A Home Widget (iOS / Android) for Fleeting Notes
Let me get this straight, I love link-based note-taking appslink-based note-taking appLink-based note-taking apps are centred around the use of wikilinks. Wikilinks are typically created by surrounding the text with double square brackets. Some examples include but aren't limited to: * Obsidian * Logseq * Roam Research, the features, the plugins, and the community. Everything is fantastic, except for the speed of taking notesPut quick notes into Obsidian from anywhereI was browsing the Obsidian Reddit and noticed posts asking about workflows on how to get quick notes from different devices into Obsidian. To list a few: * What do you use to quickly save notes to Obsidian on your Android device? * Quick add note from Android * iOS share sheet for links? * Any additional app for fleeting ideas? The problem with quick notes It seems like Obsidian isn't a great tool for capturing quick notes. In addition, people also seem to be divided on their solution to put. For this reason, many people use other apps for quick capture (e.g. Apple Notes, Google Keep).
These apps solve the problem of quick capture, but, don't integrate well with Obsidian (I use Obsidian personally). Since I'm not up for manually transferring notes from a quick capture app to Obsidian, I decided to create an alternative: Fleeting Notes. Fleeting Notes is essentially Google Keep but with wikilinks and Obsidian integrationImagine Google Keep with Bi-directional Sync to ObsidianTaking quick notes Obsidian isn't great for quick notes. There's additional friction in taking quick notes especially on the mobile app. But, the plugin architecture and backlink support make Obsidian a powerful note-taking tool that's customizable to one's needs. On the other hand, Google Keep is a great note-taking application for jotting quick notes. However, it lacks backlink support and is not nearly as customizable as Obsidian. Each serve it's own purpose, but there's a great opportunit.
Recently, I made a poll in my discord channel to ask for what features to add. To my surprise, a feature that I didn't even put on the list won the poll by an overwhelming amount: home screen widgets. Since it was so popular, I figured that people within the Obsidian community might benefit from a post like this.
How to add a home widget and set up sync
- DownloadDownloadDon't want to download anything? Try the web app Download Links * Download the chrome extension * Download the firefox extension * Download the safari extension * Download the Android App * Download the iOS App Desktop (beta) / Requires extra permissions * Download the MacOS App * Download the Windows App Fleeting Notes on your device (iOS or Android)
- Add the home widget on iOS or Android
- Install the Fleeting Notes plugin within Obsidian and set up syncHow to Sync Fleeting Notes with ObsidianFleeting Notes is a separate network of notes outside of Obsidian. The goal of this plugin sync both these networks of notes into one! Below are step-by-step instructions on how to do this. Also, checkout my youtube video if you like that format better. Installation / Setup 1. Before you begin, you'll need to create an account in the Fleeting Notes App. You can do this by navigating to the settings and registering. Fleeting Notes authentication form 1. Go to Settings > Community Plugin an, or just setup local sync with the filesystemAn alternative (local only) sync solution for the Fleeting Notes AppIn the upcoming version of Fleeting Notes (v0.5.0), local sync is going to make an appearance! In other words, notes taken will automatically be synced to local storage specified by you. That's cool and all, but what does that mean for you? First off, it means that your notes are automatically backed up locally. This means that even if you uninstalled Fleeting Notes, notes will be stored in markdown files in your local storage. A second advantage is that other local markdown note-taking applica
- Take notes from the home widget and watch them populate in Obsidian
Android Example
iOS Example
A small but IMPORTANT caveat
If you decide to use Fleeting Notes across multiple platforms, you'll be forced to re-login when switching between devices. To avoid re-logging in when switching devices, you'll need to subscribe to the basic plan.