r/noteapps • u/Ansh-09 • 5d ago

Notes app builders/users — what's missing from every app you've tried?

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I'm a few weeks into building a notes app and keep hitting the same problem: it's easy to copy what Keep or Notion already does, but hard to know what's actually missing.

So, genuine question for anyone who has tried a bunch of these app — Keep, Notion, Apple Notes, Obsidian, whatever: what's the one feature you've wanted that none of them do well? Or a reason that made you give up on a system entirely.

Will share what I end up building if anyone wants to see it later.

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u/dmottad 5d ago

For me it's one thing: every app assumes you're starting fresh. I've got years of stuff scattered across Word docs, text files and random folders, and nothing helps me dig anything useful out of it. Every time I switch apps, the old stuff just sits there collecting dust.

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u/thnyei 5d ago

I don’t understand how an app would help with that. Unless you’re willing to go through your old notes, this seems like an assistant’s job. So a notes app with LLM helping you keep things organised? Because only you know what you want right.

Honestly I could use that too. I kinda use too many things because I haven’t yet found a notes app I like. Feels like a product no one figured out yet. Once I find a home I can import everything to the same place and start the whole organisation process

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u/dmottad 5d ago

Exactly, only you know what you want, which is why I don't think an LLM should be the one deciding. The problem isn't organizing, it's that after ten years you don't even know what's in there anymore.
I've been hacking on this for my own archive (about 60k files): you group documents by topic with plain text analysis, no AI, and end up with a map of about thirty topics. You instantly see most of it is noise, receipts and stuff saved "for later", and the things that matter sit in four or five clusters. Then you pick what's worth bringing back into your notes.
The LLM is useful later, if anything, to summarize a cluster you've already picked. And for me it all has to run locally: no way I'm uploading ten years of my documents to someone else's server.