Why Notes is noteworthy

One of our favourite iOS 15 upgrades was the new Notes app, which enables you to use tags – so for example if this were a note we might tag it #iOS #Notes #productivity. Once you’ve started using tags, the Notes app will automatically display them in the main screen below the list of folders; tapping on a tag will then show you all the notes that use that particular tag.

That’s pretty useful, but Notes takes things a step further with a new Smart Folders option that enables you to create a smart folder based on one or more tags; that then appears in the main folders list. And because Notes syncs over iCloud, what you create on your iPhone will be available on your Mac and your iPad, and vice versa.

Notes also became more social in iOS 15. The Shared Note feature enables you to share notes with people, much like you’d collaborate in Pages. When you’ve shared a note you get a new Show Note Activity option that enables you to see who’s interacted with the note and what, if any, edits they’ve made to it. Each person’s activity is shown in a different colour, and you can notify people from within notes by using the ‘@’ sign and their name. This works in shared folders too.