Google's answer to Evernote - Google Keep

As some people might have seen, Google has released a new app to compete with the likes of Evernote. It's a pretty simple app and I think that's exactly what it needs if it wants to stand any chance of toppling a market leader like Evernote. The app was released just three days ago and has already racked up more than half a million downloads, not many other apps can boast the same feat, then again not many apps have a developer of such reputation.

Features

The features include being able to create to-do lists, take on the fly notes, capture photos and annotate them and  colour code notes to make it easier to sort and keep track of them. In terms of features, it's still pretty basic and updates will no doubt bring more features but at the moment I find myself using it more than Evernote and even if they didn't bring out any new features, it's definitely an app that satisfies my needs. It's the simplicity that Google always brings to the table I find myself attracted to. Before using either of these, I was using Tasks as it was so easy to use and everything I needed, a basic to-do list app that would sync with Gmail so I didn't always need my phone to access my to-do lists. 

The app itself

When you open Keep, you are presented with this screen:

Very clean and very simple, you have four options to select from, create a note, create a to-do list, use voice dictation or take a picture. It's pretty hard to say much else about the app as it's very straightforward and doesn't require you to create a separate account as it will link to a Gmail account of your choice. Give Google Keep a try and see if you'll be converted from one of its competitors or become a user of an organiser app.

Coming or going?

The only worry I have is how long this will be around for, you might have read that Google Reader is being retired in July, which has left a lot of people wondering if this will be around to stay or become a casualty of Google's spring cleaning a few years down the line...

Mo