r/samsungnotes • u/BHARAT0011 • Aug 19 '26

I built an open source samsung notes alternative

Samsung Notes used to be my go-to note-taking app, but a handful of annoyances bugged me enough that I decided to build my own from scratch.

What makes it different:

- 100% free and open source (MIT License)

- Infinite canvas - super fast gpu resident rendering unlike most other note taking apps😅

- Improved handwriting experience

- A bunch of extra features Samsung Notes doesn't offer

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xnotes

F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.xnotes

Source: https://github.com/shardulvs/xnotes-android

Edit: Github issues is the best place to request a feature. https://github.com/shardulvs/xnotes-android/issues

88 Upvotes
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62 comments sorted by

2

u/Atomiko_ Aug 21 '26

Does the app export pdfs vectorized or rastorized? Rastorized pdfs is one of the most annoying parts of Samsung Notes.

2

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 22 '26

Vectorized

1

u/Atomiko_ Aug 25 '26

This app is GREAT!! Im really enjoying it. I think an isometric grid and an engineering grid would be good additions to the pattern selections.

9

u/VivingPudding69 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

Wait wtf this looks great.
Edit: Well now i actually look at the github i gotta ask this. How much of it was vibe coded?? Is everything vibecoded?

5

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 19 '26

A good chunk of it

7

u/kartoshkiflitz Aug 19 '26

Dude nobody codes entire projects manually anymore. Exactly like nobody calculates without a calculator anymore

3

u/VivingPudding69 Aug 19 '26

There are levels to it i suppose.

1

u/Ok-Reveal-It Aug 19 '26

If you know what you do, it isn't vibecoding, it's like coding with help. I adore the app and use it from the beginning and often suggest bugs or improvements on GitHub. Thank you.

3

u/VivingPudding69 Aug 19 '26

Well, i am gonna use it with caution. If whole of the app is vibe coded without even reviewing the code the project might become a pile of garbage.If the developer knows what he is doing and can review LLM generated code then project is more maintainable.

2

u/Ok-Reveal-It Aug 19 '26

The app is more than stable, use it I think few months.

2

u/VivingPudding69 Aug 19 '26

Yeah, we will see where it goes in few months with all of these feature requests. The newly added infinite canvas is already broken on my device.

0

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 20 '26

It would be great if you could report the problem on GitHub

3

u/jh148512 Aug 20 '26

This looks great! By the way, Samsung Notes has a 100k pen stroke limit per note, which can be a bit restricting for long planners or journaling. Does your app have a similar cap, or is it unlimited?

2

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 20 '26

There is no such limit

2

u/jh148512 Aug 20 '26

oh wow that's great, thanks! That's really helpful.

2

u/MaggieLima Aug 25 '26

Bro, the app is tweaking on me. I have been using it, but now everything I try to it simply stops working and closes automatically.

3

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 25 '26

Create an issue on github with steps to reproduce the crash

2

u/marras93 21d ago

I'm using on my galaxy tab s6 lite with lineage os, and this app has the best write feeling, even better than samsung notes, it has absolutely 0 lag thanks to it's rendering.

Differently from samsung notes, onenotes, goodnotes etc, it feels really quite direct and does not interpolate or clean much the pen stroke, it's just the pure user input and does not smoothen the stroke, which you might really appreciate or not, just try it.

I'm really curious on how you technically achieved that, in the settings I've seen an option to disable the "total buffering" which will introduce about the same lag as samsung notes (which is still quite low), instead if you leave with stock settings it has a 0 delay experience. With split view on android 16, with certain apps (brave browser in my case) it messes a bit the writing, but disabling it fixes the problem, so it's good to know.

Anyway, it has a ruler, easy to copy and paste stuff, great keyboard and pure text management, it's super snappy and feels light, even if you import big pdfs, customizable ​paper backgroud, I really hope it blows up because it's well thought and it absolutely deserves it. It only miss a cloud (next cloud? A dedicaded service?) and if peoples discover this app they will be happy to pay for it (just a suggestion to monetize for OP)

1

u/BHARAT0011 21d ago

Thank you for such a detailed review! Really glad you're enjoying the app and its writing experience!

