Noot is a new app for Android that is equal parts to-do list keeper, text editor, journaling app, and Markdown editor. It revolves around using plain text files for storage.
Back in 2020 I released a plain text to-do file format and syntax highlighter for Sublime Text. The idea is simple: you write your checkboxes in a text file, with whatever editor you want, and then check them off using a check-mark: 'v'. Syncing is your own responsibility: you can use Git or Drive or Dropbox, or something more open like Syncthing. Either way: no vendor lock-in. The 'back-end' is just a text file.
The app is a perfect companion for mobile for two big reasons:
- File editors on Android are almost always either offer poor UX, or are unsuited for simple .txt file editing, or are locked to a certain cloud provider.
- Typing a 'v' between to brackets is easy on a desktop keyboard, not so much on a phone.
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- A complete list manager that does not bug you but lets you organize your tasks the way you want it. Works equally well for your daily tasks as for a shopping list as for the list of movies your friends have recommended but you're probably not going to watch.
- Plain text editor. With markdown syntax highlighting.
- Rich text markdown editor.
- Light mode and dark mode (Monokai theme).
- Tablet layout included
flutter pub get
Then run the app from Android Studio.
If the localization files are not automatically generated, run this command:
flutter gen-l10n
To allow wrapping in the code editor, we use a custom fork of flutter-code-editor. This fork fixes broken line wrapping in the editor (at the cost of hiding line numbers), and adds a few optimizations to squeeze out a bit of performance.
Note that, due to the way text editors in Flutter work, editing large files in
code mode is quite slow. I've attempted to improve performance of the code
editor package, but this is even a problem with a plain TextField widget.
I'm investigating how to build a replacement, but for the time being I suggest
editing large files with either the To-do mode or the built-in Markdown editor.
- Update version number in the
pubspec.yaml. - Build:
flutter gen-l10n
flutter build appbundle
This app is not (yet) compatible with iOS because of the way files are opened is directly tailored to Android.
There is no clear roadmap, as this is a side project that I am unable to put a lot of time into. Here are improvements I want to make:
- Iron out bugs.
- Add toolbar buttons to make it easier to modify text style and markup.
- Publish on FDroid
I am also considering adding support for iOS. iOS does not let apps access a shared file system, so files will have to be shared through iCloud. While this goes against the 'use your own backend' philosophy, I'm open to work with what's available and work on this anyway.
The full list of open tasks is, of course, in a To-do-formatted plain text file.
Like this app?
This project uses the GNU GPLv3 license. See COPYING for the license in full.
Noot. Note-taking and todo-list app.
Copyright (C) 2025 Mathijs Lagerberg
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.