New platforms are always exciting because they give us a chance to step back and re-imagine the Evernote experience. Tablets are just that kind of opportunity. A year ago, we launched Evernote for iPad, our first tablet edition. We’ve learned a lot since then, and today we unveil the all new Evernote for Android Tablets.
That’s not all, this update also adds our most requested mobile feature: the ability to create notes containing rich text text, lists and checkboxes. Plus, there’s a new widget, major speed improvement and much more. Let’s take a look.
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Evernote for Android Tablets
The new Evernote for Android Tablets interface demonstrates the direction that we’ll be taking all of our tablet versions in the future.
Home screen
The home screen puts everything you need right in front of your eyes. The screen is dominated by the new Snippet View, which lets you quickly browse through your notes. Along the left edge, you can choose to view notebooks, tags, as well as those notebooks that have been shared with you. Along the top edge, you’ll find the New Note button, Map View and Search.
Tap on a note to view it. Tap and hold a note to bring up a range of note options, including sharing, tagging and viewing the note on a map.
New Notes
Tap on the New Note button to launch a blank note. Along the bottom of the note area (above the keyboard), you’ll see a row of buttons. The first ones allow you to choose a notebook and assign tags; the next three allow you take a snapshot, record audio or attach a file; the last ones let you create styled text—more on that below.
Search
Tap the magnifying glass in the top-right corner to bring up the Search popover. If you know what you’re looking for type in the keyword. You can also select a recent or saved search. The Advanced Search option gives you even more ways to find what you’re looking for. There, you can choose to search for notes near your current location, notes containing checkbox to-dos and lots of other parameters. Make sure to explore Advanced Search, there are some useful options there that you don’t want to miss.
Single note view
The single note view shows you the note you’ve selected, along with a scrollable sidebar of additional notes. The sidebar allows you to quickly jump to another note without having to return to the home screen. The single note screen also allows you to share the note to Facebook, email or send it any other Android app, such as your favorite Twitter application.
Map view
Sometimes, all you remember is where you were when you captured a memory, Map View is great way to recall it. Tap on the map icon in the top right of the interface to view your notes by location. The notes that are displayed to the right of the map correspond to the region you are viewing.
To capture the location of notes, make sure that your Android location settings are enabled.
New for all Android devices: Creating rich text
We can finally answer ‘YES’ to our most-frequently asked Android question: Can I create rich text from my phone? Whenever you create or edit a note on any Android device, you’ll see a new bar above the keyboard. That bar lets you assign a notebook and tags to the note, attach images and files and also style the text. Swipe the bar to show all the text formatting options: bold, italic, underline, bullet list, numbered list, and checkbox. Tap on the option(s) you like, and type away. Lists and checkboxes will continue when you go to the next line.
Editing rich text
Evernote for Android allows you to edit notes that contain rich text. If a note was created on the Android device, then the editing experience will usually be just like the note creation experience. You can also edit notes containing complex styling, such as web clips, by tapping into each element that you wish to change.
New Evernote Widget
Another great update for all Android devices, is our new, larger widget. Tap and hold on the home screen of your Android device, then go to the widget menu. You’ll now see two Evernote widget options—small and large. In addition to letting you jump to core Evernote features, you now see snippets of your recently-accessed notes. This means you no longer need to launch Evernote in order to find a recent note, just tap on the note in the widget.
Many more improvements
In addition to all the goodness above, we also managed to make the app dramatically faster. You’ll notice that notes sync and scroll faster than ever. We’ve also improved the messaging to be more informative, revamped some screens, and made the app more stable overall.
What’s next?
You’ll be seeing many of these concepts, including rich text editing, pop up in Evernote for iOS and other versions soon. In the meantime, let us know what you think of these updates. We’re very excited about the new look and the new features. We hope you like them.
