Top 12 Innovative Note-Taking Apps For Students

Last Updated on October 10, 2023 by Editorial Team

Apart from paper-based strategies, students nowadays. utilize computers or cell phones for nearly everything, including schoolwork, online classes, and communication with peers. The way the style of schooling is continuously changing, and note-taking is not an exception to this.

For many students, taking notes is a time-consuming task. Further, ensuring all the information is interpretable can add to it. While a notepad and pen are fine,  online tools and note-taking applications have gone a long way with novel features like real-time collaboration, markup and markdown tools, cloud storage, and so on. Accordingly, if you are looking for the best note-taking app, the curated list we sent here can guide you. 

Importance of note-taking apps

Note-taking is often important for learners and also adults,  While there are many note-taking strategies which students can employ, here are a few grounds how apps can assist in this process: 

  1. Easy access: These apps can be easily accessed anywhere anytime. It can be an edge for learners, as they need not carry separate notebooks and pens everywhere.
  1. Convenient learning: Some apps like Evernote come with cloud backup and online support. This implies that students can access notes from any location on any device when they need. Also, digitizing notes can make the content organized and indexed for easy reference.  
  1. Communication between teacher and students: As a part of learning, learners can have multiple doubts in their subjects for which a teacher to clear them is needed.  By digitizing the notes with apps, they can easily share a copy with their teachers and get feedback soon. 

Best Note-taking apps for students

1. Notability

Notability

This app is designed to be used on Apple devices like iPad and Apple Pencil. Features like side rail and appearance can remind one of a physical notebook. It has all the needed features and support for various formats like drawing notes, images, recording features, feedback, and PDF annotations too. 

Ginger Labs makes sure that the user gets a good note-taking experience anywhere just a click away. During lectures, students can make simple draw notes, and then organize them in folders of subjects. Check this free for a good note-making experience. 

App link: App store

2. OneNote

OneNote

Microsoft Onenote is a note-taking program that is available for free. Basically, this note-taking tool lets you drag and drop items like text boxes and photos onto the page.

It is suitable for both students and teachers for any type of note-taking, including the blending of multiple recording formats. Within a single note, you may mix multiple media formats such as movies, and audio snippets, and even connect external documents. This makes it a good option for students who study online and need to download resources. This program offers 5GB of data storage on a single disc. 

App link: Playstore | Appstore

3. Google keep

Google keep

The note-taking app is well known for its capture feature. This means that the user can click an image of the poster, receipt, and poster to store it as notes in this app. Not only this, Google Keep comes with a bunch of other features like voice memos, labels, and collaborative notes.

Just like other apps from Google, this note-taking app is lucrative and user-friendly. It used various functionalities of the phone like camera, recorder, storage, and location to give the best user experience. With multiple handy features, this app can be a noteworthy all-rounder for note-making. 

App link: Playstore | Appstore

4. Bear Notes

Bear Notes

While many apps come with a handful of features, not many can be light and simple for users to operate. Bear Notes is a straightforward app where students can make complete notes with all basic features like headings, strikethroughs, checklists, and some shortcuts.

Bear shows helpful data like word count, read time, paragraphs, change the date, and so on. The software also allows you to export your notes as PDFs, Word documents, or HTML files. Bear is free to use for a basic version. But, the users may need to pay for further themes and other customizations.

App link: Web link | Appstore

5. Evernote

Evernote

Evernote is a popular note-taking tool that supports multiple note-taking formats:  text, voice, picture, and handwritten. There are templates available that can help you cut down on your note-taking time by allowing you to just select and begin writing.

Information from the web browser can also be effortlessly captured using the web clipper. This feature is also useful for adding photos, links, and fragments of text wherever needed. Scanning paper can also get easy with this app.

App link: Web link | Playstore | Appstore

6.  Notewise – Note-Taking & PDF

 Notewise – Note-Taking & PDF

Notewise is an excellent app to level up your note-taking skills. Though the app is suitable for everyone, including teachers and professionals, students can particularly enjoy it for making academic notes.

