User Guide

Everything you need to know about Local Notes - from your first pin to advanced features like Travel Mode and Shared Collections.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started 2. The Home Screen 3. Creating and Editing Notes 4. Templates 5. Search, Filter, and Sort 6. Bulk Operations 7. Collections 8. Shared Collections (Pro) 9. Travel Mode (Pro) 10. Export and Import 11. Nearby Notifications 12. Home Screen Widgets 13. Android Auto 14. Statistics 15. Settings 16. Subscription Tiers 17. Web Version 18. Accessibility 19. Tips and Tricks 20. Complete Feature List

Getting Started

Installing the App

Signing In

When you first open the app, you'll see the sign-in screen with several options:

Signing in enables cloud sync - your notes are backed up to Firebase and accessible from any device where you sign in with the same account.

Onboarding Tour

On your first launch, a welcome dialog offers a quick guided tour of the app's key features. You can choose to Start Tour or Start Using to jump right in.

The tour highlights 5 key areas:

  1. Add Note button - the floating + button to create notes
  2. Long-press the map - create a note at any location by long-pressing
  3. View mode toggle - switch between map, list, and grid views
  4. Search and filter - find and filter your notes
  5. Overflow menu - access settings, collections, statistics, and more

If you skip the tour, a brief hint points you to the User Guide in Settings. You can replay the tour anytime from Settings > Feedback & Support > Replay Tour.

The tour skips itself automatically if you already have notes (for example after a reinstall, or signing in to an existing account on a new device) or if you've launched the app before. It's there to greet brand-new users, not to nag returning ones.

Auto-Restore Purchases

When you sign in, the app automatically checks for any previous purchases tied to your account. If a prior Plus or Pro purchase is found, a popup dialog confirms that your subscription has been restored - no need to visit Settings or manually tap "Restore Purchases." This makes switching devices or reinstalling the app seamless.

Your First Note

  1. Tap the + button on the home screen - it expands to show two options
  2. Tap Create New Note to search for a place, or tap Note at Current Location to pin a note where you are
  3. For a place-based note, start typing a place name - suggestions appear from Google Places
  4. Write your note, pick a note type, add a star rating if you want
  5. Tap Save

Your note now appears as a marker on the map and as a card in the list.

The Home Screen

The home screen is where you spend most of your time. It has three main parts: the map, the note list, and the navigation controls.

Instant Note Loading

Your notes load instantly when the app launches - there is no loading spinner or "Fetching your notes" delay. Notes are cached locally and displayed immediately, so you can start browsing right away while any cloud sync happens in the background. Map markers appear all at once with optimized icon generation, and Firestore sync runs in the background without blocking the UI.

View Modes

Tap the view mode icon in the app bar to cycle between four layouts:

Your view mode preference is saved automatically and restored instantly the next time you open the app - there is no flash of a default view before your preference loads.

The Map

The map is always rendered at full screen size in a persistent Stack layer - it is never resized or rebuilt when switching view modes. This eliminates resize flicker and ensures smooth transitions between views. GoogleMap padding is used to keep markers and controls properly centered within the visible map area.

The Note List

Each note card shows:

Tap a note card to open it for viewing or editing. Long-press a note card to enter bulk selection mode.

Pull-to-refresh the list to force a data reload from the cloud (syncs from Firebase for signed-in users).

The App Bar

The app bar is a floating pill-shaped bar that overlays the map, rather than a standard top bar. It contains:

The Overflow Menu

Tap the three-dot menu (top right) to access:

Floating Action Button

The + button in the bottom corner expands when tapped to show two options:

Tap the button again (or tap anywhere else) to collapse the menu.

Offline Banner

If your device loses internet connectivity, an orange offline banner appears at the top of the screen. Notes continue to work normally using local storage. The banner disappears when connectivity returns, and your data syncs automatically.

Ads

Free-tier users see a small native ad on the home screen. Upgrading to Plus or Pro removes all ads. If the ad fails to load, a subtle "Enjoy Local Notes ad-free" promo card appears instead, which links to the upgrade screen.

