Bear
In 2008 the App Store launched for iPhone and since then I have used Evernote. It was and remains an incredibly powerful app for notes, organization, projects, and more.
I am a premium user of the app, paying for more options and storage but recently I have found the iOS and iPadOS versions to have become slow, buggy, and challenging to use. I’m not going to dwell on these shortcoming and jump right into this review.
Over the years, I have searched for a minimalist notes app with some power behind it as well. That is a challenge to maintain simplicity while including high functionality. For some time I used Simplenote. I highly recommend it. In fact, I love this app—it just wasn’t the right app for me. It is quite a lovely app to use for notes and is just what its name suggests, it is simple using markdown, basic lists, and hashtags for organization. I even wrote a review some time ago but since I don’t actively use it, I have a hard time giving a solid review. But I definitely recommend trying it out if you need something that is the true virtue of minimalist note taking.
I tried using Notablity and just didn’t like it. And Microsoft OneNote is very powerful but too off-axis of the Apple ecosystem for me to be able to feel comfortable using it.
Goodnotes came highly recommend to me but I didn’t like the interface nor the organization—it also had some strange quirks that I couldn’t figure out how to get around like changing notebook covers. That process was both ugly and unfortunate. But, it too, is very powerful. Also perhaps in a different class of note taking and writing apps. More of a digital notebook than a writing app. Perhaps not a fair comparison.
iA Writer is lovely to use. Super minimalism and at its best. Also available is a macOS version and it syncs with the cloud service of your choice. While all this is very good, like Simplenote, it was too minimalist. I can’t say enough good things about the app but it was not the correct tool for me.
Bear App on iPad Pro, landscape
Bear, an app of similar functionality to many noted above, allows me to work the way I wish and with the easy and designs I desire. As with so many of my reviews, I write on my iPad Pro and this particular article in Bear. It takes the minimalism of Simplenote, much of the power of Evernote, and the platform integration I desire and makes for the “Goldilocks” app I have been hoping for.
It is an app that I have had my eye on for some time. I have tried it many times but was so concerned with moving over all of the my content from Evernote that it simply deterred me. For the past few weeks I have only been using Bear for my Adrian’s Gear writing and organization. Other notebooks and notes are still in Evernote but as it stands, I’m loving Bear. And these notebooks from Evernote feel like they will soon make their way over to Bear. Though, as a side note, with so many years of notes in Evernote, I am looking forward to only importing the things I need—some spring cleaning. Evernote will remain in my toolbox as a reference but I think I’ll be leaving behind the premium account and use it more as an archive. Bear has a minimalist design while maintaining a lot of powerful features. This list includes: adding photos, drawing (with Apple Pencil support), links to other notes, text styles, text formatting (bold, italics, etc.), alignment, hyperlinks, lists, checkboxes, highlighting, attachments, inserting calendar dates, tabs, and more. All these features appear in a row of icons about the keyboard on iOS/iPadOS and in the TouchBar or formatting palette on Macs.
Using hashtags, one can organize their notes. Notebooks or folders are a not the method for organizing in this particular app. While it takes some getting used to, I appreciate being about to simple type in where a note needs to be organized and it is there. Hashtags can become part of your note rather than using a folder—allowing a note to exist in multiple places. Other apps do this too but have too many organization options making it confusing.
Frequently used notes can also be pinned to the top of the list. Not an uncommon feature for apps of this nature but certainly always welcome to see that it available should one need it. It makes the notes you are actively or frequently using much easier to find. Think of it as a ‘favorite notes’ tool.
Bear App on iPhone 11 Pro
Supporting Handoff and Continuity, one can start working on one device and move over to the other (Mac to iPad, iPad to iPhone, iPhone to Mac, and any combination thereof).
Synchronization was lightning fast and uses iCloud. The price for this pro features is only $15 a year. And the themes are easy on the eyes, most of them anyway. I would prefer to simply just buy the app but the price is nominal.
