Notability: AI Notes & PDF app

Name: Notability: AI Notes & PDF app
Rating: 4.6 (23401 reviews)
Author: Ginger Labs

Write, type, annotate, draw

Free · In-App Purchases

23K Ratings
Ages

4+
Years
Category

Productivity
Developer

Ginger Labs
Language

EN
+ 20 More
Size

411.5
MB

From your first lecture to your next big meeting, Notability helps you think, learn, and work better. Take handwritten notes, annotate documents, record audio, and stay organized in one place so your ideas are always clear, searchable, and ready when you need them. FREE DIGITAL NOTES FOR WORK & SCHOOL • Write, type, or sketch with digital ink, highlighters, and text tools. • Mark up anything: PDFs, textbooks, lecture slides, images, and more. • Combine handwriting, typed text, images, diagrams, and sketches on the same page. • Stay organized with customizable folders and subjects that grow with you. FOR PROFESSIONALS: WORK SMARTER AND SAVE TIME • Mark up documents, capture meetings, organize ideas, and present with confidence. • Import and handwrite on any document: PDFs, DOCs, presentations, reports, and more. • Fill out forms in the office or on a job site. • Combine handwriting, text, photos and documents in one place. • Record calls and meetings to transcribe voice in real-time. Audio is synced to your notes so nothing is missed. • Receive automated meeting notes, takeaways, and summaries. • Search handwriting, transcripts, text, and PDFs to quickly revisit decisions and action items. • Present notes, documents, and ideas in full screen, with a laser pointer to guide attention. • View and edit two notes side-by-side to stay focused and productive. • Share a PDF of your note in one tap. FOR STUDENTS: STUDY SMARTER AND ACE EXAMS • Take handwritten notes digitally or annotate lecture slides or your textbooks. • Record lectures and get instant audio transcripts and real-time summaries in your notes. • Audio recordings are synced to the exact moment you write in a note — perfect for lectures. • Import lecture slides, textbook PDFs, and assignments into organized folders and subjects. • Search across handwriting, typed notes, and transcripts to instantly find content from classes. • Study content from your note with personalized quizzes and flashcards to practice with active recall. • Chat with your notes to review concepts, clarify ideas, and prepare for exams. WORK YOUR WAY • Seamlessly switch between handwriting and typing. • Import files instantly and keep everything connected. • Share notes easily to collaborate or get feedback when needed. • Access your notes across iPad, iPhone, Mac, and the web. • Create beautiful notes using templates from the Notability Gallery. UPGRADE TO A NOTABILITY SUBSCRIPTION Notability is free to use. With an upgraded subscription, you can receive: • Unlimited note-taking • AI-powered productivity and study tools • Handwriting recognition and math conversion • Live Audio transcripts • Auto-backup and iCloud sync Download for free on iPad, iPhone, Mac, and web. Privacy Policy: notability.com/privacy Terms of Service: notability.com/terms

Events

MAJOR UPDATE
Notability for Business

Create Shared Libraries of notes your entire team can access in Notability 16. Collaborate on and off site in real time.

Ratings & Reviews

4.6

out of 5

23K Ratings

Editors’ Choice

We rely on this sleek, powerful note-taker to annotate documents, record lectures, sketch illustrations, and more. With built-in iCloud support, it’s perfect for keeping notes, documents, and doodles up to date on both iPhone and iPad.
Initially fantastic app now rendered useless
24/11/2017

Emily-Roseee
I adored everything about this app and it had become the only app I used for note-taking. Excellent features, great handwriting feel (far superior to Notes app) and the recording feature is so useful in so many work/study contexts. HOWEVER, a few updates ago, the iCloud backup feature made the app need to re-download EVERY note each time I re-enter the app. You cannot open the note while re-downloading and this can take anywhere from 2-10 minutes (no exaggeration, and the app must be open to do so)! This means I can never quickly access my notes! Quickly switching in and out of the app within minutes, even with Background App Refresh disabled, causes everything to re-download. Extremely frustrating; particularly at work when important information is in a past note and I’m forced to idly wait and make others wait until I can access it. I need to access my notes across devices but turning off iCloud is the only impracticable option. This has rendered the app useless to me now. GINGER LABS, PLEASE FIX THIS ERROR! 🙏🏽
Initially fantastic app now rendered useless
24/11/2017

