

Prior to Mountain Lion, Apple Mail on macOS supported a mailbox containing notes, which was synced with notes in the Notes application in iOS. Notes can be locked using the device passcode, instead of using a specific passcode for locked notes. Quick Notes is now available on iPhone through the Share Sheet, and Smart Folders support new filters for organizing notes. A new Activity view shows all the recent changes to a shared note. Notes supports using tags to categorise notes, and using mentions to notify collaborators of important changes to shared notes. Search can find text in documents scanned using Notes and can recognise images within notes. Checklist items can be automatically moved to the bottom when completed, and can be reordered using drag and drop.

In iOS 13, the Notes app includes a new gallery view that displays notes as thumbnails, and shared folders. Tapping the Pencil on the Lock screen will bring up a new note, with drawing active the Pencil can also be used while in the Notes app to start an inline drawing. The update to Notes released with iOS 11 adds tables, pinned notes, a document scanner, graph and lined paper, monospaced text support, handwriting search and improved integration with Apple Pencil. In iOS 10, Notes now has a collaboration feature for many people to work on a note at the same time. The password syncs across compatible devices. As of iOS 9.3, individual notes can be password-protected (with the ability to use Touch ID to unlock all notes on compatible devices), however, only one password can be set for all notes locked henceforth.

Starting with iOS 9, Notes received a significant functional overhaul: iCloud sync (instead of IMAP in-line with the OS X El Capitan version), the ability to create sketches (and later, support for Apple Pencil), advanced text formatting options, several styles of lists, rich web and map link previews, support for more file type attachments, a corresponding dedicated attachment browser and a system share extension point for saving web links, images, etc. This design was replaced in OS X Mavericks and iOS 7. Until 2013, both applications used a strongly skeuomorphic interface, with a lined, textured paper design the Mountain Lion version placed this inside a leather folder. The application uses a similar interface on iOS and macOS, with a non-textured paper background for notes and light yellow icons, suggesting pencil or crayon. It functions as a service for making short text notes, which can be synchronized between devices using Apple's iCloud service. It is provided on their iOS, iPadOS and macOS operating systems, the latter starting with OS X Mountain Lion. Notes is a notetaking app developed by Apple Inc.
