter: I love the concept, I often message myself not because I don't want to use another app, but because I like the workflow and the UI. Most notes app work with a concept similar to files organized in a structure (be tags or folder) instead chat app are primarily chronological, also the UI is more oriented for quick addition than most note's app; I get that this don't make sense for everyone but an app like this is exactly what I want.
eguchi1904
Thank you, your kind words are very encouraging. Your perspective closely aligns with the issues I was trying to address.
realjohng
For a note taking app, launch speed is critical. Keep it super fast.
[dead] keb_
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golly_ned
I text myself notes, and it’s not because I don’t want to use another app, but because I like the streaming append-only log style of notes. I don’t like how hard it is to search through them stores in iMessage. I’ve thought about building an app like this, just since I haven’t been able to find one. So the problem does exist, though it’s not for you.

And it’s plainly not the case that if people wanted these features they would be built into Apple apps. There is a massive ecosystem of iOS apps for exactly the reason that the Apple apps don’t cover everything. Same for any case where there’s a startup vs. an incumbent.

pdimitar
Sure, but I just use a personal Telegram channel for this. It's quite well-searchable too, and it serves me 95% perfectly.
mmcclure
This is my flow too. I know it’s silly, but 90% of why I pay for premium is just for the tags in my saved notes messages.
IOT_Apprentice
What about using a discord server?
suriya-ganesh
Discord is much much slower than the telegram client IMO
pdimitar
Discord is generally snappy but nothing beats Telegram. It just feels like the only remaining desktop client that actually makes use of native OS facilities.

Plus there are scripts to back up the said channels. With Discord I haven't checked (but maybe there are as well).

So mostly (1) Telegram is still snappier and (2) Telegram was there first, more or less, at least on my own timeline of checking chat clients.

abdullahkhalids
You can backup discord channels with discord bots, like [1].

[1] https://xenon.bot/

pdimitar
Cool, thanks. I don't doubt the community and the good software, it's just that for me Telegram was there first.
dheera
I just use a 1-person Slack message for this. Split categories into channels.

I can also write my own plugin bots to respond to specific queries.

I considered Discord but I hate its UI, especially every time I go to the website it wants to do a phone verification. F that, I'm out. If you are a nonessential "fun" app you need to be as low friction as possible.

mcintyre1994
I use Slack for this too, mostly because its reminders work great for me. If messages are anywhere else I keep losing/forgetting them. I wrote a Raycast plugin that takes a screenshot and sends it straight to my Slack, then I add whatever reminder I want from there.
pdimitar
I admit Slack's reminders are a pretty neat addition. Wish Telegram had that.
brewdad
I use Signal's Note to Self. It's often easier than dealing with a notes app or file syncing for one offs or interesting links I want to read on another device.
alsetmusic
I email myself notes and reminders as a way to time-shift them. I send to my work account so that I see them the next day, as I don't have a position that requires me to be available or respond during off-hours. It's a way to reduce how many reminders I have blasting notifications on my devices, a sort of mental cheat / hack by spreading them out.

The only time I text myself is to get data from a personal device and a work device. All my "real" notes still go in a plain-text Simplenote document that syncs between my devices. I've started using Apple Notes just in the last few months even though I've had access to the app since its inception (call me old-fashioned and a curmudgeon about plain-text, I guess).

emeril
try resophnotes as a good clean windows client for simplenote if you haven't already
havefunbesafe
I think the problem was OP wanted to build an app, and the solution was building the app. Totally fine!
dewey
This is fair, and I've done a fair share of that myself!
codegeek
Not always. I do text/slack myself to make a note at times because it is the fastest way to log something and come back to it later. If a tool creates a note out of it with all the other goodies, it may not be a bad thing. I however agree that I have to test something like this but having lost my mac notes recently, I am seriously considering a notes tool that is super easy to log.
whalesalad
I actually want an app like this, but I want something cross platform and web based so I can use it on mac/linux/phone.
j45
Not always.

There's an app called Voiceliner that is quite decent for a different use case but capturing notes nonetheless.

Audio notes are usually much quicker than typing on a phone.

Helping people capture their thoughts happens in many ways, and it's valid.

