The App Store currently hosts hundreds of note-taking apps for bullet journalers, visual thinkers, doodlers and people who like physically writing their notes but don’t want to lug around notebooks and keep track of what thoughts live where. Note taking apps that connect to a cloud service takes care of both of those problems, hence why apps like Goodnotes and Notability are so popular. The trade off, however, is that these apps don’t feel as customizable as physical notebooks do, and whatever customizations there are, typically live behind a paywall.
Notability is an example of an app with phenomenal customization that it keeps behind a paywall, mostly, the gallery. The gallery refers to the public place where anyone can publish anything they’ve made on the app including templates for different styles of note taking and doodles and graphics people have made which other users can cut and use as stickers on their own notes. With a feature like that, the possibilities are endless. It also allows for users to build relationships with people who peruse the gallery and take interest in someone’s designs. Users are able to follow other users they like, and even communicate with their favorite creators through comments, which creators respond through with published messages to the public.
With a feature as creative and social as a public gallery, Notability has created its own community of stationery lovers and given users tools to decorate and organize their notes similarly to how they could with a physical notebook, making Notability one of the most versatile note taking apps on the App Store.
