Once again, Microsoft has triggered its redundancy protocols as it seeks to bring it Sticky Notes app into the modern computing space with users now having two different ways to access the platform with slightly different feature sets.
Over the past couple of weeks, Microsoft has been working on rolling out its improved Sticky Notes experience in Windows by attaching new feature releases with its OneNote app. While OneNote and Sticky Notes have been intrinsically tied together for some time, the overall intuitiveness of combing the two platforms has left a bit to be desired from users.
Notes jotted down using Sticky Notes on the PC could be surfaced either in the app itself on Windows, or in the OneNote app on mobile since there is no dedicated app for Microsoft Sticky Notes on smartphones. Cojoining the two note taking apps makes general sense but for anyone who doesn’t use both apps, there is an immediate valley in the middle of the synergy Microsoft was aiming for.
Now it seems, instead of creating a dedicated mobile app for Sticky Notes, Microsoft has alternatively updated the app with a new screenshot function and then locked that feature update to the use of the OneNote app during its rollout. Even more confusing is that Microsoft also offers its modern dedicated Windows Sticky Note experience alongside this new OneNote triggered version, but sans the new screenshot feature.
Sticky Notes users can now choose to jot notes down using the dedicated Windows version of Sticky Notes equipped with the same recently modernized feature set that includes a hierarchical Notes list, support for image inserts, font and text editing, theme support, machine learned Insights, and multiplatform syncing.
Meanwhile this new OneNote oriented Sticky Notes app houses many of the same features, but however, lacks theming options, Insights as well as an evident syncing option. Where the OneNote version of Sticky Notes may lack in some feature set departments, it makes up for it with a new one-click screenshare grab as well as support for docking the app to the Windows desktop and support for Optical Character Recognition.
It’s unclear what Microsoft’s plan is for the future of Sticky Notes, but the company has been known to offer redundant app and platform experiences during times of transition such as the Windows inbox mail app running alongside the new progressive web app Outlook mail app.
Ideally, Microsoft will combine the code for the two apps which means the eventual support of screenshot capture, OCR, and docking support will come to the dedicated Windows app as well as the continue support of the app across devices and platforms as it currently enables.
Until then, users will need to navigate both separate Note taking and retrieval experiences independently.
Leave it to Microsoft to complicate something as simple as note taking as it seemingly tries to increase usage across platforms.