I have been using apps like this for a very long time, and it's an unfair advantage because it can seem like I don't forget much, when really I reinforce remembering it by recording it somehow and working through actioning it (or sharing it to get help)

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sensanaty
I write "notes" to myself all the time not because I don't want to use another app, but because I prefer the chronological, quick way that those kind of notes work. I'm too chaotic for regular note taking, I've tried a million times, so for me the flow of just dumping a stream of consciousness down for me to read through later on works much better than trying to organize dozens of files.

I'll definitely be checking this app out, personally!

pjot
Same here - I’ll typically leave my message to myself as unread as a visual reminder to go back to it.
arjvik
What I'd love (and what has been on my to-do list of things to write) is an app that I can literally text, which takes my notes and collects them somewhere. Would love to get some real searchability, etc while still not needing to launch something seperate to send notes!
danem
In obsidian I have a template to insert a timestamp. I have a "Work Log" file I refresh each month where I just jot down whatever with the timestamp. No further organization required.
hidelooktropic
To me it doesn't need to be a solution-to-a-problem so much as a different paradigm for using a familiar tool that is more pleasant to use.
bokenator
I've also tried out a few solutions for this problem, but I inevitably went back to use slack or signal. The reason is that these messenger apps are just always open and it's far easier to paste stuff into it than opening an app dedicated to this purpose.
EGreg
I like the simplicity, and good job for shipping it.

“Privacy. Always. We promise”

This kind of stuff always gets me thinking. Why should I trust random app developers? I don’t even trust giant corporations with this.

I have seen Chrome extensions bought out and silently changed. And I have sold iOS apps myself!

Capitalism and Competition and Closed source Centralized software distribution just makes me always worried. Whatever promises are given (“open”AI!) can be either false already or enshittified tomorrow.

And then who is foolish for trusting it? https://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-im...

Why not use open source?

Actually, the main reason is The Web. It doesn’t have an effective way to guarantee a file at a URL will be static, the way, say, IFPS does. And same goes for the App Store. Telegram struggles to tell you how to do verified builds.

I think we may need a “trusted app” with IPFS based distribution, and various auditing agencies publicly signing software updates. It doesn’t need to use a blockchain because code only ever accumulates, so it’s a crypto CRDT essentially. But it could be replicated across many networks including DHT based ones like IPFS, Bittorrent and Hypercore.

That at least reduces a user’s Trusted Computing Base to the OS and one app (like a crypto wallet or an authenticator or browser) that they trust. There should be a way to never update that app via the app store.

Frankly, I think privacy will never get better than that because the manufacturer can technically always exfiltrate stuff (as Windows already does and touted with Recall).

But for running TRUSTED PROGRAMS, at least, I feel there can be blockchains and other decentralized networks. Trusted programs (ie smart contracts) are valuable for communities to trust code, even if it doesn’t enforce privacy.

Tiberium
Telegram's Saved Messages (essentially self-texting) is also commonly used for saving info, somewhat recently they even added tagging and the ability to view messages that you forwarded into there per chat (so you can see all messages that you ever saved from some group you're in). Of course it all lives on their cloud and is not local.
bayesianbot
Though tagging is only available for the (kinda pricey) Premium subscription.
eguchi1904
Tagging is actually available for free, so just wanted to correct that.
bayesianbot
Huh? I just tried tagging a message, which opens a popup for Telegram Premium. Also web search brings up "Tags are already available to all Telegram Premium users." from Telegram website - it's an old post, but I don't see anything anywhere that says otherwise. Or do you mean #hashtags?
naught0
They're (OP) almost definitely referring to their own service which has tagging built in for free.
eguchi1904
oh, you were talking about Telegram. I misunderstood it. My bad.
amadeuspagel
I made a web app with a similar goal, but with one additional feature: the text field is also the search field, as you type a new note, the existing notes get filtered based on the text of the new note: https://thinktype.app
wonger_
Very novel feature I haven't seen in other notetaking apps - well done
jmhammond
This is really neat. It reminds me of my use of Notational Velocity from (holy cow!) almost 20 years ago. https://notational.net/
amadeuspagel
One difference between notational velocity and thinktype is that thinktype has no concept of a title. You write full notes in the searchfield, and you see full notes as results.
unstatusthequo
Maybe rethink the name? People who text themselves can't even think of the Notes app, which is what they are literally making, let alone "StrFlow" which will definitely not be top of mind.

