Standard Notes is an effort to build a cross-platform note taking application that focuses on open standards and emphasizes privacy and security.
Standard Notes is a basic notes app that delivers only the essentials in note taking. Because of its simplicity and resistance to growth, users can count on:
- A standard data format that allows portability and an extended lifetime. The more complex and custom a notes app becomes, the more likely your data becomes locked in to that platform, and the more buggy and laggy the application becomes. Because Standard Notes focuses on the “standard” format of a note, this data format, along with respective user-facing applications, are easy to maintain, and can exist for decades without issue. This means a less nomadic lifestyle for note takers.
- A set of cross platform applications that don’t deteriorate over time. Simply put, applications that are simple are simpler to maintain. Applications that aim to survive an apocalypse must adapt to a different style. Because of this focus on durability, you won’t be forced to switch over to a new system every time developers of your favorite notes app decide to change everything around or just completely abandon the project. And because the data format is built on top of the Standard File format, your Standard Notes data can be used with any app that supports your Standard File account.
- High security and privacy. Because Standard Notes uses the Standard File format, all your notes are encrypted on your device before being sent over the wire. This means that even if the server was hacked and all your data was stolen, the attacker would only see gibberish – only you can decrypt your notes with your password key. Also, Standard Notes applications do not use any analytics tracking services and will never require you to agree to any “Terms of Service”.
The project is open source and has a github repository.