Write on top of any app.
A video, a PDF, a chat or a map: it makes no difference. Whatever app is open on your phone or tablet, OSNote’s pen writes on top of it.
On the tablet now
- A lesson video plays on the left
- Touch: the tap goes to the video, and it pauses
- Draw, red pen: the peak and an arrow
- Yellow highlighter: the heart of the question
- Blue pen: the solution and the right answer
- The stylus goes back to its slot
A device with its screen split in two. On one side a lesson video explains projectile motion; on the other, the homework PDF is open. OSNote’s pen tray sits at the edge of the screen. A stylus first taps the video: the tray is in Touch, so the tap goes to the video, which pauses with the ball at its peak. Then it taps Draw on the tray; with the red pen it circles the peak, and an arrow crosses the line between the two apps to the gap in the PDF. With the yellow highlighter it runs over “What is its greatest height in metres?” in the question. With the blue pen it writes the solution on the PDF: v y equals 50 times 0.8 equals 40, h equals 40 squared over 20 equals 80 metres. It circles the right answer, C.
A lesson video on the left, the homework PDF on the right: two separate apps.A lesson video on top, the homework PDF below: two separate apps. The pen is on top of both.
How it works
The same pen over chats, maps and calendars
The pen sits on a transparent layer over the open app. What you write in Draw stays on that layer; switch to Touch and your touches go to the app underneath, which never notices. It works over almost any open app. A few Android system screens, such as permission dialogs, are the exception.
A phone. First a messaging app is open: in a flatmates’ group, the detergent line on a shared order summary is circled in red, with “not mine” written under it. Then the phone tips over and splits into three layers: the app at the bottom, OSNote’s clear layer above it (where the writing is), and the pen tray on top. When the tray switches to Touch, a tap passes through the glass to the app underneath and the app changes: first to a map (a purple route from the blue dot to the library’s back door, with the note “back door”), then to a calendar (the presentation on 14 October marked with the yellow highlighter; the evening gym session crossed out, with “finish slides” written next to it). The tray stays the same. At the end the layers come back together.
A landscape tablet shows OSNote’s Quick Notes notebook: the notebook’s pen tray at the top, a dotted white page below. A stylus takes the black pen from the tray and draws a cat on the page, one paw raised, eyes happily closed. In blue it writes “OSNote” next to the cat and underlines it with the yellow highlighter. Last, it switches to the pink pen and colours the inside of the ears, the cheeks and the paw pads; a small heart next to the word, “paw-approved!” below it, and a paw-print stamp.
Quick Notes
It has notebooks too
For notes you keep, the app has Quick Notes notebooks. Each pen in the tray keeps its own colour and thickness: tap a pen and start drawing. A notebook opens where you left off; when you’re done, take it out as a PDF or PNG.
- Black pen: the cat
- Blue pen: OSNote
- Yellow highlighter: the underline
- Pink pen: cheeks, paw and “paw-approved!”
- Pen tray
- Up to 6 pens
- Paper
- 4 patterns, 3 spacings
- Covers
- 10
- Pages
- Up to 50
Tools
What’s in the pen tray?
The pen tray docks to an edge of the screen; press and drag it to any of the four edges. Pick something from the list to see where it sits in the tray, and its card.
There are two ways to start. The Standard tray has your pens, the eraser, undo, redo and the menu. The Advanced tray adds shapes, page and screenshot. The Advanced tray is in the free version too: it may show an ad when it opens; Pro doesn’t.
Advanced tray
Shapes and angles
You drag the corners of rectangles, triangles and stars one by one, and while you edit, each corner shows its angle. The angles aren’t drawn into the ink; they only show while you edit.
Turn yellow30°45°60°90°120°135°150°
- Shapes
- Line, arrow, rectangle, oval, triangle, star
- Corners
- Dragged one by one
Drag the white corners of the triangle on the tablet.
