OneNote Will Soon Sync Your Sticky Notes

Microsoft recently launched a major upgrade for Sticky Notes on Windows 10, moving it to the cloud. The updated Sticky Notes allow users to sync their notes across devices, but there’s still no way of getting your notes on your phone.

And that’s changing, soon. As we reported earlier, Microsoft could be bringing Sticky Notes as an app to Android and iOS. In an interesting turn of events, though, Microsoft is now introducing Sticky Notes in OneNote.

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The company is actually integrating Sticky Notes right into OneNote, which means your Sticky Notes will now be available through OneNote apps on Android, iOS, and even Windows. Sticky Notes will appear along with your OneNote notebooks, and it’ll be interesting to see how this works going forward. On Android, Sticky Notes has a dedicated tab within the OneNote app where you can see all your Sticky Notes.

The feature is first launching with a preview of OneNote for Android, with a Windows and iOS released expected later on. “Sticky Notes is now available in OneNote Android on Phones for our Beta users. Sticky Notes can sync seamlessly across Windows and iOS. This is a preview release. Will start rolling out soon on Windows and iOS,” Microsoft said in the preview program for OneNote for Android.

Sticky Notes getting integrated into OneNote is quite a fascinating move by Redmond. Users seeing their Sticky Notes within OneNote could get easily confused, and it’ll be interesting to see how the UI of all this works as well.

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  • Daekar

    10 October, 2018 - 4:08 pm

    <p>If they screw up the UI, this will be awful, never get used, and they will drop it. If they do it well, it will be good to help boost use of OneNote by folks who might not necessarily have much use for the main "digital notebook" side of OneNote.</p>

  • Rob_Wade

    10 October, 2018 - 4:33 pm

    <p>This is getting ridiculous. So, isn't the purpose behind Sticky for all those disorganized people who insist on pasting a ton of Post-its because they can't be bothered to actually ENTER that info in proper, organized apps? And now, Microsoft is basically making a section of OneNote into a placeholder for those notes?</p><p><br></p><p>I tried it out. Sure enough, the Sticky Notes tab is there in the beta Android OneNote app. And they look messed up until you tap on one to see if full-size on the phone. Madness.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      11 October, 2018 - 3:23 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352085">In reply to Rob_Wade:</a></em></blockquote><p>it's not ridiculous at all, I don't use sticky notes, because I'm organized in one note.</p><p>But it's not hard to understand that if someone use sticky notes, now he can find his notes synced in another windows pc, in ios or android (in one note)</p>

  • kevin rose

    10 October, 2018 - 4:36 pm

    <p>I've yet to meet anyone who actually uses OneNote.. Who are these people..? </p>

    • casaout

      10 October, 2018 - 4:49 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352086">In reply to GrumpyOldGit:</a></em></blockquote><p>I know about 30 people who heavily use and rely on OneNote. In my case, I have different notebooks for different work projects (some of them shared with team-mates), and a few private ones (e.g. to plan vacation, shopping-list, other notes). Totalling about 30GBs of data. </p><p><br></p><p>I think integrating it with OneNote, and not have just another service/app, is a good decision. After all, post-its are quick notes, so they belong to the note-taking service that OneNote is. Also, OneNote already has a "sticky-notes" functionality, called quick notes. They can merge them.</p><p><br></p><p>Many of us often ciriticise Microsoft for creating just another service, e.g. with communication (Skype, Skype for Business, Teams, Yammer) and planning (Outlook tasks, Wunderlist, To-Do, Planner, MS Project) — I think they are doing the right thing here.</p>

    • Skipper

      10 October, 2018 - 5:08 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352086">In reply to GrumpyOldGit:</a></em></blockquote><p>I wouldn't be able to live without OneNote, it would have to be my most used app/program followed by Excel. Once you learn how to use it you would understand how powerful it is, as a research tool, for purchase choices, travel research, storing holiday itinerary's, inventory info, phone numbers, and anything else you can think of. I welcome the addition of Sticky notes.</p>

      • Maktaba

        10 October, 2018 - 5:41 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#352101">In reply to Skipper:</a></em></blockquote><p>OneNote is powerful, no doubt, but the Win32 version is the most powerful among all versions! Same goes for Excel, and for all Office apps for that matter.</p>

    • fanchettes

      10 October, 2018 - 6:23 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352086">In reply to GrumpyOldGit:</a></em></blockquote><p>That's interesting, because OneNote actually has a pretty huge following, especially in education. I use it every day for home, work, and my kids' home school. It's truly one of MSFT's best sleeper hits; truly cross-platform and collaborative, and though not without hiccups, the syncing is almost magical. </p><p><br></p><p>I don't know how well sticky notes will integrate, but I can say OneNote is an essential part of my work flow.</p>

    • robincapper

      10 October, 2018 - 9:02 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352086">In reply to GrumpyOldGit:</a></em></blockquote><p>My work makes massive use of OneNote for meetings, sharing info and as a dashboard for project info. Personally I like it for some things on PC and mobile; as simple as shopping list, travel planning/docs and personal knowledge base (send to OneNote, forget it). Never used sticky notes as they were not cross platform but this change is interesting</p>