Creating and Editing Notes

Tap the + button and choose Create New Note to search for a place, or choose Note at Current Location to save a note where you are. You can also long-press on the map to create a note at any point - nearby place suggestions will appear so you can quickly select the right place. Tap an existing note to view or edit it.

Place Search

The top of the note form has a search bar powered by Google Places. Start typing a place name or address and pick from the autocomplete suggestions. The search uses session tokens for cost optimization and debounces your typing (waits 500ms before making API calls). When you select a place, the app automatically fills in:

Nearby Place Suggestions

When you create a note by long-pressing the map, nearby place suggestions automatically appear below the place name field. These suggestions are pulled from Google Places based on the location you tapped. Tap any suggestion to auto-fill the place name, address, and other place details, saving you from having to search manually.

Unlinked Notes

You can also create notes without attaching a place. Just skip the place search and write your note. You'll see a prompt suggesting you can link a place later by editing the note and using the search bar.

Note Fields

Photos

Attach photos to your notes from your camera or photo gallery.

Photos are compressed automatically (targeting ~500KB) before upload. Signed-in users' photos are stored in Firebase cloud storage and sync across devices. Guest mode photos are stored locally on the device.

When adding photos from the gallery, you can select multiple images at once - no need to add them one at a time.

Photos appear in a full-width swipeable carousel on the note form. Swipe left and right to browse all attached photos. Tap any photo to open a fullscreen viewer with pinch-to-zoom (up to 10x magnification) and swipe navigation between all photos, with page indicators showing your position.

In edit mode, each photo shows an X button to remove it, and the last page of the carousel is an "Add Photo" card for attaching more photos from your camera or gallery.

Adding to Collections

When creating or editing a note, you can add it to one or more collections. Tap the collections section to see your existing collections and check the ones you want. You can also create a new collection inline.

Notify When Nearby

Toggle "Notify when nearby" to receive a notification when you're physically close to this place. You can also set a custom radius (how close you need to be before the notification fires) and choose what content to include in the notification body (note text, rating, note type, address).

Live Activity (Pro)

Below the notification settings, the "Live Activity" master toggle adds a persistent lock-screen surface for this note. iPhone shows it as a Live Activity (with Dynamic Island compact and expanded layouts on iPhone 14 Pro+); Android shows it as an ongoing notification in the shade. On Android 16 / OneUI 8 (Pixel 9 Pro, Galaxy S25 Ultra and similar), the notification is promoted into the dedicated "Live notifications" section at the top of the shade with a colored progress bar, alongside Google Maps and YouTube Music.

When the master toggle is on, two sub-toggles appear:

You can enable either, both, or just one. The Live Activity ends automatically when you leave the geofence radius. Mute/snooze actions on the notification suppress the Live Activity for the same note. Live Activities require the Pro tier.

When viewing a note, a summary card in the view layout lists which sub-modes are currently active. Notes with Live Activity enabled also show a purple flag-with-check badge on their card on the home screen, alongside the photo and notification badges.

If you toggle Nearby Alerts or Live Activity on or off and save, a small confirmation toast tells you which one changed.

Sibling Notes

If other notes exist at the same place (same Google Places ID), you'll see a "Sibling Notes" section showing those related notes. Each sibling note card includes a thumbnail strip of its photos. You can swipe between sibling notes.

Sharing a Note

From a note's view screen, you can share it in several ways:

Place Data Refresh

Place details (phone, website, address) are cached when you first save a note. If the data is older than 90 days, you'll see a Refresh button next to the address to re-fetch current details from Google Places.

Deleting a Note

Delete a note from the note form's action menu. You'll be asked to confirm. Deleting removes the note from local storage, Firestore (if signed in), all collections it belongs to, and any associated geofences and photos.

Templates

Templates add structured fields to your notes based on the type of place. Select a template when creating a note to get category-specific fields.

Built-in Templates

Restaurant

Hike

Hotel

Shop

Bar

Viewing Template Data

When viewing a note with template data, the filled-in fields appear in a subtle container with a label-above-value layout for easy scanning. Only fields that have values are shown.

