Google Keep Unlocked: Unconventional Tips for Android Users
A seasoned Android user and writer for Android Police, Irene Okpanachi, has discovered several underutilized features in Google Keep that make it a valuable tool. Despite initially dismissing the app as uninteresting due to its lack of advanced editing features, she found ways to maximize its potential.
One trick is using ASCII sorting to reorder notes alphabetically. This method, first proposed by IBM engineer Bob Bemer in 1961 and published by the American Standards Association in 1963, assigns numerical values to characters based on their positions in the ASCII table. By adding numbers to note labels, Irene can cheat the system and achieve a more organized layout.
Another feature that has been game-changing for her is detaching links from notes. When a URL is detected by Google Keep, it displays a rich preview with a thumbnail, summary line, and headline. Instead of deleting the link text, Irene highlights and removes it while keeping the preview intact, which makes her notes more readable.
Irene has also repurposed Google Keep as a Kanban board for managing tasks. By rearranging notes by color and using the app's search system to filter by color, she can categorize tasks into urgent (red), in progress (yellow), and completed (green) categories. This setup provides her with a low-effort universal clipboard, where she can instantly access copied text across devices.