    • irfaanwahid

      11 October, 2018 - 2:40 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352086">In reply to GrumpyOldGit:</a></em></blockquote><p>Please to meet you Mr. Grumpy, I have been using One Note for a long time now.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      11 October, 2018 - 3:22 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352086">In reply to GrumpyOldGit:</a></em></blockquote><p>me + about 100 people</p>

  • pachi

    10 October, 2018 - 4:38 pm

    <p>As usual, the worst possible solution to mobile syncing of sticky notes. I like sticky notes being cross platform because I don’t want to use a huge app like OneNote!</p><p><br></p><p>apples integrated Notes via Mac and IPhone are super well done. Have a client who won’t switch from macOS because of the ease of the notes app. No joke. </p>

    • dontbe evil

      11 October, 2018 - 3:24 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352089">In reply to pachi:</a></em></blockquote><p>Huge app? ho small do you think could be a sticky note app on android or ios compared to one note?</p>

  • ncn

    10 October, 2018 - 4:42 pm

    <p>It would be interesting to see if SN is fully bolted into OneNote or if the "tab" is more like a "sets" tab. That would mean OneNote could eventually be an environment you could stay in (adding "tabs" for email, etc.). Much better than bouncing in and out of apps.</p>

  • Maktaba

    10 October, 2018 - 5:39 pm

    <p>I was hoping they would make a new app for iOS and Android, a lightweight app that opens up quickly and syncs in the background.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      11 October, 2018 - 3:25 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352104">In reply to Maktaba:</a></em></blockquote><p>one note is quick and fast enough… how old is your smartphone?</p>

  • george_perry

    10 October, 2018 - 7:27 pm

    <p>Thanks for the article Mehedi – Looking forward to the integration of the two systems.</p>

  • bluesman57

    10 October, 2018 - 10:43 pm

    <p>Looking forward to this as I use Sticky Notes and OneNote all the time. </p>

  • Kerrpe

    11 October, 2018 - 11:05 am

    <p>Nice enough, but I don't seem to be able to add Cortana reminders to the notes in the OneNote Android app, so it's not really going to convert me from my OneNote "Today" page / Todoist combo.</p>

    • Rick Foux

      11 October, 2018 - 11:38 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352320">In reply to Kerrpe:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>I've been clamoring for Cortana reminders in OneNote, or at the very least have some integration with the To-Do app. I'd love for OneNote to be a one-stop shop for all my notes, lists, reminders, etc. </p>

  • prjman

    11 October, 2018 - 11:26 am

    <p>I just don't get 'Sticky Notes' – why not just use OneNote?</p>

    • rmlounsbury

      Premium Member
      13 October, 2018 - 1:56 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352332">In reply to prjman:</a></em></blockquote><p>Probably best to think of them similar to Google Keep. A place to take quick notes without having to launch a full on application like OneNote. The problem, of course, is that sticky notes has no mobile app and it appears this will be part of OneNote Mobile. It'll be interesting to see how Microsoft brings this to OneNote Mobile. </p><p><br></p><p>I keep trying to ditch Keep but it keeps being incredibly handy for quick notes throughout the day. Maybe Sticky Notes can serve that purpose now that it will be accessible via OneNote Mobile. </p>

  • tanvir369

    11 October, 2018 - 1:18 pm

    <p>Can I note <a href="funny-wifi-names.xyz" target="_blank">funny Wifi Names</a>????</p>

  • Mike Widrick

    11 October, 2018 - 2:08 pm

    <p>Anyone know how to launch sticky notes on bootup on Windows 10? This is driving me crazy. They're not really sticky enough for me otherwise.</p>

  • scotttech1

    11 October, 2018 - 2:29 pm

    <p>I was hoping the app would be mostly a widget I can pin to a screen on my android device where the notes would always be waiting for me, hope OneNote adds a widget for sticky notes, then its pretty much perfect.</p>

  • JaviAl

    Premium Member
    11 October, 2018 - 4:51 pm

    <p>And what about sync with Exchange notes? This is a feature request since Onenote 2010.</p>

  • skylog

    11 October, 2018 - 5:23 pm

    <p>i can definitely find a use for sticky notes, but what are the odds they ever add functionality for the notes to remain on top of all windows? without that, it is kind of DOA for me.</p>

    • feedtheshark

      12 October, 2018 - 8:20 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#352435">In reply to skylog:</a></em></blockquote><p>Get a window monitor program to keep it always-on-top then.</p>

  • Tirith

    Premium Member
    22 October, 2018 - 2:26 pm

    <p>So, the Current Sticky notes App, requires an Exchange mailbox, least when singing in with an Office 365 Enterprise account. Will this requirement change to needing OneNote Storage(OneDriveSharePoint)? </p>

  • stever

    Premium Member
    22 October, 2018 - 3:28 pm

    <p>I use to use a utility that was similar that would sync with Evernote years ago. When Evernote changed their policy I looked for another utilty. Found Cloud Sticky Notes. I just need it to sync my sticky notes from work and home. Have been using it for awhile and find it works great. Tried the new Windows 10 with Onenote but did not work for me because I don't have a 365 Office account. Hope they change their policy if not will stick to Cloud Sticky Notes. Its free!!</p>

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