


Now, whenever you create a new note, you’ll see an option in its body field to choose from an existing set of templates. However, last fall Evernote debuted a new, user-friendly template feature across all its platforms. Templates aren’t an altogether new concept to Evernote, as the service has promoted unofficial templating methods for years, such as saving template-style notes to a particular notebook, then copying those notes when you need them. These are some of the major developments Evernote has touted in its last few years of work, and they make for an interesting case study on the company’s future direction. Personally, while I’ve kept an eye on Evernote over the years, I never put its recent updates to the test – until recently, that is, when I set out to revisit the popular note-taker.Īs part of checking back in on Evernote, there were three core features I wanted to focus on evaluating: Templates, Context, and Dark Mode. Though Evernote has retained a large user base all these years later, and in fact became cash flow positive nearly two years ago, there are a lot of former users who left the service long ago and haven’t looked back. It’s a solid way to take notes, but it also aims to make those notes easily accessible, to create connections between notes, and ultimately serve as a valuable aid to productivity. I concluded then that one of the service’s greatest strengths, particularly when compared with competitors like Apple Notes, is that Evernote strives to be more than just a note-taking app.

I last reviewed Evernote in early 2017, when version 8 of its iOS app launched as a major redesign. Still, the core product keeps pushing forward. The popular note-taking app celebrated its tenth birthday last summer, but the last few of those years haven’t been easy, with two CEO transitions and sizable layoffs at several points.