TxtNote? NoteChat? Note2Self? TextMe? Txt2Self?

toyg
My girlfriend doesn't even self-text, she just texts me random stuff on whatsapp followed by "ignore that". When I told her about this app, she said it sounds great and she'll check it out.

I personally think there is something there. The app-switching problem is real though; maybe it would work better as a Whatsapp/Telegram bot.

heliodor
You can pin yourself to the top of Whatsapp and write to yourself. Explain that to her. It's what I do and it's been phenomenal.
toyg
Yeah but you're still limited to the chat mode - you can't consume the data in any other way. With a bot, you could provide some sort of other interface - either via bot commands, or an alternative web view, with fancy exports etc.
vidyesh
Congrats on the launch!

The app looks simple and good but I struggle with the idea that I need to use yet another app for this. The reason for self-texting is that I am already using that app and now I can send quick notes to myself for later.

The odd thing is, I use most and all the messaging apps for this for some reason. My quick notes or links or text snippets I want to store are in multiple apps I already use.

Not an app for me but good luck!

msravi
A couple of questions. The notes seem to be markdown, which is good. But where are they stored? Are they just markdown files stored in an accessible folder? How easy is it to "export" the notes?

I use "self-texting" on WhatsApp for temp notes that I know I won't need beyond a couple of days and don't mind losing and Obsidian for others.

eguchi1904
The notes are stored in a SQLite database. You can export your notes from the macOS app by going to the menu bar and selecting File > Export. This allows you to export the notes in JSON format, which includes various metadata and markdown representations.

I also definitely plan to extend the export functionality to support markdown in the future.

greenthrow
MacOS and iOS already have the Notes app which already syncs across your devices....
cpursley
Yeah, and they suck. I have a folder on my iPhone called "iCrap" as most of Apples native apps are hot garbage.
Void_
I made something similar, except by recording audio memos: https://whispermemos.com/
santa_boy
Tried and quite like this app. Has most of what I need. Is this built on Expo? I've wanted to build for iOS for decades but never could start on it.
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bonaldi
Quick thoughts:

- This is a good fit for how I manage to-dos: a stream of actions that I can tag and process. But with no simple way to remove a tag or mark a thing as "done" I can't filter the tag streams and see only undone items

- £14.99 to use Apple's iCloud syncing which a) I already pay for and b) is free to you feels a bit much.

dchest
"- £14.99 to use Apple's iCloud syncing..."

Obviously, this isn't priced based on the cost of materials. Almost no software is.

kirykl
There’s maybe some value in branding as ‘stream of consciousness note taking’ instead of ‘replacing texting’, to which it just adds more steps for the same thing.

To replace texting can I text a phone number that feeds into this app?

eguchi1904
You might be right; that could be a more accurate branding. Strflow uses a model where notes are pushed into a single timeline and categorized with tags, so there isn’t a functionality to text a phone number that feeds into the app.
dougdimmadome
I've been look for exactly this! (or planning to build it)

I abuse the telegram "Saved" channel to send myself thoughts, notes, reminders, pics, etc as if I'm chatting to the me who's back at his desk.

I wanted to get away from that and not rely on telegram.

Unfortunately I'm an android user so I'll probably have to keep using Telegram for the time being. Is there an android client in the works?

eguchi1904
Thank you! I can really relate to that habit. Unfortunately, I haven’t started working on an Android version yet, so it doesn’t seem likely to be available soon. Sorry about that.
sva_
You can also message yourself in Signal
J_cst
Self messaging is also available in WhatsApp
NayamAmarshe
Yeah but the whole experience of using WhatsApp is kinda sub-par compared to Telegram.
delecti
If you aren't opposed to Google, "Keep" seems to be fairly well suited for this kind of thing. You can share to it easily on android, it supports a bunch of organizational things (labels, colors, archiving) but they're not in the way if you want to ignore them, and the browser version works great. If you're attached to the chat style, then it might not be perfect, but it's easy to use it as a continually appended log style experience.
nusl
Currently I use a personal Discord server for this. Will give this a shot, seems really useful.
jcynix
One more app? I'm skeptical. https://xkcd.com/927/ is about standards, but it could easily be about apps instead.

My note taking takes place either classically via email with mutt in a terminal, not with these gargantuan desktop "apps", or with existing apps like Blitzmail on Android, or Joplin. Joplin just needs a WebDAV server to store notes and is available for multiple platforms, so I can easily swap notes between mobile and desktop/laptop.