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Obsidian
Love obsidian. For something as simple as what OP is asking for though I just use Google Keep
There is Google Keep.
But if you want to degoogle, well I'm reading the thread. I've heard of Joplin (spelling?).
I like quillpad from f-droid as my Google keep alternative. Pretty identical to keep aside from the online syncing.
I see quillpad has Nextcloud syncing. This is a good start. And I think it's possible to sync using Syncthing too.
Obsidian, Hands down.
Not open-source though sadly 😔
Not open source but the data portability is on a level nothing else matches!
But all your notes are just md files. It's straightforward that way
I absolutely second this, if you aren't worried about built-in syncing (I use Syncthing to solve this, also cool piece of software), and if you really like the idea of Markdown/text-only notes with image/file attachments, there is absolutely no better tool. Plus, if you think you can get value out of the note linking feature, you can make some incredibly detailed knowledge bases. Really powerful tool when you need it to be, dead simple note-taking by default, it's a damn good app
Markor. It's as simple as it gets, but can scale up if you decide to later
Markor.
Then I also add my notes / docs folder to syncthing, and have it on every device.
Notepad++ if you just need to type something up.
Trilium Notes, Logseq, or Obsidian.md if you're looking for something more advanced.
Self-host something like bookstack, docuwiki, mediawiki, or wikijs for something more.... permanent? I wouldn't really use these to jot something down real quick but I do put a lot of finalized? notes in a wikijs docker image I host.
I used to use Keep Notes by Google. Did the job pretty well but obviously there should be better FOSS & privacy-respecting apps: NoNonesense Notes!
I use signal mesagaing app. They have a note to self feature thats awesome.
Not sure how I never found out about this feature before but this is awesome, thanks for sharing it!
Obsidian.md. It runs on markdown files, so even if you decide you don't like Obsidian, you've still got all the files. It's super easy to sync with SyncThing or probably Google Drive or whatever. It's free, and the are a ton of plugins for it. Peri sure there's a Lemmy community for it around, too.
https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.notes.pro/
This and others by simple are exactly that.
Notes. Gallery.Dialer. keyboard. Clock.
No ads. Absolutely zero unnecessary permissions. No telemetry or sneaky internet connections.
I've been using Notally for a while and I think it checks all your boxes.
Very much agreed.
Quillpad is like an open source Google Keep and you can use Nextcloud to sync it all.
Ideally, I'd want a way to import my Google Keep lists into it then I could bin Keep for good.
Do I need Nextcloud to synchronize? I like the interface but I don't really want to use Nextcloud.
At the moment, it is Nextcloud but I believe the plan is to give more options.
Yeah quillpad is great!
.txt file + syncthing
For true rebels: pen and paper
Quillnote + Signal's "note to self"
You can find Quillnote in both Droid and Google's Play Store.
Notion has been pretty great so far; I recently moved there from Evernote. Only downside (for me) is that it's based on electron.
I found Obsidian good, and Markor the best, on Android.
One option is Notally on F-droid and on the Google Play Store. It's FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and it has all of the features you mentioned. I use it as my everyday note taking app and I have zero complaints so far.
There's Safe Notes on F-Droid as well, which is pretty much identical to Notally feature-wise, but your notes are encrypted (locally).
I've always used ColorNote. It does have several advanced features but they're all optional. It's been updated for 5 years now and basically hasn't changed. Still free, no ads, easy to use. A rare exception on the Play Store. Whole app only 4Mb.
Apps:
Self-hosted:
Kvaesitso launcher also has built in note widget that can be linked to same local file as in an app. https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso
Element for Matrix. I know weird, but that's how I like it
Do you send messages to yourself? Is this a thing you can do? I never tried. That would be pretty cool. edit: um... yeah. create an empty room with just yourself in it. Now I feel silly.
Something like that. I created a new space with just me, with encrypted rooms for each topic. Random Thoughts, Books, Movies I Like, etc
I think you've inspired me. I'm gonna try this.
I used to do this a long time ago when I was still on Facebook. I'd write notes with visibility set to myself only.
I use OneNote usually, easy formating and works well on PC and mobile. Notion is cool too, but has a lot more features than a simple note taking app.
Google keep works fine for me.
ColorNote
It meets every item on your list.
ColourNote has been the best one I've found.
According to this article, and others I've seen pen and paper is still best.
Great, now how about a sketching app that follows all the same criteria that OP mentioned. Something for quick and dirty sketches. Nothing fancy. One that can do sketches and notes would be even better.