Memonic

Summary

Note-taking apps seem to be popping up like mad all over the place. Among all of them, Evernote has made the most progress in capturing a faithful and broad following. Now Memonic is trying to throw Evernote off the throne by introducing an alternative online synchronization service. Destined for glory or doomed to fail?

Nowadays taking down notes using your phone is a standard feature for all smartphones. With modern devices simple notes are taken to a whole different level – the magic word is cloud. What’s the use of having notes on my phone when I don’t have my phone on me? Or how am I supposed access notes on my tablet that are saved on my desktop? That’s exactly where Memonic comes in!

So how does it work exactly? Very simple: as soon as you save a note using Memonic, it gets uploaded to the Memonic server. From there your note can be accessed in any way possible: via the website, Windows, MacOS, iPhone/iPad or Android – all of these come with a Memonic app! This online integration is priceless in real life. Let’s say I jot down a quick note to myself on my phone. Before I know it, I can access it from my tablet and computer automatically! And it works in any direction, between any devices.

There are unfortunately still a couple of small problems with the synchronization. After I start up the app on my phone everything gets automatically synchronized, but this is not the case when I open a note on my phone that I originally created on my PC. Only after I’ve manually refreshed the synchronization on my phone does the note from my PC suddenly appear. Little problems such as these kept on coming up over and over again during my test. At some points, several notes weren’t synchronized at all. The app must include a feature that automatically synchronizes a note every time it’s saved. As opposed to Evernote, Memonic fails to do so for the time being. Although the service works generally well, there are still some minor issues with reliability. Until things changes, users will be forced to synchronize their files manually.

At start-up you have to either register a new account or log in using an existing one. The main start screen appears immediately after with all of the Memonic features:

• Write a Note: Write down a note and create a title for it. Unlike Evernote, Memonic allows just the bare minimum of text notes. No music, pictures, videos and other files allowed.
• Take a Photo: Snap a photo and save it as a note.
• Folders: Aside from the default Inbox and All Notes folders, you can create your own customized folders. To save notes in the appropriate folder, you have to open the folder first and the save the note.
• Tags: Notes can be tagged to make them easier to find. Tags cannot be added via the Android app; you’ll have to do so from your computer.

Here’s a tip for everyone: In the main menu you can access the settings via the menu button. There you can adjust the synchronization settings (synchronization yes/no or only via Wi-Fi). The Memonic desktop application is really well done, but the real highlight for me are the Google Chrome and Firefox add-ons. Just tap the Memonic symbol in your browser and you can save content from any website in a just a few clicks. The Memonic Web Clipper recognizes automatically whether you’ve selected a picture, an object or an entire paragraph. It just takes one click to save everything as a note. Very impressive!

Bottom Line: Personally, I see Memonic as Evernote’s little brother. In terms of functions Memonic falls short of what Evernote can offer, but still a viable alternative. Another things missing for me: adding an icon on the main menu that lists all the notes with one click without having to access the folders. Some improvements are also necessary to improve the synchronization. Despite all of this and the fact that I’m a devoted Evernote user, Memonic remains a good alternative and is definitely worth a review.
 

Memonic is really easy to use, but some fine tuning is still necessary. On the Galaxy Tab, for example, the scaling of the log in screen is a bit off.

No crashes or other serious problems experienced during the test. Memonic runs very smoothly

Memonic is free and without any ads. Unfortunately, you can only save 100 notes with the free version. An unlimited membership costs 22€ (~$31) a year. It would be much easier to make the app paid instead.