Tier Requirements

Search, Filter, and Sort

Text Search

Tap the filter/search icon in the app bar (or tap the "Local Notes" title text) and the floating pill bar transforms inline into a search field (hint: "Search your notes..."). Type to filter your notes in real time - by place name, address, or template field values. Flip the Include note text toggle on to also match words in the note body. Tap the tune icon inside the search bar to open the advanced filter panel with additional filter options.

Filters

The advanced filter panel (opened via the tune icon in the search bar) offers multiple ways to narrow down your notes:

Available to all users:

Available to Plus and Pro users (Smart Search):

Multiple filters can be stacked together.

Active Filter Chips

Whenever one or more filters are active, a row of dismissable chips appears just under the floating bar showing each active filter. One chip per filter (search text, each note type colored to match the type, favorites, notification enabled, Live Activity enabled, has image, rating range, date range, distance, address keyword, collection). Tap the × on any chip to clear just that filter without losing the others. Chips render in all four view modes (map, split, list, grid).

Sort Options

Choose how notes are ordered. Each option can be ascending or descending:

Sort and filter preferences are saved between sessions.

Bulk Operations

Long-press any note in the list to enter bulk selection mode. In this mode:

Available Bulk Actions

Exit bulk selection with the back button or "Deselect All."

Collections

Collections let you group related notes together - perfect for trip planning, neighborhood guides, or themed lists.

Creating a Collection

  1. Open the overflow menu > Collections
  2. Tap the + button
  3. Enter a name (required), optional description, and pick an emoji from the emoji picker
  4. Tap Create

Managing Collections

Collection Badges

Notes that belong to collections display collection badges. Tap a badge to navigate directly to that collection's detail screen.

Collection Detail Screen

Opening a collection shows all its notes in a list (sorted by date, newest first). You can:

Exporting Collections

From the collection detail screen, you can export all notes in that collection:

Tier Limits

Shared Collections (Pro)

Share collections with other Local Notes users for collaborative place lists.

Creating a Shared Collection

  1. In the Collections screen, create a new collection
  2. Choose to make it a Shared Collection
  3. The collection is stored in the cloud and visible to invited members

Inviting Members

  1. Open a shared collection
  2. Tap Invite and enter an email address
  3. The invited user receives a pending invite in their Collections screen
  4. They can Accept or Decline the invite
  5. Invites expire after 7 days if not acted upon
  6. Duplicate invites are prevented (can't invite someone who already has a pending invite or is already a member)

Member Roles

Changes Popup

When you open the app, shared collections automatically check for changes made by other members since your last visit. If any changes are detected, a popup summarizes what was added, removed, or edited - so you're always up to date without manually checking each collection.

Upgrade Prompt for Non-Pro Users

If a non-Pro user receives a shared collection invite, they see an upgrade prompt explaining that shared collections require the Pro tier. This makes it easy to discover and upgrade to Pro directly from the invite.

Activity Feed

Shared collections have an activity feed that tracks:

Leaving a Shared Collection

Non-owners can leave a shared collection at any time. The owner can remove members or delete the entire collection.

Shared collections require the Pro tier.

Travel Mode (Pro)

Travel Mode helps you plan a route to visit multiple places in an efficient order.

How to Use

  1. Select notes you want to visit (via bulk selection or the Travel Mode menu option)
  2. Activate Travel Mode from the home screen overflow menu or bulk actions
  3. A first-use info dialog explains how it works
  4. Numbered markers (1, 2, 3...) appear on the map showing the visit order
  5. A driving route polyline is drawn on the map via the Google Routes API
  6. Per-leg time and distance are shown between consecutive stops

Sort Modes

During Travel

Trip Live Activity (Pro)

The travel-mode header carries a flag icon next to the sort menu. It's on by default - while a trip is active, your lock screen and Dynamic Island (or Android notification shade) show the next stop, distance to it, and stop number. The tile updates automatically as you cross stops off.

