As a company that provides a simple and secure note-taking app, Standard Notes has often been lumped in with the various "second brain" or productivity tools that have become popular in recent years. While these tools can certainly be useful for some people, we have always taken … | Continue reading
Standard Notes has seen its codebase evolve many times through the years. When we first launched in late 2016, we started with three codebases: our web app (which our Electron desktop app contained), a native Swift iOS app, and a native Kotlin Android app. This was immediately un … | Continue reading
We're excited to announce the release of some great new features for Standard Notes, the private and encrypted note-taking app. These features will help you create, organize, and view your notes more intuitively and allow you to create fine-grained and powerful organizational str … | Continue reading
We're pleased to announce we're in the final stages of our new mobile experience, which centers around offering the web and desktop application you've come to love optimized for smaller screens. We've been using the new mobile experience on our internal devices, and can full-hear … | Continue reading
We've resolved the issue we wrote about yesterday, where server performance had been degraded over the past few days. We tracked down the cause as a ballooning of the number of entries in our Redis cache, caused by what we believe to be an information-seeking spam operation on ou … | Continue reading
Update: this issue has been resolved. Our servers have been flaring up since about the start of weekend now. During server storms, there’s some likelihood that applications and servers can begin to disagree on—in our case—timing of edits. Because timing is an important factor in … | Continue reading
Standard Notes 3.20 is the culmination of a thousand pieces coming together. To us, and hopefully to you, the result feels magical: the seemingly sudden emergence of features we’ve always wanted; of a software product we look at and say—we built this? I’ve always found it fascina … | Continue reading
Standard Notes allows you the freedom of choice. The freedom to write notes using not one opinionated mega editor that does it all, but specialized software-inside-software for every type of note you might write. Markdown, rich text, spreadsheets, checklists—we have it covered. W … | Continue reading
Late last year, we shared an update on our plans and roadmap for 2022. I wanted to share with you some of the great progress we've made on our goals and highlight some of these achievements, as well as share what’s in store for the months to come. Things we've delivered: Native, … | Continue reading
Two-factor authentication has historically been a paid feature in Standard Notes. Drawing the line between free and paid is always tricky; early during the advent of our paid product, 2FA for some could be seen as the key attraction. We’re proud today to be able to offer 2FA for … | Continue reading
If you’ve been present in our community Discord, Slack, or forum, you’ve likely already read about our long-standing goal of moving away from extensions for core functionality to native implementations. We've made near complete progress in this area. In previous major versions of … | Continue reading
Starting February 9, 2022, FileSafe will be deprecated and no longer offered to new users. For existing users who have the FileSafe extension installed, FileSafe will remain accessible indefinitely. FileSafe was launched in 2018 as our concept file storage solution, and uses a br … | Continue reading
This is a trimmed down version of an email that was sent out to our users on November 3, 2021. The End of Early Pricing Early Pricing is our 5-year plan, which was marked down at a steep discount as a sort of "capital raise" program---you give us a single relatively large sum in … | Continue reading
In investing time and resources into improving TokenVault and other editors, we felt uncertain about the fact that there are already open-source clones offering free (but untrusted) distribution of our paid extensions. This is certainly within their rights, as our custom editors … | Continue reading
We’re excited to launch version 3.6 of our applications on every platform. This release focuses on simplifying access control measures, as well as giving you the power to review and revoke other devices signed into your account.Session ManagementYou’ll now have the ability to rev … | Continue reading
We are pleased to announce the latest release of our encryption suite. This release uses the latest state-of-the-art, cryptographer-recommended algorithms for modern day encryption and key generation, designed to withstand the latest advances in cryptographic attacks and brute-fo … | Continue reading
One of the main ways software developers contribute to free and open-source projects is by creating pull requests to fix bugs, add features, clarify documentation, and to address other issues. A pull request is a proposal to make specific changes to the source code of a project. … | Continue reading
People with wealth and power have many things that normal people do not. When they are sick, they have access to many of the best doctors and the best medical treatments. When they are well, they can afford to attend the most prestigious private universities and pay for their chi … | Continue reading
Ads on the web are annoying and most trackers betray our privacy by giving third-parties information about the sites we visit and the topics we are interested in. These third-parties can then track us around the internet to sell us more ads, distort our search results, and give … | Continue reading
Software programs, like other creative works, are released to its users under certain terms and conditions called licenses. When a license gives its users the rights/freedoms to use, study, copy, modify, improve, and redistribute it, then the software is considered free, or libre … | Continue reading
What is LaTeX?LaTeX is the standard document preparation system for producing high-quality publications in academia and technical industries. It is often used for large and important academic works such as theses, dissertations, and peer-reviewed journal articles and books, but i … | Continue reading
The Silver Lining in Facebook's Privacy NightmarePrivacy advocates and journalists have known for years that the tech behemoth Facebook, Inc. threatens our privacy. The company owns three of the most popular social media platforms – Facebook.com, Instagram, and Whatsapp. Each of … | Continue reading
In February 2020, the Mozilla Foundation announced that it would enable DNS-over-HTTPS by default for all Firefox users in the United States. In this post, we'll explain what that is and why it matters.Background: You and your computer need to take many steps in order to connect … | Continue reading
