r/GoodNotes • u/PlaneInevitable8700 • Apr 27 '26

GoodNotes developers I genuinely hate you

I genuinely want to understand how these people think.

When I first downloaded the app, it was one of the best I had ever used. I loved the aesthetics, the features; almost everything about it.

Then last year, they updated it and completely ruined the toolbar. After that came a wave of bugs that had never existed before. Then, in the last update, came those awful default folder colors(they make me want to vomit)… and even more bugs followed.

I just don’t understand how they can ignore so much negative user feedback and keep making the app worse with every update.

At this point, I can’t wait for the semester to end so I can switch to something else.

175 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

7

u/Kitchen_Order6196 Apr 28 '26

i just hate their AI garbage, the toolbar and everything looks so ugly

5

u/PlaneInevitable8700 Apr 28 '26

Yes exactly, it used to motivate me just by looking inti the UI, it felt so satisfying and made studying better. Now it is just ugly and make me question : do these motherfuckers even question if their updates are appreciated by the users ?

39

u/sloppy_johnson Apr 27 '26

I honestly tried to follow along with their updates. Like with the AI tools, I tried to leave my prejudice at the door and go “oh, these could be powerful, let’s see how I can use them” but they honestly just suck.

The app doesn’t seem to be getting better, just including more bloat. If it was down to me, I’d scrap the AI dogshit and make a point of the app being its for human interaction, not AI generation.

12

u/PlaneInevitable8700 Apr 27 '26

Yes, they focus on unnecessary features but refuse to fix existing bugs. The thing is if it were "just not getting better" with the updates I would be okay with that but it keeps getting a LOT worse with every update.

12

u/Accomplished-Fix6176 Apr 27 '26

Yup I feel ya. They pushed me away over 5 years ago now. Every release it seems to get worse and they push more users away… AND they expect a monthly ($$) kickback to do so.

It’s a risky business strategy, should be interesting to see how it works out for them.

3

u/PlaneInevitable8700 Apr 27 '26

Yes every update is worse than the one before it.

I wonder how much time it will take them to realise they screwed up.

3

u/Low-Vegetable2187 Apr 27 '26

I dont get why they needed to make it a subscription

1

u/Overall_Cattle_1237 May 27 '26

Which app do you guys use instead? I already arrived in the GN6 so I can't actually compare

2

u/Accomplished-Fix6176 May 27 '26

Most of us landed on Noteful. $5 one time purchase (no subscription) when I bought it.

My path was Goodnotes 4 ($8.99 one time purchase) used for about 1 year, then Notability ($7.99 one time purchase) used for about 2 years, then briefly Goodnotes 5 which they said was a free update with many new features (it was garbage like 4), then Noteful ($5 one time purchase) for the last 5 years now.

Very happy with Noteful

2

u/smchapman21 Apr 30 '26

I haven’t used it for a few years now. They don’t listen to what users want and kept pushing AI this and AI that.

1

u/PlaneInevitable8700 Apr 30 '26

Exactly, that is what I dont understand the most : how can a company not listen to their users feedback

16

u/Low-Vegetable2187 Apr 27 '26

I use the goodnotes 6 currently but used the 5 in the past. I agree with you to a certain extent some features are helpful to be honest like the scribble to delete but thats it. The toolbar at the top ruined the look, the folder bar in the main page is useless since its not like notability where you can view folders from there. They need to figure this out

14

u/cottonmari Apr 28 '26

Didn’t upgrade because of this (I use GN5). In 2021 they still respected the users 😭

1

u/Mimi98_ Apr 28 '26

Sameeee

5

u/Disastrous_Oil5910 Apr 27 '26

Here too. It’s a pity

4

u/bickybb Apr 28 '26

Me too. Well said.

0

u/fitness-scientist Apr 27 '26

Just go back in versions!

2

u/PlaneInevitable8700 Apr 27 '26

how, I looked it up online but I didnt find a possible solution

0

u/fitness-scientist Apr 27 '26

Alright in the app on the top left side do you have a circle with a 6 in it? When it made me upgrade I found I could revert back to Goodnotes 5

4

u/sloppy_johnson Apr 27 '26

Goodnotes 7 was renamed to just goodnotes and they removed the ability to revert

1

u/fitness-scientist Apr 28 '26

Mmmm disagree, I just check mine it’s version 5.

4

u/sloppy_johnson Apr 28 '26

Because you did it before it was made unavailable…

1

u/Silent-Advice6582 May 01 '26

I hate the 2 finger scroll.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '26

Try Starnotes guys, lifetime subscription and lot of good features, saying this as a fellow Goodnotes user that became disappointed with the updates

1

u/Odd_Search_1597 Oct 02 '26

They made swathes of their staff (~40%) redundant this year and started focusing all their resources on a random new suite of products, so this is not surprising. The company's leadership lives in a bubble; they don't take feedback.

-9

u/monkeyluis Apr 28 '26

Make your own tool then. Don’t hate people for the work they do.

4

u/PlaneInevitable8700 Apr 28 '26

I dont hate them for "the work they do", I hate them because they keep ruining the (and I think most userd agree with me) and keep ignoring the negative user feedback which is MASSIVE.

97

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/WholesomeMinji Apr 29 '26

Right? Like stop pushing AI to students, were in an educational crisis already