{"id":506715,"date":"2026-03-01T05:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/506715\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T05:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:11:13","slug":"i-stopped-using-this-google-app-years-ago-until-a-surprise-update-changed-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/506715\/","title":{"rendered":"I stopped using this Google app years ago until a surprise update changed everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve primarily been a Samsung smartphone user for most of my life. My first premium Galaxy device<\/a> was the Samsung Galaxy Note II.<\/p>\n

Later, I kept upgrading to other Galaxy phones, and I haven’t stopped since.<\/p>\n

But one of the benefits of being a Samsung user is the app ecosystem. I can choose between Google and Samsung apps. Currently, I am around a 60% to 40% split between Samsung and Google (this is an estimate), but I still keep tabs on most of my apps.<\/p>\n

The Google app I’ve long since retired and stopped keeping tabs on was Google Keep.<\/p>\n

I thought to myself: Why use Google Keep when I already use Samsung Notes, Notepad, and OneNote as my go-to note-taking apps?<\/p>\n

Turns out that I am years behind, and this little note-taking app by Google punches well above its weight than I gave it credit for.<\/p>\n

\"Smiling<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tI stopped pretending third-party apps are always better than the default Google apps
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s why I don’t bother replacing Google’s apps anymore<\/p>\n

Why I started paying attention to Google Keep again<\/p>\n

Tasks integration is a complete game-changer<\/p>\n

\"Apple
\n Credit:\u00a0Lucas Gouveia \/ Android Police<\/p>\n

One of my colleagues writes about productivity apps all the time. He often compares popular options and highlights the best features in each.<\/p>\n

But then I noticed he started writing about Google Keep again after Google pushed out a more recent update to the app.<\/p>\n

I thought to myself, “Are people genuinely still using this app?” I was really surprised, so I went digging through our Google Keep content.<\/p>\n

In one of his articles, he wrote about how he initially used the app as a “digital dumping ground,”<\/a> which is exactly how I would use it before, and partially why I stopped.<\/p>\n

It turns out that I severely underestimated Google Keep. My old notes consisted of disjointed to-do lists and reminders, for which you don’t need Google Keep.<\/p>\n

There are a few to-do list apps that work better, like Todoist (the one I’ve used) and TickTick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plus, I even proved that Google Calendar did well with managing my daily routines<\/a>. I stopped missing a single beat after I effectively leveraged Calendar’s Google Tasks integration.<\/p>\n

But I was wrong. Google Keep is much better than I give it credit for. I recently picked it up again, and I was surprised by my experience.<\/p>\n

For one, a late October 2025 update for Google Keep<\/a> integrated Google Tasks into the app.<\/p>\n

Reminders in Google Keep can automatically be saved to Google Tasks. Plus, the update unified Google Tasks and Google Calendar with Google Keep, which all worked with Google Gemini.<\/p>\n

\"text\"use<\/p>\n

So it solved the issue of me having to go back and forth, just to get overwhelmed about where exactly I put my schedule notes and routine.<\/p>\n

Saving it to Google Keep meant I didn’t have to copy it to Google Calendar. It means less management.<\/p>\n

If I were feeling really lazy (which I have been finding myself doing more often since all I have to do is press the volume down button to summon Gemini on my phone), I would ask Gemini to create the reminder for me, and it would integrate with Keep without having to launch it.<\/p>\n

\"Google\"Google<\/p>\n

To have the Gemini assistant add and edit Google Keep lists, you must connect your Workspace account to Gemini.<\/p>\n

I saw how my colleague used this feature as a powerful tool to front-end his workflow<\/a> in his December article, and I couldn’t believe it was the same app I’d used years ago.<\/p>\n

Plus, with the new Material 3 Express theme redesign<\/a>, the app looks much more modern. I immediately noticed this when I checked the app out on my Google Pixel 8.<\/p>\n

\"modern\"Default<\/p>\n

Ironically, I was never a massive fan of the original UI; it was too simple, and icons were a bit too muted.<\/p>\n

So far, the new design captures my attention. The app looks much cleaner than what I remembered.<\/p>\n

To me, it’s easier to visualize my lists with dynamic color themes (I found the previous colors a bit too bright), and the overall UI looks less cluttered because buttons and UI elements are contained within containers.<\/p>\n

\"custom\"Google<\/p>\n

When an app is more visually appealing to me while keeping its core features untouched, I tend to stick with it.<\/p>\n

Part of me wants to use Android apps over the desktop view or Chrome extensions, but I need everything to translate well to a phone \u2014 less busy menus and buttons that don’t take a while to find.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, even though it has been years since I last launched the app, using it again felt very familiar yet fresh.<\/p>\n

Why I’ll keep Google Keep installed long-term<\/p>\n

Cross-platform syncing is a necessity for me<\/p>\n

\"Man
\n Credit:\u00a0Lucas Gouveia \/ Android Police | Prostock-studio \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n

One thing I like about Google Keep compared to my other note-taking apps is that I can easily integrate it across different platforms.<\/p>\n

Samsung Notes is annoying to sync with the other platforms<\/a> I use. I love working with my iPad, ThinkPad, Windows Desktop, Chromebook, and Samsung Galaxy S25+.<\/p>\n

It often requires other apps or tools to sync properly. That’s not very helpful when I want to switch platforms in the blink of an eye, without having to sign in to something else and send it over manually.<\/p>\n

This is where I really miss Google apps, since it’s easy to work across multiple platforms (even Apple).<\/p>\n

Google Keep just requires a Google account. I can easily use it on any platform I want without needing another tool or note-taking app to transfer my progress.<\/p>\n

I almost regret not doing this sooner. Eventually, I will need to transfer some of my notes from my phone via a third-party app, and it will require me to either paste my text manually or share it one by one to another device via quick share<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now I know that I really should have used Google Keep instead of relying on a third-party app on my old six-year-old phone.<\/p>\n

Plus, since my job requires me to explore different Android ecosystems, a Google app is the best go-between when I am diving into Samsung, OnePlus, and Pixel devices.<\/p>\n

I tend to write down minor notes as I test and spot new features on each of my devices \u2014 but keeping mental notes isn’t very helpful and always precise.<\/p>\n

Take time to explore Google Keep<\/p>\n

While I ditched Google Keep years ago, I’m happy I came back to it.<\/p>\n

Even though I won’t always use Google Keep as a reminder or to-do list app, I feel much more confident knowing I can finally replace my pesky third-party note-taking app with something just as simple but better.<\/p>\n

Google Keep has some nice features<\/a>, like its grab image text option, which I have been using a lot more since I sometimes take pictures of text on screen or my jotted down notes.<\/p>\n

The only downside (for me personally) to the update is that location-based reminders are no longer supported.<\/p>\n

You can still use the Google Tasks integration to get time-based alerts<\/a>, but location-based alerts are no longer available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve primarily been a Samsung smartphone user for most of my life. My first premium Galaxy device was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-506715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}