We've been heads-down for six months building Notly 2.0, and today it's finally in your hands. This isn't a maintenance update — it's a ground-up rethink of the experience. Here's everything that's new.
A Completely Redesigned Editor
The old editor was functional. The new one is a pleasure. We rebuilt it from scratch with a focus on distraction-free writing. The toolbar disappears when you're typing and reappears when you need it. Formatting shortcuts are now consistent across platforms. And for the first time, the editor adapts to your content — a note full of checkboxes looks different from a note full of prose.
Real-Time Sync Across All Devices
Previously, sync could lag by several seconds. With 2.0, changes propagate in under 500 milliseconds on a good connection. Edit a note on your phone, pick up your laptop, and it's already there. We rebuilt our sync engine from scratch to make this possible.
Smart Search
Search now understands context. Type "meeting last week" and Notly will surface notes from that time period. Type a colleague's name and it finds notes that mention them, even if the name is buried in the middle of a long document. We use a combination of semantic indexing and date parsing to make this work.
New Home Screen
The home screen now shows your recently edited notes, pinned notes, and a digest of notes you haven't opened in a while (we call them "sleeping notes"). It's designed to answer the question: "Where was I?" the moment you open the app.
What's Coming Next
We're already working on collaborative editing, which will let multiple people write in the same note at the same time. We're also building an API for integrations with tools like Notion, Linear, and Zapier. Stay tuned — 2.0 is just the beginning.