Samsung Notes

Samsung Notes is a note-taking application developed by the South Korean company Samsung Electronics. It allows the writing of digital and handwritten notes with embedded photos and audio, as well as sketching and drawing, and reading and annotating PDF documents.

It is available for Samsung devices running Android and Microsoft Windows, and is distributed on the Galaxy Store, Google Play Store and Microsoft Store.

History
Samsung Notes was launched in 2016 as a single replacement of several older memo and illustration apps on Galaxy Note devices: namely S Note, Scrapbook, Memo, and Action Memo.

On October 3, 2023, it was revealed that Samsung Notes will forcibly stop working on Windows devices unless it is a Samsung Galaxy Book.

Features
Samsung Notes features handwriting to text conversion, note tagging, and sharing in PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and image files. PDF importing and annotating, as well as importing sound recordings (Audio Bookmark) were introduced with the One UI 2.5 update.

Shared Notebooks in Samsung Notes can be shared with others in a user's contactbook or using a direct URL; the recipients are also able to modify and collaborate on a Shared Notebook. Live collaboration between multiple users was added in One UI 5.1. The software also allows securing a note or document using a password or fingerprint.

Using the screen off memo feature, users can write using an S Pen without turning the device screen on, which is then saved onto Samsung Notes.

Synchronisation
Notes content are synchronised automatically with the cloud, i.e. Samsung Cloud. Since 2020, Samsung Notes can also be synchronised with Microsoft OneNote so that they can be viewed on PCs.

Related utilities
The Samsung Notes Viewer is a tool specifically for viewing Notes files. Samsung also offer an app called Write on PDF, for annotating PDF documents.

Reception
Lifewire called Samsung Notes "a repository for all notes, in any form", and listed its synchronisation as a positive point. It listed the lack of home screen shortcuts as a disadvantage, as well as the fact access to secured notes are denied temporarily when inputting a wrong password. The website MakeUseOf commented that it "stands out among Android note-taking apps, and its Windows version is equally impressive". However it criticised the fact it is only available for Samsung Windows devices.

TechRadar's Brian Turner felt that Samsung Notes was "as much as an all-purpose sketchbook as a notepad." depending on purpose. In a 2020 review of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, David Phelan of Forbes magazine commented that "in Samsung Notes it has the best app the company has built."