Best Apps For Capturing Ideas

When a great idea strikes, you shouldn’t wait: getting it down fast on your smartphone or tablet ensures you’ll be able to refine it later. These are our favourite apps for capturing ideas on the go.

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Evernote

Why we like it: Evernote is popular for a host of reasons, with the ability to access and search notes in any format on a whole host of platforms right near the top of the list. When an idea strikes, you can note it down quickly (whether in text, drawing or photo form) and know it will be easily accessible later on.
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Simplenote

Why we like it: If you’re happy for all of your notes to be in text form, Simplenote fills the bill admirably. Most smartphone platforms offer basic note-taking anyway, but Simplenote steps it up a notch by syncing easily between multiple devices and making it easy to access earlier versions of your notes.
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Skitch

Why we like it: Skitch is from the Evernote team, but places its emphasis solely on drawing and annotation, rather than text capture. If you regularly like to brainstorm or flowchart ideas, this is a fine choice.

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Dropbox

Why we like it: Dropbox itself doesn’t offer anything more than a basic text editor on mobile devices, but if you’re already using it to sync other files, it’s a natural choice. If having notes jump easily from your phone to your tablet to your computer is the priority, this is a logical way to go.
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Springpad

Why we like it: Springpad is perhaps Evernote’s most visible rival. It has a stronger emphasis on categorisation, but is very efficient at classifying your ideas once you’ve set up a basic structure.
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