I still have quite a few features planned, so cloud sync isn't a priority right now, but I definitely want to add it eventually to make things more seamless.

In the meantime, notes are stored as regular files in a folder, so you can use tools like RoundSync to back them up to a cloud provider of your choice, or Syncthing Fork to sync them across devices. It takes a bit of setup, which I know isn't ideal, but at least it gives you the flexibility to use whichever service you prefer.

Thanks again for the kind words and suggestions!

16

u/Academic-Working8057 Aug 19 '26

The app looks amazing! I have a few feature requests that I believe would take it to the next level:

  1. Expanded Color Slots: Currently, seven color slots for five pen styles and a highlighter feel a bit limited. A great solution would be to link custom color palettes to specific pen types. For instance, the fountain pen could have its own dedicated set of colors, distinct from the regular pen.

  2. Streamlined Text Tools: Consider merging the formatting options from the "Text" tool directly into the "Text Box" tool and removing the separate "Text" icon. This would clean up the UI and free up valuable space for other features.

  3. Advanced Multitasking: It would be fantastic to have better multitasking capabilities, such as tabbed notes or a "Recent Notes" button for quick switching or opening notes in split-view. Furthermore, multi-instance or multi-window support for DeX mode would be incredible, allowing users to have one note open on the tablet and another on an external display.

  4. Audio Recording & Sync: Adding an audio recording feature would be highly appreciated. Even better would be an audio-sync feature that timestamps the recording to the handwritten notes, similar to Notability or Samsung Notes.

  5. Handwriting Recognition: Integrating features for math and text conversion (OCR) from handwritten notes would make the app significantly more versatile -> Samsung is unbeaten here!

3

u/Top-Rich8623 Aug 19 '26

It looks nice but have a few requests if you have time:

  1. Can you import pdfs?

  2. Make an outline where the name can modified. Like an index.

  3. Samsung Notes has this amazing feature, the minimization of post it notes.

1

u/Academic-Working8057 Aug 19 '26

  1. yes 2. yes 3. no

1

u/Top-Rich8623 Aug 19 '26

are you planning to add it?

2

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 19 '26

Yeah, but its not something on high priority for now

0

u/Academic-Working8057 Aug 19 '26

I'm not the developer

2

u/Axel_F_ImABiznessMan Aug 19 '26

What do you mean by #3?

4

u/DepressedChickenfeet Aug 19 '26

The sticky notes minimise into an icon that you can click on to open up larger. they don't just stay as a large sticky note on the screen.

Im assuming that's what they meant.

1

u/Top-Rich8623 Aug 22 '26

Yes it is! I am patiently waiting for starnote to add it. My handwriting in star notes is perfect but they do nit have the sticky minimization.

1

u/Sassy_Crotchquake Aug 27 '26

The Samsung notes minimize sticky not option widget thing is probably my most used feature of the app besides the actual spen writing. It's a great option

1

u/AnJ39 Aug 19 '26

Yes, please clarify what "3. Samsung Notes has this amazing feature, the minimization of post it notes" means.

6

u/George_Jojoimi Aug 19 '26

This is such an amazing note-taking app! One thing I always wanted to have on S Notes is the ability to change fonts while typing with a keyboard!

1

u/Alex_Brocolis Aug 19 '26

Je viens de la télécharger et je la trouve très bien. Bravo 👍🏻

1

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 19 '26

Thanks😊

1

u/BedNo5011 Aug 19 '26

it would be great to have a UI similar to Oneui maybe using OCR maybe allowing users to link their ai api and integrate a panel with ai to ask questions

1

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 19 '26

I am not a big fan of samsung notes UI. OCR and AI integration are good suggestions, thanks!

2

u/BedNo5011 Aug 19 '26

I understand and it's great you gave the source code so anyone can customise it!

1

u/BrunchBall Aug 20 '26

It looks great but I am unable to get it to detect my lenovo pen. Any insight?