Emily-Roseee

I adored everything about this app and it had become the only app I used for note-taking. Excellent features, great handwriting feel (far superior to Notes app) and the recording feature is so useful in so many work/study contexts. HOWEVER, a few updates ago, the iCloud backup feature made the app need to re-download EVERY note each time I re-enter the app. You cannot open the note while re-downloading and this can take anywhere from 2-10 minutes (no exaggeration, and the app must be open to do so)! This means I can never quickly access my notes! Quickly switching in and out of the app within minutes, even with Background App Refresh disabled, causes everything to re-download. Extremely frustrating; particularly at work when important information is in a past note and I’m forced to idly wait and make others wait until I can access it. I need to access my notes across devices but turning off iCloud is the only impracticable option. This has rendered the app useless to me now. GINGER LABS, PLEASE FIX THIS ERROR! 🙏🏽
Recent issues
25/03/2023

Lucaread
I have used this app every day for the last 3 years and it has served me incredibly well for my degree. However, as of late, it has been atrocious. Opening PDF files that once ran smoothly now immediately lags the app, so much so that once I’ve finished scrolling through my pages it either crashes, or takes like 5s to scroll to where I want it to be, essentially rendering it useless for anything longer than a couple of pages. It now also ‘forgets’ which page I was last editing in a document. That is to say, now when I open a document it will open to page 1 rather than the page I was last editing on. Handwriting has also become near impossible, after a couple of minutes of nice handwriting, the app begins lagging for no apparent reason and my handwriting has a significant few seconds of lag before it shows up. Once this lag starts it applies to everything, switching pens, undoing, scrolling, page selection, etc. To fix this I have to fully shut down the app and reopen it. After reopening it often proceeds to crash once or twice before I can get back into it. This essentially renders writing notes in class useless. Additionally, the scrolling issues are often accompanied by artifacting, wherein the text on the screen is warped and improperly rendered or blurry. Not to mention, the battery usage is also out of this world now. I once loved this app but whatever it is, new updated on iPad or on the app itself, has made me reconsider just using pen and paper. The fact that they’re pushing their subscription model but the app barely works is incredibly disappointing.
Recent issues
25/03/2023

Lucaread

I have used this app every day for the last 3 years and it has served me incredibly well for my degree. However, as of late, it has been atrocious. Opening PDF files that once ran smoothly now immediately lags the app, so much so that once I’ve finished scrolling through my pages it either crashes, or takes like 5s to scroll to where I want it to be, essentially rendering it useless for anything longer than a couple of pages. It now also ‘forgets’ which page I was last editing in a document. That is to say, now when I open a document it will open to page 1 rather than the page I was last editing on. Handwriting has also become near impossible, after a couple of minutes of nice handwriting, the app begins lagging for no apparent reason and my handwriting has a significant few seconds of lag before it shows up. Once this lag starts it applies to everything, switching pens, undoing, scrolling, page selection, etc. To fix this I have to fully shut down the app and reopen it. After reopening it often proceeds to crash once or twice before I can get back into it. This essentially renders writing notes in class useless. Additionally, the scrolling issues are often accompanied by artifacting, wherein the text on the screen is warped and improperly rendered or blurry. Not to mention, the battery usage is also out of this world now. I once loved this app but whatever it is, new updated on iPad or on the app itself, has made me reconsider just using pen and paper. The fact that they’re pushing their subscription model but the app barely works is incredibly disappointing.
Needs lots of improvement of the iCloud Syncing Feature
12/07/2024

Red and Charizard
I have been a notability user for about 6 years and until now its been working absolutely fine. However, I needed to upload some homework a while back and it was done on notability. However, as I am about click on the note file to open it shows a loading screen. After waiting a bit, I click on it and it says ‘wait for notability to finish downloading files from iCloud’ or something along those lines. However, a few days after it did finally load, well past from when my homework was due. The interesting fact is I never toggled this feature on. A few days ago the same thing happens, so I look this up and how to fix this and turns out you have toggle iCloud syncing off in order for it to load but even after that it took a good half and hour of me constantly restarting the app and my iPad. I do understand that the longer wait times are possibly because of multiple external factors such as bad internet and device model but regardless, a good note-taking app should pose the ability to work smoothly on most devices and low internet speeds while being able to provide a note when asked for with at minimum a few seconds of delay. This is not expected from what used to be such a great app. Please improve this as soon as possible.Have a Great Day,A user of Notability,

