How to get the iOS Notes app on Windows 10
Apple is never, ever going to port its macOS or iOS apps to Windows. I can only hope I live to see the day when I have to eat my own words. That said, if you have an iPhone and you use Notes on it so extensively that you need to access it on a Windows 10 PC, your only option is a browser + iCloud.
Notes App on Windows?
A browser and iCloud is the standard way to access the iOS Notes app on Windows 10.
However, if you use Chrome, and a lot of people do, you can create a Chrome app from iOS notes in iCloud. It will open in its own window, you’ll be signed into it at all times, and Notes will sync via iCloud.
Editor’s note: Make sure your notes are syncing to iCloud on your phone and read on to learn how you can create an iOS Notes app with Chrome.
iCloud Notes App on Chrome
Open Chrome and visit iCloud. Sign in, and click the Notes app. Once it opens, click the more options button next to the URL bar and go to More tools > Create shortcut. This will add the shortcut to your desktop.
Before you use it though, open Chrome and put this in the URL bar:
chrome://apps/
Right-click the Chrome app you just created and select the Open as window option from the context menu. That should do the trick.
You can now pin the app to the Start Menu and open it from there, or you can pin it to the taskbar.
The Chrome iOS Notes app will never interrupt anything you’re doing on your system. Notes doesn’t need to send you notifications but even if it did, they’d appear like other Chrome desktop notifications do.
You can use this trick with literally any website but there is an obvious drawback to this; you’re using Chrome.
A word of caution
Chrome used to be a lightweight browser but now it just soaks up all your RAM like a demon sponge. Its RAM usage is getting ridiculous with each new version.
It’s a sad trade-off, unfortunately, but consider yourself warned — if you leave any Chrome app running for too long, your RAM usage might go out of control.
Conclusion
Apple doesn’t have an open API for the Notes app, so, unless the company decides to change that, solutions like this are really all there are.
The only, really expensive alternative is to switch to a Mac, and then you’ll have Notes on your desktop.
what if I don’t have an icloud account?
Very useful!
Same… awesome hack!
thanks for your help, this was informative.
thank you, this was really helpful! I love the notes app and now using it from my desktop makes it so much easier.
This is the most useful tip I’ve seen in a long long time. Thank you so much for this
This was an awesome tip thanks! Now I can use Notes as a task manager more easily for work.
What a great technique!!
This is a great tip, thank you!! Very well written.