Android 15 QPR1 quietly added a note-taking feature that works a lot like Pixel Screenshots

08 Oct 2024, 16:57 by Mishaal Rahman · Android Police

One of the primary reasons people buy Android tablets is to take notes on them, but the note-taking experience on stock Android leaves a bit to be desired. You usually have to unlock your tablet, navigate to the home screen, and tap an icon to launch a note-taking app before you can write down a note. Google is looking to solve this problem by introducing new note-taking capabilities in stock Android. Though these capabilities have yet to be released, we’ve spotted a small upgrade that Google quietly introduced in the latest Android beta version.

Here's everything we've spotted in Android 15 QPR1 so far

Android 15 QPR1 is taking shape

In last year’s Android 14 release, Google introduced the ability to set a default note-taking app. The default note-taking app is launched when you press and hold on the note-taking lock screen shortcut or when you press the tail button on a stylus. Pressing the tail button on a stylus launches the default note-taking app in a floating bubble on top of any screen. This not only lets you quickly jot down a note at any time but also lets you annotate over the screen, thanks to Android’s content capture API.

The default note-taking app can call Android’s content capture API to insert a capture of the screen into a note. Note-taking apps are expected to add a button of some sort that, when tapped, starts the process of inserting a screenshot. The system takes a screenshot and opens it in the default screenshot editor for you to crop if you want. Finally, the screenshot is inserted into the note when you tap “add to note” in the screenshot editor.

This is how Android's new stylus and note-taking features work

Notetaking with a Bluetooth stylus will be a breeze on Android 14

Currently, when you insert a screenshot into a note this way, no additional information is added to the note, such as where the screenshot is from. That’s set to change somewhat in the first quarterly platform release (QPR) for Android 15, as the OS will let you attach links to notes when you screenshot a webpage in Google Chrome, a location in Google Maps, or a video on YouTube.

Google's note-taking gets smarter about URLs ahead of the next Pixel Feature Drop

Starting in Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2, which is expected to be released as the December 2024 Pixel Feature Drop, when you attempt to insert a screenshot into a note, you’ll have the option to also insert a link as well. That link, as I just mentioned, can be for a webpage in Chrome, an address in Maps, or a video on YouTube.

The reason why these three apps in particular support this feature is because they use the AssistContent API to provide links to content. This is also the reason why links from these three apps appear in the Pixel’s recents screen and in the Pixel Screenshots app.

Here’s a demo of this new link adding capability, though I should note the note-taking app I’m using to demonstrate this new feature hasn’t been updated yet to actually accept the link that the system is sharing with the image:

Although Android’s note-taking feature was technically added in Android 14, the ability to set a default note-taking app is disabled right now. In addition, there aren’t any note-taking apps that can actually be set as the default note-taking app just yet. However, that’s set to change soon, as both Google Keep and Microsoft OneNote are gearing up to support the feature. It’s unclear when Google actually plans to release the default note-taking feature, but when it does, it seems clear now that you’ll have the ability to insert a link with certain screenshots.