Tap the flag to toggle it off (icon shows a plain flag when off, a flag with a check when on). A toast confirms the change. The preference persists - the next trip you start will pick up where you left it. Travel Mode wins over per-note Live Activities: if any note Live Activities would fire as you walk past, they're suppressed while a trip is active.

On iOS, the Live Activity now shows a progress bar that fills as you approach the next stop, and a segmented bar with one capsule per stop on the trip activity.

Exiting Travel Mode

Tap the Travel Mode button again to return to the normal home screen view.

Travel Mode requires the Pro tier.

Export and Import

Exporting Notes

From Settings > Data > Export All Notes or the overflow menu, you can export your entire note collection:

You can also export individual collections from the collection detail screen, or selected notes via bulk operations.

After export, the system share sheet opens so you can send the file via email, save to Files, AirDrop, etc.

Importing Notes

From Settings > Data > Import Notes (Pro only):

  1. Pick a CSV file (must be a Local Notes export format)
  2. The Import Wizard opens with three steps:
    • File Selection - Pick the CSV file (or it's pre-loaded from a share-to intent)
    • Preview - Shows parsed notes with duplicate detection. Duplicates are matched by Google Places ID or by place name + GPS proximity (~100m). Select/deselect notes with checkboxes, with Select All/Deselect All options.
    • Import - Progress indicator, success count, and done button
  3. Imported notes get fresh UUIDs and are added to local storage (and synced to Firestore if signed in)

Share-To (iOS + Android)

You can share content from other apps directly into Local Notes on both platforms. On iOS, look for the Local Notes icon in the share sheet (the new Share Extension installs alongside the app). On Android, Local Notes appears in any system share sheet for supported content types.

Tip: on iPhone, sharing Apple Maps's "share via" link from a place card prefills the note with both the place name and coordinates - one tap to save a place to your notes.

Nearby Notifications

Get alerted when you're physically near one of your saved places.

Setup

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications & Sync and enable Nearby Notifications
  2. The first time you turn on a location feature (Nearby Notifications, Widget Background Sync, or "Note at current location"), you'll see a one-time explainer screen describing every way Local Notes uses your location (map, widget refresh, nearby alerts, Live Activities, travel mode) plus a note that location data stays in your private account. Tap Continue to proceed to the system permission prompt
  3. Grant location permission when prompted. For best results with geofencing, grant "Always Allow" location access. After granting "While in use," a second explainer offers an "Open Settings" handoff to upgrade to "Always Allow" - required for reliable background geofence monitoring
  4. When creating or editing a note, toggle "Notify when nearby"
  5. Optionally adjust the notification radius (how close you need to be)

How It Works

The app uses a dual approach for location monitoring:

  1. Native geofencing (primary) - Registers geofences with the OS (iOS CLLocationManager, Android GeofencingClient) for battery-efficient monitoring
  2. Background polling (fallback) - If native geofencing isn't available (e.g., "While Using" permission only), a Workmanager task runs every 30 minutes to check distances using the Haversine formula

When you're within the configured radius of a note with nearby notifications enabled, you'll receive a push notification.

Notification Reliability

Notifications are preserved across app updates and device reboots - you will not lose your configured alerts when your phone restarts or the app is updated. The notification grouping setting in Settings controls how multiple nearby notifications are combined.

Notification Actions

When a nearby notification appears, you get three action buttons:

A confirmation message appears after snoozing or muting so you know the action was applied. When using "By Place" grouping, snoozing or muting applies to all notes at that location. Action buttons are not shown when using "All" grouping since the notification represents multiple places.

Notification Content

When editing a note, you can choose what information appears in the notification body. Per-note toggles let you include or exclude:

Notification Grouping

By default, each note triggers its own notification (Off mode - grouping is off). You can change this in Settings with a 3-way selector:

Configuration

In Settings > Notifications & Sync:

Default Radius

The default notification radius is 200 meters. You can change this per-note in the note form.

Mute Sync

If you mute a notification from the notification action (outside the app), the mute is synced back into the app on next launch. The note's "notify when nearby" setting is turned off.

Tier Limits

Home Screen Widgets

Native home screen widgets show your notes at a glance without opening the app. Widgets and geofence notifications are fully localized - they automatically display in your device's language (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, or Japanese).

