Noisli

The background noise text editor: Review

At first glance, Noisli seems to be strange bipod of apps, it offers both therapeutic background noises and distraction free text editing. So you can write your nonsensical blog (as I am doing right now) whilst the calming sound of a thunderstorm or train tracks sooth your everyday aches. Perfect for insomniacs with writers block. Not so perfect for those with bladder problems.

I am writing this now within the distraction free text editor and my first impressions are mainly tainted by the over integration of share buttons for every social site going. Although the 30k likes on facebook are impressive but not yet ridiculous, it does tell me I’m rather late to the noisli party.

I must say this novel but at first glance unlikely pairing does seem to work, I’ve bashed out these incongruous nonsensical paragraphs in record speed. Sure, they might not have the subtle nuances and turns of phrase that my usual writing might contain (it probably does) but who cares when I haven’t got lost in a gingerbread trail of tabs that started so innocuously by me wanting to change my music selection on youtube.

Regarding the different soundscapes you can create within this browser based application, the productively rain, thunder and wind seems to work splendidly. I’ve also added a little campfire sound effect to perpetuate this night in the woods experience, and who knows if because of that my writing will unconsciously includes more bears. The other sounds that can be mixed in include, amongst others, a chattering cafe (you don’t even have to go to Starbucks to pretend to be a writer anymore) some birdsong, or some waves breaking on a tropical beach. If you mix them right you can find yourself sploshing in a swimming pool under the tropical night sky. If you mix them wrong you can end up in an overly crowded train that is inexplicably burning at one end.

I must say I like the minimalistic text editing interface, no procrastination playing with font sizes or indents here. It makes medium look positively decadent. The only thing of note actually is the “eye icon” which seems to have little effect apart from crunching the paragraphs.

A lovely final touch to the whole experience is the ever-changing background colour, as I punch my white typewriter text onto the coloured background it smoothly transitions from orange to yellow to green to blue to purple and so on. For me however it does so rather too quickly, and fades to colours that are too light for even a 20/20 vision user to be able to distinguish the font from. But hey I guess it keeps my eyes attentive on the screen.

Will I use it for soothing background noise for those nights I cant sleep, most definitely. Will I use it as text editor? Well its a hell of a lot better than a jumping paperclip, but the disclaimer about not completely trusting its saving locally function does put me off…

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