a journal and note taking app for android

install it

android is in a closed test on google play, and anyone can join it. with the google account you use on your phone, join the testers group, then open play's test page and tap "become a tester". shizumu then installs from play like any other app and updates itself. the same app runs on linux and windows, so the page you start on the phone is the page you finish at the desk.

play needs twelve testers for fourteen days before shizumu can open to everyone, so staying in for two weeks is the help.

shizumu-0.8.1.apk · 104 MB. it is the same signed build as play, but it does not update itself: come back here for a new one.

an android note taking app that starts with the note

most note apps on a phone open on a list, and the first thing they want is a notebook or a folder for what you are about to say. shizumu opens on an empty page. you write the note, and that is the whole first step. the questions that stall a first sentence, how should this be structured and where does it go, are not asked.

the page still has real tools. type / for a table, an outline, a checklist or a block of code, and @ to reach a page, a pin or a trail. a shopping list, a meeting note and a journal entry all start the same way.

who it fits, and who it doesn't

it fits people who write to work something out: a journal at night, notes on a book, the plan for a job search that runs for months. it suits a writer who wants the phone and the laptop to hold the same pages.

if you want a wall of sticky notes you sort by colour, google keep does that well. if you want handwriting with a stylus, an app built for ink is a better fit. shizumu is for typing in full sentences.

what a page, a pin and a trail do

a new page starts empty. you write to think. when a line turns out to matter, you pin it. a trail is for a project, not a day: a book, a job search, anything you'll come back to tomorrow. choose a trail and the page picks up context: the pins you already kept there, already on the page. everything else lives in memory: search it, or open one trail, one date, pages, or pins.

for one topic that should keep growing, a continuous trail is one living document you add to each day. it is the one place the app keeps everything in front of you on purpose, and the pins keep it from turning into a wall to re-read.

private by default

there is no account to make, and nothing that profiles you. the writing is a database on your phone, and it goes nowhere unless you turn sync on. people looking for the best free note taking app for android without ads usually mean this, and it holds here without a catch.

sync with your laptop

sync is optional and end-to-end encrypted. the relay holds what it cannot read, and neither can we. hosted sync is free on two devices, a phone and a laptop, and running your own relay is free on every device: pricing, and how sync works.

moving your notes over

paste text in and it lands on the page. going the other way, every page exports as a markdown file into a folder you choose, and a full backup of the database is one step in settings. the writing is yours to leave with.

morning pages, on the phone

three pages before the day starts is a practice the empty page suits: no prompt, no count, nothing to fill in. write, close it, and it stays in memory. the longer version: a morning pages app.

the best journal app for android is the one you open

shizumu asks nothing on the way in, and that is most of why it gets opened. your thinking happens on the page. the pins are where you left it.