List Widget

The list widget shows your nearest notes sorted by distance. You can now configure what information is displayed directly from the widget itself.

Android:

  1. Long-press your home screen > Widgets
  2. Find Local Notes and drag it to your home screen
  3. Long-press the widget to open native configuration
  4. Toggle visibility for note type, rating, distance, and note text
  5. Choose a widget color from 19 available colors
  6. Tap a note in the widget to open it directly in the app (via deep link)
  7. Tap the + button in the widget header to create a new note

iOS:

  1. Long-press your home screen > Edit Home Screen > +
  2. Search for Local Notes
  3. Choose a size: Small, Medium, or Large
  4. The widget shows your nearest notes
  5. Long-press the widget and tap Edit Widget to configure visibility for note type, rating, distance, and note text, and to choose a widget color

Page-turn arrows on iOS (medium/large/XL). The Medium, Large, and Extra Large iOS sizes now show < and > arrows next to the + in the header. Tap them to flip through your nearby notes a page at a time without opening the app. Each widget on your home screen tracks its own page, so two side-by-side widgets can be on different pages. Arrows fade out at the start and end of the list. Small iOS widgets and Android widgets are unchanged (Android already supports real scrolling via a swipe).

iOS lock-screen and StandBy support. Add a Local Notes widget to your iPhone lock screen or StandBy mode (when your phone is plugged in and laid horizontally on a charger). Three lock-screen layouts are available:

Tap any of them to jump directly to that note.

Single Note Widget

Pin a dedicated widget for any individual note to your home screen. Available on Android and iOS 17+.

  1. Add a Local Notes - Single Note widget to your home screen
  2. Select which note to display
  3. Configure which sections to show: title, note type, rating, distance, address, and body text
  4. Choose a widget color from 19 available colors
  5. Reconfigure the widget at any time by long-pressing it

On Android, the configuration screen uses a bottom sheet design with dark mode support and improved note selection.

When "Show Distance" is enabled, you can set a background refresh interval to keep the distance and note data up to date automatically. Choose from 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or 4 hours. The background worker updates single note widgets alongside the list widget.

The body text in the single note widget fills all available space without clipping, so you can see more of your note at a glance. On iOS, even the small widget size displays body text when enabled.

On Android, the single note widget is scrollable - swipe up and down to read long notes directly on your home screen without opening the app.

Single note widgets are great for quick access to notes you check frequently - like a go-to restaurant's details or a reminder about a favorite trail.

Place Notes Widget

Pin a widget that shows all of your notes for a single place - great for tracking multiple visits to the same spot over time. Available on Android and iOS 17+.

  1. Add a Local Notes - Place Notes widget to your home screen
  2. Pick a place from your existing pinned notes (places are grouped by Google Place ID, or by name for older notes)
  3. Configure which sections to show: title, distance, visit date, and note body text
  4. Choose a widget color from 19 available colors

The widget displays a place-name header at the top (with optional distance from your current location), and a scrollable list of up to 20 notes for that place, sorted by visit date with newest first. Each row shows the visit date and the first two lines of the note body.

When "Show Distance" is enabled, the background refresh interval keeps the distance tracking your current location.

Tapping a note opens it in the app.

iOS lock-screen and StandBy support. The Place Notes widget can also be added to your iPhone lock screen or StandBy mode. Two layouts are available:

(No circular layout - a place name doesn't render legibly in 76 points of round real estate.)

Widget Deep Links

Tapping a note in the widget opens the app directly to that note's detail screen, bypassing the home screen. Tapping the + button opens a new note form.

Auto-Refresh

By default, widgets update their data when you open the app. Pro users can enable Widget Background Sync in Settings, which keeps the widget data fresh even when the app isn't open. This works by storing a Firebase refresh token so the widget extension can independently fetch fresh data.

Data Shown

Widgets display: note place name, note type, rating, note text (up to 3 lines), and distance from your current location.

