It was a great day when app developers started wising up to the fact that sometimes taking notes involves more than just text. Now there’s a whole slew of apps designed to let you incorporate photos, voice memos, URLs and more into your notes. Well, here’s another: Catch Notes.
Catch Notes lets you capture ideas and other stuff you come across so you can organize all your thoughts and never forget a thing. You can break big tasks down into more manageable checklists, share to-do’s with your contacts, and set reminders for yourself. See how Catch Notes stacks up after the jump.
The Basics
To use the Catch Notes app you’ll need to sign in to your Catch.com account (if you don’t have one yet, you can easily and quickly create one without even leaving the app), or you can sign in using gmail.
Once you’re in the app, you can add as many spaces to the home screen as you want. I’d recommend thinking of these as folders. For example, you might want to make a space for movies you want to remember to watch; a project you’re working on; an event you’re planning; or other major thing that can be broken down into lots of smaller items.
Think of Catch Notes’ spaces as folders or major categories.
Two spaces are defaults in Catch Notes: My Ideas, and All Notes (although you can rename these at any time). The My Ideas space is always private, meaning they can’t be shared with anyone. And the All Notes space should be treated like a catch-all.
The circle with a plus sign at the bottom of the screen is the capture wheel. Use it to add a note or to add information to your note. Your options include setting a reminder, taking or attaching a photo, entering some text, creating a voice memo, or making a checklist.
The capture wheel is the best feature in the Catch Notes app, allowing one-touch access to a number of options.
Intermediate
Click the paper clip while you’re in any note to attach a photo, voice memo or reminder. You can also star any note to make it a priority or make it easier to find later; delete a note by tapping the trash can; edit the location using the map marker icon in the top right of the screen; and even edit space settings using the Catch Notes icon in the very top right.
In each note you have options to attach items, email the note, star it, delete and more.
To share or collaborate on notes with others, simply tap the people symbol while you’re in any note or group. You can choose from your contacts or enter the person’s email addresses. Note that everything you create or work on with others can be automatically backed up securely across everyone’s mobile devices and at Catch.com.
You can easily attach photos, voice memos or reminders to notes.
Advanced
If you want to take your organization to the next level, you can label your notes with tags; just type a hashtag followed by the word. For example: #todo. These will help you to find a note fast if necessary.
Of course, if you opted to create a Catch.com account (rather than sign in with your gmail account), you can enjoy the ability to back up all our notes across all your mobile devices at Catch.com, where all your notes will be kept safe and sound in the event your device is stolen or lost. You’d even be able to sync them to your new device in that case.
And if you want your notes to be kept at an ultra-high level of security, you can utilize a four-digit PIN with Catch Notes. You can even use email to send web content to [email protected].
Final Thoughts
I don’t have a lot of complaints when it comes to Catch Notes. But there is one thing I find a little tedious: the tags. I know this might sound crazy, but to type a hashtag and the same word over and over again to apply it to multiple notes takes a little more time than I’m willing to spend.
The hashtag system is a bold move on Catch’s part, no doubt, because where other apps use colored labels that you can apply with just one tap, Catch is banking on users to hashtag items. I don’t know, maybe if you’re an avid Twitter user, it won’t bother you as much, but I find it a little annoying.
On the flip side, the capture wheel is super convenient. I love that there’s one single button that can instantly give me access to adding notes, voice memos, checklists and photos. It makes adding a variety of things to a note a fast and easy process.
The capture wheel, combined with the convenient back-up and ability to so easily collaborate with others makes Catch Notes a very appealing note-taking app; however, the hashtag system? #nothappening