You can use this app on any Android device of your choice and sync them together for a seamless experience. This app allows you to take notes with your fingers or a stylus and gives you an impeccable writing experience. It has a variety of tools available to assist you in note-taking.

Organize your work in customized folders so you can find everything you need at your fingertips. Plus, share your notes with your friends using QR codes or URLs for easy access. What’s more? The app also supports PDF files, so you can easily open a file during sessions or work with it the just way you want to.

App link: Playstore |

7. Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook

Zoho is a visually appealing note-taking application that is compatible across multiple devices like Apple iOS, Android, and Windows OS. Here notes are taken on cards instead of pages. Users can prepare cards of information for easy retrieval later. 

These cards support multiple formats of note-taking like texts, and audio, and also can be linked to documents. It comes with a web clipper option which can be accessed on browsers like Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Another edge is that the notes are add-free giving a serene experience to the users.

App link: Web link | Playstore | Appstore

8. Simplenote

Zoho Notebook

Simplenote is an easy note-taking app to jot down ideas and notes. This app comes with both light and dark themes. One can see the list of past notes when opened. To write a new note, users can press the ‘+’ button on the bottom-down side of the screen. 

The advantage here is that the notes made here can be read on many other devices like Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and web editions. This free app with lightweight can make a good choice for students to make notes without ambiguities. 

App link: Playstore | Appstore

9. Boost Note

Boost Note

This note-making app is marked by its co-authoring feature. This means that a single file can be written and edited by multiple people at a time. The feature makes this app useful for coding students and developers. 

Some other features of this app include proper documentation, a smart folder, searchability, bidirectional linking, and the scope of multiple team building. Adorned with a dark theme, users can employ tools from Zapier and create a public API.

App link: Playstore | Appstore

10. Scrivener

 Scrivener

Note-making is an eminent responsibility of the literary, students, teachers, and book writers.  For them, Scrivener comes up with distinct features like word processors. All the features in this app are designed in such a way that they can help authors organize their notes, notions, and research. In fact, you can use rich text, photos, PDFs, music, and video in your message. It contains fantastic screenplay, fiction, and non-fiction manuscript templates.

With a lot of options, Scrivener turns out to be a professional comprehensive tool for penmanship. A corkboard feature in the software allows users to plan scenes or chapters on digital notecards that may be changed as needed.

After authoring a document, the user can export it to a regular word processor or screenwriting program for final formatting.

App link: Appstore

11.  Standard Notes

Standard Notes

If you’re worried about the security of your daily notes, the Standard Notes app for students is a good option. Everything you write on this app is encrypted, and only you have access to it. For secured and encrypted note-making, this app can be a good choice. It has a code editor, a rich markdown editor, and a rich text editor.

This app comes with a combination of both online and offline access with no limit on the operating system and device count. The features like applying locks, encryption, deletion, and recovery make it reliable for crucial content in notes. 

App link: Playstore | Appstore

12. J Notes: Note-Taking & Editor PDF

J Notes: Note-Taking & Editor PDF

Let your creativity soar with J Notes! This app is available on all Android devices and is ad-free! Use a stylus to enjoy smooth writing while taking notes, and make use of its numerous features like text recognition, PDF annotations, stickers, and more to make your notes interesting.

The use of this app is not limited to note-taking; it can also be used as a digital planner or a daily memo to keep track of your daily schedule. Once you are finished with a note, store it in segregated folders, use bookmarks, and create a backup on Google Drive or OneDrive so you never have to worry about your notes getting lost. 

App link: Playstore

Conclusion

For every student, note-making is an important task in school or at home. To add speed and conscience to this practice, the traditional jotting habits with a pen can be accompanied by  books for improving note-taking skills, fun note-taking activities, and digital options like apps. Technology has progressed to the point that you may now take notes using digital applications just like paper-based notes.

Apart from giving added convenience, these options often reduce the stress of carrying various books. All our suggestions come with one or a few unique traits to help the user. Check out the right one among them to employ now. 

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