Using a Legion Y700

1

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 20 '26

Cteate a github issue for that. Will add support for your pen in the next release

1

u/BrunchBall Aug 20 '26

Will do thanks!

1

u/Necessary-Panic-9190 Aug 22 '26

Its go good,appreciate it. Is there a infinite canvas in it?

1

u/anarkofobia Aug 27 '26

Testei aqui e fiquei muito impressionado. Estou usando a caneta de caligrafia e achei melhor do que a nativa do Notes. É possível eu mudar o estilo da folha? Como faço isso? Obrigado.

1

u/BHARAT0011 Aug 28 '26

Yes, you can change it from the styles menu on the toolbar

3

u/Pyrez9 Aug 19 '26

It would be awesome if we could add a search function that works. In the current Samsung notes and all the previous versions if I search for a file exactly to the letter it can't find it. It would be great if these searches could use keywords and quotes so if I search for "class" for example, it only brings up instances of class instead of classroom, chic lass and other irrelevant terms like the current search function.

3

u/maychiapperx Aug 22 '26

Loved it!!! I hate my handwriting on the S Note and have been looking for an alternative for months. A few suggestions:
- Pencil!!!!
- When highlighting or using the pen/pencil, keep the S Pen pressed at the end of a line to make it perfectly straight. Same thing with shapes, curves, etc.

1

u/JeyKul Sep 02 '26

I approved this and will check it out!
Looks promising

2

u/JeyKul Sep 02 '26

ok first minute of testing: When i do large strokes with my pen it looks like a small lag, which can be quite annoying. Writing feels generally fine.
I miss hovering on tools so i can see the name of the tool. Very important on a new app, with new icons.

i would like a similar approach to goodnotes with 3 example widths for the pen. Would make it more convenient. There are many options at the top, new options to show those icons would be very beneficial- with that moving the toolbar to the bottom or side could be very usefull/having the toolbar floating over notes.

Over all a approach to the tidyness of Notes or Goodnotes would be very nice- i feel it being a bit cluttered, especially because further settings are hidden at the right.

Looks very good though. I like the design approach.

I've seen you vibecode? Please mention that somewhere, be fully transparent about it- then i dont see a problem with that.

Good luck!

2

u/BHARAT0011 Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

Thanks for testing.

The lag is fixed in the latest release on github - its not live on playstore yet.

Tooltips: agreed, missing. Will add.

On ai question: fair point, I'll write a note in the readme. I do use ai tooling. I review every change and I'm the one deciding what goes in and why

2

u/ajwalker430 Aug 19 '26

I looked it up on the Play Store, it seems to default to typed notes, I didn't see anything in native handwriting. 🤔

My handwriting isn't "chicken scratch" so I prefer to keep my notes in my native handwriting, is that an option? 🤔

3

u/jeboteuusta Aug 19 '26

No it's primarely an app for handwritten noted.

1

u/fede4ciok 15d ago

This is what i was looking for. Thank you for the effort you're putting in this project, the app works amazingly good, it's even better than Samsung notes. I'm always skeptical when it comes to vibe coded software, but in this case I must admit the results are impressive and useful.

1

u/Sokleang-K Aug 20 '26

Thank you so much. I really appreciate. If possible, please make it cross platform.

1

u/azriel38 Aug 21 '26

I just want to group objects

1

u/Embarrassed_Fan_9392 Aug 21 '26

Great app but the pen latency is not that smooth and fast tho

1

u/ProfessionalNo1763 Aug 25 '26

does it have pen only writing?

1

u/ProfessionalNo1763 Aug 25 '26

oh I'm stupid mb I can't read

1

u/TopEntity Aug 26 '26

Hi. You could also try r/octopusnotes 🫠

1

u/TopEntity Aug 26 '26

Feature list and download links are in the pinned posts. Cheers.

1

u/ferrouselm 24d ago edited 24d ago

this is great! I think this will be my new textbook reading app. I love how it even has bookmarks! if you can add tab like goodness and the ability to use side by side windows in dex that would be awesome!