Developer Response
Hello, Please see here:https://support.gingerlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/205688797-Troubleshooting-iCloud-Sync - oftentimes this issue may be related to a lack of storage space. These steps may help to resolve the issue. If they do not, or if you have not done so already, can you please submit a support ticket by going through the steps described here: https://support.gingerlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/4414054941594-Contact-Support. We can take a look at your support/device diagnostics and dive deeper. Thanks!
Needs lots of improvement of the iCloud Syncing Feature
12/07/2024

Red and Charizard

I have been a notability user for about 6 years and until now its been working absolutely fine. However, I needed to upload some homework a while back and it was done on notability. However, as I am about click on the note file to open it shows a loading screen. After waiting a bit, I click on it and it says ‘wait for notability to finish downloading files from iCloud’ or something along those lines. However, a few days after it did finally load, well past from when my homework was due. The interesting fact is I never toggled this feature on. A few days ago the same thing happens, so I look this up and how to fix this and turns out you have toggle iCloud syncing off in order for it to load but even after that it took a good half and hour of me constantly restarting the app and my iPad. I do understand that the longer wait times are possibly because of multiple external factors such as bad internet and device model but regardless, a good note-taking app should pose the ability to work smoothly on most devices and low internet speeds while being able to provide a note when asked for with at minimum a few seconds of delay. This is not expected from what used to be such a great app. Please improve this as soon as possible.Have a Great Day,A user of Notability,
Developer Response 06/08/2024
Hello, Please see here:https://support.gingerlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/205688797-Troubleshooting-iCloud-Sync - oftentimes this issue may be related to a lack of storage space. These steps may help to resolve the issue. If they do not, or if you have not done so already, can you please submit a support ticket by going through the steps described here: https://support.gingerlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/4414054941594-Contact-Support. We can take a look at your support/device diagnostics and dive deeper. Thanks!

• Learn now supports quiz sharing. Share a quiz link with anyone, even if they don't have Notability. • Fixed the status bar overlapping with buttons on iOS 26

Version 16.1 3 days ago

Subscriptions

Notability Lite

Unlimited note-taking

$9.99
Notability Plus

Unlock Learn, handwriting recognition and math support

$12.99
Notability Lite

Unlimited note-taking

$19.99
Notability Plus

Unlock Learn, handwriting recognition and math support

$24.99
Notability Pro

Live Transcription, Smart notes and unlimited Learn

Free Trial

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
- Identifiers
Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
- Contact Info
- Diagnostics
Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Accessibility

Information

Seller: Ginger Labs, Inc.
Size: 411.5 MB
Category: Productivity
Compatibility: Requires iOS 17.0 or later.

iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.

iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.

Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later.

Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
Languages: English and 20 more

English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Age Classification: 4+

4+

Learn More
In-App Purchases: Yes

Notability Plus $24.99

Notability Plus $22.99

Notability Lite $19.99

Notability Pro $149.99

Notability Plus $12.99

Notability Lite $9.99

Notability Pro $29.99

Notability Plus $39.99

Notability Plus $24.99

Notability Plus $19.99

Learn More

Developer Website

Privacy Policy

Supports

Family Sharing

Some in-app purchases and subscriptions may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled. Learn More

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Notability: AI Notes & PDF app

Events

Notability for Business

Ratings & Reviews

Editors’ Choice

Initially fantastic app now rendered useless

Recent issues

Needs lots of improvement of the iCloud Syncing Feature

What’s New

Subscriptions

Notability Lite

Notability Plus

Notability Lite

Notability Plus

Notability Pro

App Privacy

Data Used to Track You

Data Linked to You

Data Not Linked to You

Accessibility

Information

Supports

Family Sharing

More by Ginger Labs

Twobird

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