How Google Keep, Google Tasks and Notes different

I have shared a lot of different apps to help you take notes or create lists.  I mainly would have mentioned most about Google Keep, Google Tasks and the Notes app. I understand, that it can be very confusing, since they all seem extremely similar.  In this blog, I’m going to highlight the differences and share specifically how I use them all.

I’m going to focus on, how they are different and suggest ways to use each one.  But first, let’s start with what is same about google keep,  google tasks and the notes app.  All of them are directly tied to your account, either your google account or your apple account which allows you to access your information on multiple devices and your storage is directly tied to that service, so either google or apple, all three have apps and all three can create checklists, but there are a lot of differences between them, as well.  So, for each one I’m gonna give a brief overview of what it is. I’m gonna share unique features that differentiate it from the other two. I’m gonna share the limitations and I’m gonna share how i personally use it.  

Google Keep

 

Let’s start with Google Keep,  Its a free note-taking service from google it is connected to your google account, so you can access it on multiple devices and it’s similar to virtual sticky notes. 

Features

Now let’s talk about, some of the unique features of google keep.  

• You can color code your notes so you can assign each note a color, unlike google tasks and the notes app, which just have a default color 
• You also can uncheck an entire checklist in one click, notes app and google tasks do not allow you to do that 
• You can add multiple labels, in google keep the labels work almost like folders you can attach a label to a note and then you can view all the notes under that label, but, what’s unique about google keep is you can have multiple labels so you can actually have the same note and you can access it through those various labels, so it can almost be in more than one place at one time
• You create a note within google keep using the sidebar within a google doc, google sheets, google slides  
• You can even an email, it will automatically create a link to that document or that email within the google keep
• It also allow you to set reminders tied to a specific location, so, I could tell google keep to remind me to buy specific thing when I arrive at a specific location  
• You also can insert an image and then grab the text from the image so, google keep will analyze the image and take any text and turn it into actual text that you then can copy and paste 
• It also allows you to copy a note directly to a google doc obviously, you could copy and paste from google tasks or the notes app but it will not automatically open up a google doc with that information you would have to go in open a google doc and copy and paste whereas google keep will kind of cut out the middleman and do it for you 

Limitations 

Now let’s talk about some of the limitations 

• Google keep will not allow you to easily move text or images from one note to another besides copying and pasting 
• If you are adding an image to a note in google keep you are limited to 10 megabytes and 25 megapixels 

How do I use 

So how do I use google keep.  

• Google keep is very easy to access through the sidebar.
• One of my favorite way to use google keep is recurring checklists, those are checklists, that i use again and again, so morning routine, afternoon routine, grading routine, what to do with a new student, what to do at the beginning of the year, end of the year, so on and so forth.  
• Google keep will allow you to uncheck all of the items in one click that was my favorite for recurring checklists  where, I’m going to reuse it again and again I also used it to link to slides,  When I was teaching, I  always had slides for my Math lessons, Science lessons, and so on. 
• Sometimes i wouldn’t get through all of the slides so whatever slide I left off on I would then create a google keep note and it would link not only to that slideshow but to that specific slide so, when I was teaching multiple classes, it sometimes was a little bit confusing to remember which slide I left off on for which class so I use google keep to keep that organized 

Google Task

Next, let’s talk about google tasks. Google tasks is a free list making service from google.

Once again it is connected to your google account, so you can access it on multiple devices.

It’s basically just virtual to-do lists. Now since google tasks focuses just on lists i will say there are less unique features and more limitations 

Feature

• The number one unique feature that i love is that you can easily move tasks from one list to another, varies in notes app you would have to copy and paste and in google keep you also would have to copy and paste 
• Another unique feature is that google tasks is linked to your google calendar, so if you assign a specific date and time to a task it will actually appear on your google calendar and 
• You can even add tasks to your list within your google calendar so if you are very date and time driven and you forget due dates google tasks is great because you will have the reminder on your calendar 

Limitations 

The limitations of Google Task are quite a few. 

• First of all, you are not able to open google tasks full screen unlike the notes app or google keep unless you use a chrome extension so there is kind of a workaround for this one but 
• It’s not so perfect, every task you add to a list has a checkbox so it’s not going to work well for just taking notes
• Adding images can’t be done in google tasks at all 
• Another limitation is, you cannot duplicate a list or a task, whereas within notes or within google keep you can duplicate something you’ve already created and that makes it easy to go in and make a few minor changes 
• You also cannot share your tasks or your lists with others, whereas google keep and the notes app can be shared  
• Finally, there is no exporting it into another format unless you just copy and paste it 

How do I use 

There’s not a whole lot I can do besides making lists.  

• I use it to organize all of my to-do lists, I have a future to-do list, a weekly to-do list, and a power list
• I love being able to easily move items from one list to another so at the start of each week I will move tasks from my future to-do list to my weekly to-do list and then each day I move three tasks from my weekly to-do list to my power list. 
• So, I know what to focus on that day and as I mentioned, because it is connected to my google calendar I do like to use it for reminders

Google Notes 

 

Finally, the notes, app the notes app is a free note-taking app that comes standard on apple devices it is connected to your apple account, so it can be viewed on multiple devices even pictures you are able to go to icloud and open up your notes.  

 

Feature 

Let’s start with the unique features

• First of all, you are able to lock individual notes using a password 
• The notes app also has a scan feature it will allow you to take a picture of a document, and it will automatically turn it into a PDF file
• The notes app also has more formatting options such as bolding, italics, changing the text size, whereas google keep and google tasks you’re just limited to the default
• Within the notes app, you are able to share entire folders which will automatically share all the notes within that folder whereas with google tasks you can’t share it all and within google keep you can only share one note at a time 

Limitations 

Some of the limitations are

• You can create checklists within the notes app but you are not able to uncheck all of the items at one time like you can do on google keep so it’s not ideal for those recurring checklists 
• Also just like on google keep you cannot move text or images from one note to another unless you duplicate the note or you copy and paste it 

How do Iuse 

So, how do I use the notes app 

• First of all,  I do store a lot of my account information, my usernames, passwords, but I have it on a password protected note 
• For note-taking that requires more formatting but doesn’t need to be in a google doc.
• I also use it store screenshots, I will actually put into the notes app that way I know exactly where to find it and I’m not scrolling through tons of photos 
• Finally I do have a shared folder with my family where we keep track of like our to do lists 

Conclusion 

Those are the differences between google keep, google tasks, and the notes app.  Keep in mind, i use all three but you don’t have to.  You could stick to just one or two it’s all about knowing what is best for each one and finding a way to make it work for you.  So, hopefully this helped you have a better understanding of some of those unique features but also those limitations so that you can make the right decision if this was helpful for you please give your feedback in the comment section below and don’t forget to share it with those who need it.