HNote is a note-taking app for students. Write with Apple Pencil, a finger or a trackpad, get a clean typed copy of each note, and keep your classes and what's due in one place.
Your notes come first. The rest is there when you want it.
Pages scroll and pinch to zoom, and ink stays sharp at any size. Every change saves a second later.
Add an Anthropic API key in Settings, and each note you close gets a clean typed version and a PDF, made on your device. Switch between Typed and Handwritten at the top of the note.
The dashboard opens with today's classes, what's due soon, your recent notes and your grades. Tap a number to see everything behind it.
What's due, announcements and grades come from Canvas. Without it, you still get today from your calendar, your classes and your recent notes.
Ask anything about your classes, and it says where it found the answer. It keeps the conversation going for follow-up questions, using the same API key.
While the app is open, HNote can make a review PDF for each class day and a study guide before each exam. You can turn this off in Settings, or run it right away.
These need Canvas, because they're built from what it says a class is covering. They also use your API key.
Each has its own color. Canvas courses add themselves, and you can add your own.
Keep subfolders inside a class, and make a new note right where you are.
Every note from every class, newest first, with filters and Find.
Each device keeps a working copy, so you can write without a connection.
Syncs every 45 seconds while the app is open, and right away when you close a note.
If two devices change a note while apart, you keep both, with a copy marked as a conflict.
It won't go to sleep while a note is open, however long the lecture runs.
Two fingers scroll, right-click opens a menu, and ⌘N makes a note.
Connect through your school's own sign-in page, Duo and all, or skip it and add your classes yourself. If you connect later, the classes you added are matched to their courses by name.
You make an HNote account with a username and password, and your notes come to any device you sign in on. Here's exactly where each thing is kept.
Settings has two switches, both off to begin with. iCloud copies your notes to a folder you choose in iCloud Drive and works from it. Canvas backup needs iCloud on, and downloads your course files there over Wi-Fi. With iCloud off, HNote doesn't touch iCloud Drive at all.
Delete Account in Settings removes your account right away, and your stored files follow shortly after. A note you delete on its own is kept on the server for 30 days before it's really gone.
This isn't end-to-end encryption: HNote's server holds the keys, because it has to send your notes back to you. There's also no two-factor sign-in, and no email recovery, since HNote doesn't ask for your email. Keep your password somewhere safe.
No. This site is only information, with nothing to sign in to. Your notes only open in the HNote app.
An iPad or iPhone with iOS or iPadOS 17 or later, or a Mac with macOS 14 or later. Apple Pencil is optional.
HNote is in testing and isn't on the App Store yet.
No. Skip it when it's offered and add your classes yourself. You can connect it later.
No. Your notes are kept with your HNote account. iCloud is an extra backup you can turn on in Settings.
Only for typing up, Ask HNote, review sheets and study guides. Writing, syncing, classes and Canvas all work without one.
Yes. You can write offline, and your notes sync when you're back online.
The later save stays where it is, and the other becomes a copy beside it, named something like "Cell Transport (Conflict Nov 5)". Nothing is lost.
It's kept on the server for 30 days, but there's no button in the app to bring it back yet.
HNote doesn't ask for an email, so there's no reset link. A password manager is the safest place to keep it.