But I need to note the thing that drove me away from Evernote to give context to why Bear is such a wonderful app to find its way into my life. In Evernote, I would be editing a note, writing a review, or some other task and need to access another app. Sometimes I would use Slide Over on my iPad Pro but not always is that the right move and, with iPhone, I would have to switch to another app. Upon returning to Evernote, the note I was working on closed and I have to start all over. That isn’t to say I lost data but in a long note, I would have to literally scroll back to where I was. Or, for example, I would be cooking and looking up a recipe. My iPhone would lock and, upon unlocking my device, would find myself back at the Home Screen. I’d have to open Evernote again and find the note... again! It was absolutely frustrating and not how an app of Evernote’s stature should operate.
It is important to know that such multitasking features can break the whole paradigm in which an app functions. Feedback had been given but no solution ever created. After over a decade of use, I’m reluctantly but positively moving forward to a new app experience. No doubt there will be features of Evernote I will miss and there are some very powerful collaboration tools for teams and business but those do not apply to me.
Along the lines of multitasking, Bear is well adept at using the many feature of iPadOS. Perhaps this is just serendipity but when using Slide Over, the margins for the test while editing in landscape orientation allows for a Slide Over window to fit perfectly. A pleasant surprise and quite valuable.
It is also important to note that this is an Apple-only application. While in the past I have used cross platform tools like Evernote on Windows, Blackberry, and other devices, I am an Apple ecosystem guy. At any point in time, I can almost certainly assure one that I have access to my iPhone, iPad Pro, personal Mac, or otherwise. Not having cross-platform functionality does not negatively impact me but it could for some. It is an elite app for Apple users and may remain that way for some time. However, the developers of Bear do have plans to offer web support which would open the platform to many others.
A few features I hope to see come in the future:
Search within a note—to be clear, Bear has some very powerful search features. You can use quotes for specific phrases like “to be or not to be” and other punctuation like @ or - to include items or exclude. However, the search only takes you to the note, not to the place in the not that text or item is found. Only an opportunity when in a long note. Example: “to be or not to be” -Shakespeare @ images will return notes with the language in quote and any notes with images but excluding notes with ‘Shakespeare’.
The drawing feature is very minimalist. I don’t know if that is a negative but I do find myself sometime wanting a few extra tools like that in the native Notes app on iPadOS. The opportunity that stand out is the “ink simulation.” It is touch rasterized. It isn’t as beautiful as some other apps that draw. Lined paper would be welcome too.
Overall, these are easy for my to look past. For some it may not but Bear has become too good for me to not continue to use it—migrating pretty much entirely notes system. And that was a tall order seeing as I have over 1000 notes in Evernote.
Bear App on macOS, dark mode
After all this time, I change my note taking and writing recommendation and A-List app from Evernote to Bear. I find that I enjoy using the app—that’s an important facet to anything one uses. If you enjoy it, you’ll use it. Bear also surprises me with fun and important features. They pop up when you least expect them and I find myself saying, “huh… that’s pretty cool.” It doesn’t sounds like much but that is high praise.
There is an old [apocryphal] story of Archimedes discovering the relationship of mass and volume—he ran through the streets naked yelling, “eureka!” But scientists’ greatest discoveries are those where they murmur to themselves, “huh, look at that.” The simplicity of Bear belies the power it has without it being complicated. From simply taking notes to the power to write a novel, Bear never makes it difficult to work.
Bear is both simple and beautiful and serves one well. I prefer the minimalist because it hides the many distractions that can come along with productivity apps.
Download from the App Store for free. The pro version is only $15 a year which includes sync through iCloud and well worth the few dollars. Enjoy a simple and delightful writing experience once again.
Free/$15
Written exclusively in Bear on iPad Pro.
Addendum: This post was originally to be out in May of 2020. I decided I would spend the whole summer using Bear and then post my final review. It has been wonderful working with Bear all this time. I have not once looked back or missed Evernote. While I still have many things in Evernote, they have slowly migrated over. I have since cancelled my Evernote Premium account and use only Bear for all notes and writing going forward.
