In iPadOS 15, Apple introduced a new productivity feature called Quick Notes that aims to provide a quicker way to jot down things on your iPad without you having to go in and out of the Notes app.

Quick Notes Feature 2
Whether you're on the Home Screen or within any app, you can bring up a floating Quick Note window at any time using your finger or an Apple Pencil, by swiping diagonally up from the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

quick notes 1
If you're using a connected keyboard that has a Globe key, simply press the Globe key + Q to launch a Quick Note. You can also add a Quick Note button to Control Center: Go to Settings -> Control Center, then add the Quick Note option from the "Included Controls" section.

quick notes
The note you call up can be the last note you used, so you can just keep adding to it, or you can create a new note with a tap of the New Note icon in the top-right corner of the interface.

new quick note
When you tap on the note, it will bring up the virtual keyboard so you can begin typing. If you're using ‌Apple Pencil‌ and you have the Scribble toggle enabled in Settings -> Apple Pencil, you can just start jotting down handwritten notes, and they'll be transcribed into standard text.

Also at the top of your Quick Note window, there's also an ellipsis icon top-right to share the note, and to the left of that, a square quadrant icon that takes you into the Notes app proper, which is where all your Quick Notes live.

quick note buttons
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the interface, there's a Markup icon in the right corner to bring up standard Markup tools, and if you've created several Quick Notes, you'll see three dots along the bottom of the currently viewed note to indicate that you can swipe between them within the editor window.

quick notes
Quick Notes can also detect the app you're currently using or just recently used, and will show a dropdown menu at the top of the editor window for you to add a link to the specific message you're viewing in Mail or the website you were just viewing in Safari, for example. Whenever you're viewing a note with a link, just tap the link and you'll be taken directly to the related content.

quick notes
If the Quick Note window is obscuring your view of something, you can drag it to any corner of the screen. To dismiss a Quick Note at any time, tap the Done button in the top-left, or swipe diagonally towards the corner of the screen it's closest to – you can recall it at any time by tapping the reveal bar off to the side.

quick notes
That's Quick Notes on ‌iPad‌ in a nutshell. You can also create them on a Mac running macOS 12 Monterey, but be aware that Quick Notes can't be created on an iPhone running iOS 15. However, because Quick Notes live in the Notes app, you can access any that you've created elsewhere on your ‌iPhone‌, just as easily as any other note.

Related Forum: iOS 15

Top Rated Comments

slineaudi Avatar
47 months ago
I don't like the timing of articles like this that talk about products in the past tense when they've yet to be released. I feel like this would be timed better after the release of iPadOS15 so the majority of folks and go and try it.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fwmireault Avatar
47 months ago

I don’t get where the line is drawn between a ‘quick’ note and a document. If you going to be copy-pasting or extracting information on an iPad then surely you’d just run Notes in split screen?
Think of it like the digital equivalent of a Post It. Sometimes you just want to write something very quick, and the comprehensive integration of links and active apps makes it a good solution to just write down an idea, a task, something to do later, etc.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Prince Akeem Avatar
47 months ago
This would be cool on iPhone too...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rafterman Avatar
47 months ago

Nice! 7 years ago I dropped Evernote and its frequent changes and increasing complexity for Apple's Notes, and never looked back.

I'm glad Notes is evolving *slowly* with measured and thoughtful feature enhancements, yet is still super easy to use, and just works.

After Safari and Mail, it's my most used app.
Evernote has a lot of nice features, but it is starting to get bloated, is updated costantly, which is getting annoying and it's kind of slow. Apple Notes isn't fancy, but it's quick and simple.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
svish Avatar
47 months ago
Did not install beta. Looking forward to using it on my iPad once iPadOS 15 launches.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Oohara Avatar
47 months ago
Love it. Steps in the right direction.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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