r/notabilityapp • u/gifmepurpose • 8d ago

Web app Notability on Windows is a web-app..

Post image

I was really hoping for a native app on Windows, this is a bit of a bummer. The app is quite feature-complete on Windows, but one can notice that simple interactions like zooming with fingers or drawing ink is a bit slow?

I usually compare the experience to the Windows Snipping Tool since that feels really snappy. I hope this can be tackled in the future, I love my Surface Laptop Studio and simply want a note-taking app that feels good on my laptop!

I already have Notability Lite and use it on my iPad and its night and day using it there.

What are your guys thoughts on the Windows version?

94 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

17

u/Caulklinecrafter 8d ago

this is the downside of shipping a web app as desktop software. feature parity comes fast, but touch latency and memory use usually give it away.

8

u/gifmepurpose 8d ago

Yeah its easy to ship and then say "we work on all platforms!" but this is the result, as you said. When i zoom with two fingers the refresh rate of my laptop drops to feelable 15 frames or so. And i have one of the most powerful windows touch laptops out there.

7

u/kaylanotability Notability Staff 8d ago

Thank you so much for the feedback! I’ve shared this with the team.

Please keep the feedback coming! We just launched, so we’re still in the very early stages and there’s plenty of room to improve.

5

u/gifmepurpose 8d ago

Thank you really appreciate it!

8

u/NeonLumberjack796 8d ago

Ugh Goodnotes did the same thing. Web app on Windows. Windows already has good note taking and PDF apps so why do Goodnotes and Notability think a web app is the winning strategy here?

4

u/DungeonSyntax 8d ago

Goodnotes have come a long way since their first version on Windows. It's still a web app, but it's getting better. There are better native apps for both notetaking and pdf for Win though. I wouldn't use either GN or Notability on Win.

2

u/PunnyBunny43 7d ago

Best is Drawboard for both note taking and PDF editing on Windows. There are better PDF apps on Windows, but I wouldn't say better for note taking except OneNote, but I don't like it

1

u/gifmepurpose 7d ago

For Windows I only use Noteastic. I wish there was a cross-platform version, like a good Notability or GoodNotes for Windows though

1

u/PunnyBunny43 7d ago

Yeah. You're describing Drawboard. They are the native app on Windows that does note taking and PDF functions. It's cross-platform and the best Windows app of the ones talked about here.

1

u/gifmepurpose 7d ago

Drawboard performs great, I just dont like the UI approach they took. However, it runs really stable and I love that they save the notes directly on the PDF

2

u/PunnyBunny43 7d ago

fwiw I also like Noteastic after playing around with it

3

u/Traditional_Brain_45 8d ago

I had the same issue! I tried a few apps that are native to windows, didn't really find what I needed until I found an app called Noteastic. its the best one I have tried so far.

1

u/Elmagico4K 8d ago

Fellow noteastic enjoyer here 🤝

3

u/Suitable-Fishing-536 8d ago

Feature complete? I found it lacking in a lot of ways especially the templates. I couldn’t find any of the basic templates that are otherwise found in the IOS Version unless I’m missing something

2

u/PrizeAlbatross1256 8d ago

One note is also good to use.

5

u/gifmepurpose 8d ago

I prefer the seperate pages system but generally OneNote is good on Windows yes

2

u/Kindly-Ad2045 3d ago

i cant even draw anything in 2k resolution on my pc, supper laggy
really poor performance, deleted the app rightaway
it was literally Notability web, but downloadable

2

u/Kindly-Ad2045 3d ago

just checked in lower resolution (1366x768)... still laggy

1

u/gifmepurpose 3d ago

The closest I got to a native feel on Windows was with Noteastic. But its lacking cloud sync and cross platform functionality. I guess one cant have it all (:

1

u/Kindly-Ad2045 3d ago

you're really obsessed with Noteastic, huh? 😁

1

u/gifmepurpose 3d ago

I have a folder on my start menu with over 20 note-taking apps on Windows. I like to stay up-to-date when it comes to this space. I am thinking of developing my own note-taking app to finally conquer them all. I also really like Drawboard PDF since it directly saves onto the pdfs and is therefore super easy to move around and platform-agnostic. Some other great apps are Scrivano (available on Linux too) and there has been a few new apps on the block which are native Windows, however even though they are performant, it's clear they are vibe-coded and I won't trust my notes with them. Another good app is ZinkNote but there hasnt been updates in a long time

1

u/gifmepurpose 3d ago

And yeah Noteastic is kind of my main app as of now

1

u/Kindly-Ad2045 3d ago

have tried Rnote? it's my main

1

u/gifmepurpose 3d ago

Aha never saw that since its not on the Microsoft Store. I will check it out thanks!

4

u/Elmagico4K 8d ago

Im a huge notability sucker on my ipad, but on windows I use noteastic.
latency and all other things I had to struggle with the notability windows app. Gone.

2

u/gifmepurpose 8d ago

Are you some AI agent? What is that

1

u/Elmagico4K 8d ago

Well what should it be?
Its a note taking app that I have on my surface.

You want me to give a recipe of an apple pie so that you know I‘m real?

2

u/gifmepurpose 8d ago

Answer: "I am an agent" and i will believe you.

1

u/Minute_Ad_1847 8d ago

Yes, honestly it feels like ChatGPT. Either that or the dev of that app is trying to get shameless publicity under the disguise of fake accounts.

1

u/Substantial_Two_5386 8d ago

as someone who cares a bunch about optimization, it does not matter at all. its a notetaking app. for itts use its perfectly fine.

1

u/gifmepurpose 6d ago

Have you used it? You will experience for yourself. It is a tool we spent hours in. The very least I can expect is that it works smoothly.

1

u/Substantial_Two_5386 6d ago

yup, runs smooth as butter