Android Auto

If you have an Android phone and a car (or aftermarket head unit) that supports Android Auto, Local Notes shows up in the in-car app drawer under the POI category. Read-only for v1 - you browse and navigate, you don't create notes while driving.

What you see in the car

Getting started

  1. Make sure Local Notes is installed on your phone with at least one note that has location coordinates (every note created via the app has these).
  2. Plug your phone into a car that supports Android Auto, or connect over wireless if your car supports it.
  3. In your in-car app drawer, look for Local Notes.

Testing a beta or sideloaded build

If you're running a beta build (Internal Testing track or sideloaded), Android Auto requires Developer Mode to be enabled in its companion app before the app appears in the car:

  1. Open the Android Auto app on your phone.
  2. Tap About Android Auto ten times to enable developer mode.
  3. Tap the overflow menu > Developer settings > toggle Unknown sources on.
  4. Reconnect to the car.

Released Play Store builds don't need this step.

Statistics

View insights about your notes. Open from the overflow menu > Statistics.

Basic Stats (All Users)

Pro Charts

Pro charts are locked behind a blur overlay for Free and Plus users, with an upgrade prompt.

Settings

Access Settings from the overflow menu on the home screen. On iPad in landscape, Settings uses a two-column layout with reordered sections for better use of the wider screen.

Account

Appearance

Notifications & Sync (Android/iOS only, not shown on web)

Permissions (web only)

Cross-Device Preference Sync (Pro)

Pro users who are signed in get automatic preference syncing across all their devices via Firestore. The following preferences are synced:

Preferences sync automatically when you sign in and whenever you change a setting. This means your app looks and behaves the same way on every device - no need to reconfigure after signing in on a new phone or tablet.

Data

Subscription

Feedback and Support

About

Subscription Tiers

Local Notes uses a three-tier system:

Feature Free Plus ($4.99) Pro ($1.99/mo or $19.99/yr)
Notes25100Unlimited
AdsYesNoNo
Photos per note-110
Collections-3Unlimited
Smart search-YesYes
Export-CSVCSV + PDF
Templates--Yes
Nearby alerts13Unlimited
Widget auto-refresh--Yes
Import--Yes
Collaboration--Yes
Travel mode--Yes
Preference sync--Yes
Web app access--Yes

Purchases are handled through Google Play (Android) or the App Store (iOS). The web version does not support purchases - you must buy on mobile. Purchases sync across devices when signed in with the same account.

Pro subscriptions have a 7-day grace period after expiration before downgrading. If you cancel a subscription, it remains active until the end of your current paid period - you keep all Pro features until then.

What Happens When You Downgrade

When your subscription expires or you switch to a lower tier, your existing content is never deleted. Instead, content that exceeds your new plan's limits is visually gated:

This means you can always see that your content exists, but you need to upgrade to interact with it again. Nothing is lost - upgrading restores full access immediately.

Web Version

The web version at localnotes.nicksaulino.com is Pro-only. You must have an active Pro subscription to sign in and access your notes on the web.

Works on web:

Not available on web:

Accessibility

Local Notes is designed to be usable by everyone, including users who rely on assistive technologies.

Screen Reader Support

The app includes comprehensive screen reader support (TalkBack on Android, VoiceOver on iOS) across all screens. Interactive elements have descriptive labels so screen reader users can navigate the full app - from creating notes and browsing the map to managing collections and adjusting settings.

Color Contrast

All text and interactive elements meet WCAG AA color contrast requirements in both light and dark themes, ensuring readability for users with low vision or color sensitivity.

Touch Targets

Buttons, toggles, and other interactive controls are sized to meet minimum touch target guidelines, making the app easier to use for people with motor impairments.

Tips and Tricks

Complete Feature List

A quick-reference list of everything Local Notes can do:

Core

Place Details

Photos

Maps

Search, Filter, and Sort

Bulk Operations

Collections

Shared Collections (Pro)

Travel Mode (Pro)

Export and Import

Notifications

Home Screen Widgets

Statistics

Templates (Pro)

Cloud and Sync

Authentication

Monetization

Appearance

Accessibility

Performance and Reliability

Platform Features