Page and screenshot
Paper over the screen
Page lays a sheet of paper over the open app. Lower its opacity and the app underneath shows through while you keep scribbling. On a tablet, it holds the screen upright or sideways while the page is on.
- Patterns
- Blank, grid, lined, dotted
- Paper colours
- 6
- Opacity
- 40–100%
Screenshot
When you want to keep it, tap Screenshot in the menu. It’s saved only to OSNote’s library, not your gallery.
Choose what to save.
What you save lands in the library of the Try it section below.
Try it
Try it in your browser
A small version of Quick Notes that runs in your browser. Write with a stylus, a finger or a mouse; the highlighter, lasso and shapes are here too. When you’re done, download it as a PDF or a PNG.
Shape
After drawing, drag the corners one by one. Shapes with corners show their angles in degrees.
Custom colour
Paper
Changing the paper leaves your writing where it is. In the app you can also change the paper of a single page.
Export
The file downloads to this device. In the app, you send it with “Share” or pick its folder with “Save to…”.
A stylus, a finger or a mouse can write. Once a stylus is detected, your finger and palm no longer write.
Nothing is kept in this demo. Close the tab and both the notebook and the library are gone. If the page’s screen pen is on, turn it off or switch to Touch before writing in the notebook.
Your notebooks stay on your phone
OSNote keeps your notebooks and screenshots on your phone. It doesn’t send them to our servers, and we can’t see them. You don’t need an account; signing in with Google is only for buying or restoring Pro. The screen pen doesn’t read your screen. A screenshot is taken only when you ask for one, and it goes to OSNote’s library, not your gallery.
- Notes
- On your phone
- Account
- Not needed
- Screenshot
- Only when you ask
- Analytics
- Off in Settings
You can turn off usage analytics and crash reports in Settings Privacy. If Android backup is on, your notebooks can be included in your Google account’s encrypted backup, which belongs to you. There’s no cloud sync. The full privacy policy
This site has no cookies or trackers and loads nothing from anywhere else. What you write in the demo notebook stays in this tab only.
Download
Free on Google Play.
OSNote runs on phones and tablets with Android 8.0 and up. The app is in 15 languages and opens in your phone’s language.
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OSNote217 Products · Android
What’s free, and what Pro adds
Free
- Screen pen: write on top of any app
- Advanced tray (shapes, page, screenshot); may show an ad when it opens
- Quick Notes: two notebooks, plus three more by watching ads
Pro
- No ads
- Advanced tray with no ads, every time
- Unlimited notebooks
- Priority support
- Monthly, or lifetime for a one-time payment; it belongs to the Google account you buy it with
Prices are shown on Google Play. You can cancel the monthly subscription at any time in Google Play Payments & subscriptions. Deleting your account in the app doesn’t cancel it.
Questions
- Which apps can I write on?
- Almost any open app: video, PDF, the browser, maps, messages, the home screen. The pen sits on a layer of its own and never writes into the app itself. A few Android system screens, such as permission dialogs, are the exception: Android doesn’t show other apps on top of them.
- Why does it ask to display over other apps?
- So the pen can sit on top of whatever is open. OSNote doesn’t read your screen. A screenshot is taken only when you ask for one.
- Does my writing go away when I switch apps?
- No. The writing is on the screen, not in the app. It stays until you erase it or turn the pen off. Turning the pen off clears the ink, so it asks first.
- Do I need an account?
- No. Signing in with Google is optional, and only for buying or restoring Pro.
- Do my notebooks move to a new phone?
- There’s no cloud sync; notebooks stay on your phone. Android’s device transfer and encrypted backup (on devices that support them) carry them over too.
- Does the line get thicker when I press harder?
- No, pressure isn’t detected. The pen writes at one thickness, and you choose it.
- How do I get Pro back on a new phone?
- Sign in with the Google account you bought it with, then tap Restore purchases.
- Is it on iPhone?
- Not for now: it’s Android only, on Google Play.