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xnotes

Handwriting notes and sketching app with stylus support
New in version 0.7.8
- minor fixes and improvements
xnotes is a handwriting-first notebook for phones and tablets, built for pen and stylus. Write, sketch and annotate with pressure-sensitive, variable-width ink, and nothing you draw is ever flattened.

Highlights:

* Pressure-sensitive ink: a custom stroke engine turns raw stylus samples into a smooth, variable-width ribbon that swells and tapers with pen pressure, so handwriting and sketches feel natural instead of like a flat marker.
* Live presentation streaming: broadcast your canvas to any web browser on the same network in real time. Turn a tablet into a wireless whiteboard for the room, with nothing to install on the other end.
* Vector PDF, in and out: drop in a PDF as a page background to annotate, then export your notes back to PDF as true vector — ink and text stay crisp at any zoom instead of being flattened to pixels.
* Razor-sharp deep zoom: a background renderer redraws a high-resolution viewport off the main thread, so you can zoom far in and the ink stays sharp rather than turning blocky.
* Real highlighter blending: highlighters are composited live every frame with a true multiply blend, so overlapping strokes deepen like real ink instead of painting over one another.
* Neon pen: a glowing pen with a bright white core and saturated, luminous edges for accents that pop off the page.
* Smart PDF dark mode: invert a PDF page for comfortable night reading while leaving embedded photos and images untouched.
* Nothing is ever flattened: every stroke is stored as editable vector data in the open .xnote format, so you can re-select, move, restyle or erase any mark at any time.
* Stylus-aware by design: pen and finger are handled separately, so you can pan with a finger while you draw with the pen; on devices without a stylus, finger drawing turns on automatically.
* Private and open: open source, no accounts, no telemetry. Files go through Android's Storage Access Framework, so the app needs no broad storage permission (network access exists only for the optional presentation server).

Also includes:

* Shapes, text boxes and image insertion
* Stroke and object erasers, plus box and lasso selection with move and resize
* Multi-page documents with several page sizes
* A backstage file area: recent notes, a built-in folder explorer and quick sharing
* A side panel with page thumbnails, contents and bookmarks
* Undo and redo
* Pinch to zoom and a configurable pen side-button action
* Customisable theme, accent colour and page defaults
  • app screenshot
  • app screenshot

Versions

Although APK downloads are available below to give you the choice, you should be aware that by installing that way you will not receive update notifications and it's a less secure way to download. We recommend that you install the F-Droid client and use that.

Download F-Droid
  • Version 0.7.8 (26) suggested Added on Jun 22, 2026

    arm64-v8a armeabi-v7a x86 x86_64

    This version requires Android 8.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • com.xnotes.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 7.9 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

    • New in version 0.7.1
    - Fix battery drain issue
  • Version 0.7.1 (19) - Added on Jun 16, 2026

    arm64-v8a armeabi-v7a x86 x86_64

    This version requires Android 8.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • com.xnotes.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 20 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

  • Version 0.6.6 (17) - Added on Jun 09, 2026

    arm64-v8a armeabi-v7a x86 x86_64

    This version requires Android 8.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • com.xnotes.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 20 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

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