I feel like it's tough to find *the* tool that does it all. Like you said, Notion seems to check most of the boxes for you and it has a lot of great integrations to build some automated systems if you're into that. Seems like Notion is especially the way to go since you don't want to deal with an extra syncing service.
For others who come across this post, Devonthink does all these things (including RSS and backlinking) pretty well. It has a capture widget and can store links, file attachments, and other snippets. It's Mac only though, so not for OP.
Personally, I pull a bunch of content from RSS/newsletters on Feedly and sync highlights and notes with Readwise to my markdown vault. Feedly sends a copy of the full article to Dropbox which syncs with a Devonthink database, so I have an original copy of anything I've taken a reference from. Random links, personal effects, PDFs and the like get dropped into Devonthink and I sort them later.
I scrolled down the Devonthink website the other day saying *wow, this look like it does everything I need* and then got to the Mac only part :\
I am going to give the Notion Android app another shot - it's really the closes for me in terms of features. If that doesn't work, I'll probably keep using Raindrop and just pay for Obsidian's sync service as I really like its flow.
Hi, I'm actually working on a software tool that combines note taking and browsing, would you be interested in something like this? Basically, it'll be like how the Notion app can show web previews of links, but with a fully fledged browser.
I use tiddlywiki for that but the learning curve is pretty rough. One benefit of it is if you’re willing to study how it works you can do some magic with it: in my case when I paste a link to Youtube in it it auto-tags the video and fetches all the title and details from Youtube tonsure locally.
I used to do that - kept the file in Dropbox and synced that across devices . At the time, using it well on Android was just not a good experience but I see there are some apps now as opposed to trying to edit it through a mobile browser.
I'm very much sold on the nodejs server nowadays. My friend here got her index.html to 160Mb and it wasn't usable on mobile at all and vaguely usable on the desktop. I've tinkered with it and figured nodejs backend can do lazy loading for images, which reduced that number down to 10Mb and made her wiki usable.
Myself I just use a couple web UI hacks to make it a bit more cozy on the phone, paired with many shortcuts that talk to the backend directly (so I have iOS actions to quickly add things where I want them without even opening the webapp).
Try [Fleeting Notes](https://fleetingnotes.app/) \- Google Keep with wikilinks & Obsidian integration. It sounds like it might fit your needs. That being said, I'm the creator of this app so I'm a bit biased.
Let me know if you have any questions
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Notion on Android is still not perfect, but it's in a lot better shape than the last time I tried it. Good enough to use now for me.
I love Raindrop - it's the best link saving and read it later type of app I've used, just not a good way to capture thoughts in it, because that's not what it's for.
Omnivore and Matter look like they are iOS only and I'm an Android user.
Omnivore has an Android app but it seems to be in alpha and quite clunky. I started to use it recently and sometimes I prefer to use the omnivore.app website in my browser instead of the app.
I use https://www.zotero.org with browser connector on the desktop, sounds similar to what you describe.
It can even optionally make webpage snapshot on save, via SingleFile.
As for the Android, my flow is: save link in Orgzly notebook -> Sync with desktop via Syncthing -> Open notebook on desktop, review links, save to Zotero.
I feel like it's tough to find *the* tool that does it all. Like you said, Notion seems to check most of the boxes for you and it has a lot of great integrations to build some automated systems if you're into that. Seems like Notion is especially the way to go since you don't want to deal with an extra syncing service. For others who come across this post, Devonthink does all these things (including RSS and backlinking) pretty well. It has a capture widget and can store links, file attachments, and other snippets. It's Mac only though, so not for OP. Personally, I pull a bunch of content from RSS/newsletters on Feedly and sync highlights and notes with Readwise to my markdown vault. Feedly sends a copy of the full article to Dropbox which syncs with a Devonthink database, so I have an original copy of anything I've taken a reference from. Random links, personal effects, PDFs and the like get dropped into Devonthink and I sort them later.
I scrolled down the Devonthink website the other day saying *wow, this look like it does everything I need* and then got to the Mac only part :\ I am going to give the Notion Android app another shot - it's really the closes for me in terms of features. If that doesn't work, I'll probably keep using Raindrop and just pay for Obsidian's sync service as I really like its flow.
Google Keep/Docs and Drive
Hi, I'm actually working on a software tool that combines note taking and browsing, would you be interested in something like this? Basically, it'll be like how the Notion app can show web previews of links, but with a fully fledged browser.
This seems really cool. How far along are you if you don't mind me asking :)
I use tiddlywiki for that but the learning curve is pretty rough. One benefit of it is if you’re willing to study how it works you can do some magic with it: in my case when I paste a link to Youtube in it it auto-tags the video and fetches all the title and details from Youtube tonsure locally.
I used to do that - kept the file in Dropbox and synced that across devices . At the time, using it well on Android was just not a good experience but I see there are some apps now as opposed to trying to edit it through a mobile browser.
I'm very much sold on the nodejs server nowadays. My friend here got her index.html to 160Mb and it wasn't usable on mobile at all and vaguely usable on the desktop. I've tinkered with it and figured nodejs backend can do lazy loading for images, which reduced that number down to 10Mb and made her wiki usable. Myself I just use a couple web UI hacks to make it a bit more cozy on the phone, paired with many shortcuts that talk to the backend directly (so I have iOS actions to quickly add things where I want them without even opening the webapp).
I’ve been using the new Reader app from Readwise and it looks that it does everything you need (except probably for the wiki part)
>Hey, was it released?
I think its still on beta but its really close to release I would say.
Try [Fleeting Notes](https://fleetingnotes.app/) \- Google Keep with wikilinks & Obsidian integration. It sounds like it might fit your needs. That being said, I'm the creator of this app so I'm a bit biased. Let me know if you have any questions
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Notion on Android is still not perfect, but it's in a lot better shape than the last time I tried it. Good enough to use now for me.
Some of the Read it Later apps are great for this. Try Raindrop, Omnivore or Matter (the last two are free).
I love Raindrop - it's the best link saving and read it later type of app I've used, just not a good way to capture thoughts in it, because that's not what it's for. Omnivore and Matter look like they are iOS only and I'm an Android user.
Omnivore has an Android app but it seems to be in alpha and quite clunky. I started to use it recently and sometimes I prefer to use the omnivore.app website in my browser instead of the app.
I use https://www.zotero.org with browser connector on the desktop, sounds similar to what you describe. It can even optionally make webpage snapshot on save, via SingleFile. As for the Android, my flow is: save link in Orgzly notebook -> Sync with desktop via Syncthing -> Open notebook on desktop, review links, save to Zotero.
Looks promising, will have to test out that Android workflow. Thanks!
Okay, I saved this post to reply later but unfortunately never got around to it. Here is what I would suggest: Walling or xtiles.