Electron is an open source software framework that software developers can use to create desktop apps that work across Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.Background: Each operating system can only run apps written in certain programming languages, called native languages … | Continue reading
A user on our Slack, and some on reddit, have asked us why we've been sort of quiet on progress. Why no new blog posts? Why no new major releases? Why the seemingly dismissive attitude towards feature requests? Here was my response, and here's that new blog post you asked for :)I … | Continue reading
End-to-end encryption is a system of encryption that allows parties to communicate in a way that severely limits the potential for third-parties to eavesdrop on or tamper with the messages. Third-parties may include government agencies and companies that provide internet, telec … | Continue reading
Encryption is the process of transforming readable text or data, called plaintext, into unreadable code called ciphertext. After the data is transformed, it is said to be encrypted. The reverse transformation process from ciphertext to plaintext is called decryption.Background: T … | Continue reading
A little bit of sunshine has graced us this week, and after a few months of heavy bunkering in our winter den, we emerge energized and with news. Here are things we've released or have been working on over the last 120 days:The all-new 3.0 mobile app for iOS and AndroidIt's fully … | Continue reading
To better answer that question, we'll take a small look back at our history, and alternatives we could have entertained.In terms of achieving sustainability by collecting payment from our users directly (instead of say, advertisers), two popular models come to mind:a. The entire … | Continue reading
Standard Notes 3.0 for desktop and web introduces a more refined experience, combined with quality-of-life improvements that are sure to delight. Here's what's new:Introducing Privileges.Privileges allow you to require your account password or local passcode to perform certain ac … | Continue reading
Users depend on Standard Notes for their most important creations, from notes on projects, to credentials and passwords, to thoughts, ideas, and the entire spectrum of output from their life’s work.We start with a very simple core experience, offering encryption and easy sync out … | Continue reading
Some time ago, a user, in response to an email we sent out to everyone outlining some new app updates, said that he did not feel comfortable with us using Mailchimp to send out newsletters. Privacy is first and foremost on our list of priorities, and this user had a great point. … | Continue reading
Some said this day would never come. Others have doubted its overall feasibility. But it's here. And it's great. Editors are now available on mobile. No more unrendered Markdown, HTML, or tasks.Your favorite Extended editors are automatically available in the latest version of th … | Continue reading
Let's get right to it: we have a new update (v2.1), and it's probably our most important one yet. Here's what's new:1. Two-factor authentication.2FA will have you feeling warm and cozy as you sign in with high levels of additional security. It's now available for Extended members … | Continue reading
A quick few announcements:1. We added automatic local backups in Desktop v2.0.3.Backups are an important part of our 100-year plan. They protect you and us from the unexpected and catastrophic. Now in the latest version of the Standard Notes desktop app, encrypted backups are aut … | Continue reading
Note: This article is no longer being maintained. Please read this help post for the latest on how Standard Notes stores data on your device.Last week we introduced a new security feature called Device Storage Encryption (DSE) for iOS, Android, Web, and Desktop. We mentioned brie … | Continue reading
A letter to our users:Dear note lovers and encryption lovers,We know you love notes. And the secure feeling a private online life gives you.So, we made something for you. I think you're going to like it.A powerful new notes app for iOS and Android (and Desktop).It's more secure.D … | Continue reading
Let's admit, shall we, that freedom has to have its own space.I've spent about the last decade of my life developing tools for note taking and file management, the most important of which is an encrypted note-taking app. And when I talk to others about how their lives changed onc … | Continue reading
A few months ago, we hired an independent security research firm to conduct an audit on the encryption specification used by Standard Notes. In building out our product, we spent a lot of time making sure our encryption is as strong and fool-proof as possible. While it's easy for … | Continue reading
We're excited to announce the launch of four new powerful extensions that take your simple Standard Notes experience to a new level.We decided early on that simplicity is the only way to achieve quality, stability, and longevity in software. Too often we see apps we depend on imp … | Continue reading
In a crime case, investigators don't have access to "the truth"—the data, if you will. All they have are clues which can be put together to make as perfect a guess as possible as to what the nature of the truth is. Metadata.In the U.S, governments have played coy and attempted to … | Continue reading
It's the greatest love story of all: you find an app that you absolutely love. It solves all your problems. And it makes your life better. It's a fairytale and the both of you live happily ever-after.Except, it never quite happens like that does it? The app you depend on to solve … | Continue reading
Microsoft announced recently that it would be shutting down Wunderlist, a popular todo app it acquired just two years ago. Millions of users who have depended on the intricacies of Wunderlist to go about their daily lives will now have to import all their trimmed-down data to the … | Continue reading
The internet is simply a series of computers connected through wires. The computers are owned by everyone—you, me, companies, and governments. When I access a website, my computer routes a signal through my Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) tubes to the website’s computer. Natura … | Continue reading
Engineering Standard Notes to be "un-elaborate" was anything but easy for us. In an era where software degrades by the day and the life expectancy of the apps we use is anything but ideal, getting our software simple took time. We were slow pokes on this idea. It took 3 years to … | Continue reading
Changing the nature of governance through encryption.The newest revelations about the extent of CIA hacking tell us one thing: encryption works. The spy agency has had to resort to coming up with creative and complex mechanisms to get around the encryption systems of mainstream a … | Continue reading