Hot on the heels of the app appearing for a second and then vanishing comes the revelation that, yes, Google has a new app called Keep. It’s basically a set of digital sticky-notes, and it’s trying to be the new digital harlot that makes you forget that hussy Reader.
Is there a twee announcement video? You bet there’s a twee announcement video:
We can count the number of rock stars that will use this app on one hand, Google. That said, it’s also synced directly to Google Drive, which means your notes will come with you to pretty much any device tied to your Google account, and likely fairly seamlessly. It even transcribes voice memos, and for anything with Android 4.0 and up, there’s a lock-screen widget function.
We tried it out and, well, it’s pretty solid. Honestly it’s nothing earthshaking, and if you’re a messy person, or just don’t naturally take a lot of notes in the first place, this isn’t going to change your mind. But it also hops fairly seamlessly from one device to another, and it’s surprisingly easy to use. Photo and voice functions work fairly seamlessly, although when we put the voice memo function to use in loud environments, it had some problems, but nothing you wouldn’t run into with other voice-recognition programs.
Is it a replacement for Reader? No, but then, what could be? It’s mostly designed to lock horns with Evernote and in that respect, it works. We’ll just be curious to see where this takes off, and whether Evernote’s users will switch.