Product Teardown: Apple Notes vs Google Keep
The purpose of a product teardown is to evaluate what has made a product successful (or not) based on how the product has set out to address a set of user problems and go to market. Strengthen your own product intuition and product sense by walking through our product teardowns with us.
Co-written with Kay Toma.
Context
Whether you are an iPhone or Android user, your device comes with a built-in note-taking app: Apple Notes or Google Keep. As apps that don’t directly generate revenue on their own, they come with a unique set of challenges of how they go to market and become successful. Today we’re evaluating these apps based on how well they were made to address their users’ needs.
So which is the superior app?
What are the goals of the product?
[Amanda] I see note-taking apps as belonging to a larger category of the ‘utility’ app: this is an app that is often preloaded on a device, is an expected part of the product, and serves a specific function. Examples include: the clock/alarm app, calculator, calendar, contacts, or even the phone app itself.
Apple Notes and Google Keep have more features and are more complex than, say, the calculator app of course, but it might be worthwhile to think about this entire category of free app and what purpose they serve.
The main goals for a utility app would be:
- Meet (or excel) users’ needs so they don’t need to download third-party apps. For apps like Notes or Keep where sign-in is required, the more that Apple or Google can convince you to use their native apps, the more value they provide you through their ecosystem, hence increasing the chances for brand loyalty, and/or sheer habituation.
- Deliver a consistent user experience (when multiple of such apps are developed by Apple for iOS or Google for Android). We’ve seen when these companies ship big UI or design updates with new versions of the operating system, these utility apps also tend to get a visual overhaul.
Who is the target persona?
[Kay] In general, Apple and Google are known for slightly different values: Apple is fanatical about precise design and attention to detail, while Google (and Android) prioritize flexibility and customizability. Based on these values, we might expect that the users who are drawn to each brand to value the same qualities.
Since both apps require you to log in to use them, and creating a new account is typically high-friction, both companies also seem to be targeting people who already have Apple or Google accounts. In this way, both of them are catering more to their pre-existing users and adding value to the virtuous cycle of their respective ecosystems.
How are the features different?
[Amanda] We see some areas in each app that tie back to each company’s strengths:
- In Apple Notes, you have the option to lock notes with passwords (which is not offered in Google Keep), which relates to Apple’s focus on security and privacy.
- Google Keep, on the other hand, has more advanced search features (such as searching through your notes by categories such as Books, Food, or Places, similar as in Google Photos), which is likely boosted by Google’s deep investments in search.
In terms of high-level design, the two apps also take different approaches to organizing and presenting information. Apple’s style is more structured and regular, while Google takes a looser, more flexible approach.
- Apple Notes, even in the gallery view, arranges notes in a tidy grid, whereas Google Keep shows them in a more free-flowing, mosaic-like tile format.
- In Notes, you can only organize your notes into folders, while in Keep, you tag your notes with labels and you have the additional option to archive notes.
All in all, the features between the two apps are comparable with minor tradeoffs between the two. Both cover the major user needs and expectations of a note-taking app.
What are the success metrics?
[Kay] As we mentioned previously, the higher-level goal of both apps is to keep users happy within their respective ecosystems.
Revenue would not be a focus as a main metric, as neither app sells directly to customers. Download count would also be less relevant, since both Notes and Keep come pre-installed on their respective platforms. Instead, the most important metrics for both apps would likely be around engagement and retention.
As the PM, I would be interested to know, of Google/Apple users:
- What is the gap between the app’s daily active users and monthly active users compared to the total number of people with Google or Apple accounts?
- How many users have downloaded a third-party note-taking app and don’t use the built-in app at all?
For apps that don’t directly generate revenue but instead measure success based on engagement and strengthening the ecosystem, it’s all the more important to have a strong definition of which set of active users you are focusing on growing. Do you want to focus monthly active users? Weekly active users? Daily?
The count of active users would then be your basis to measure growth in app usage. The remainder of users would be an untapped audience and market because they may have the app installed, but are not using it. For example, for Apple, if there were 500M iPhones with Notes pre-installed and only 300M were considered monthly active users (MAU), there are still 200M users Notes would want to “activate.”
[Amanda] Building on the concept of an active user, you can also define what you consider an engaged user, based on actions in the app that indicate the user is more deeply invested. For example, this might be creating a note, editing a note, or sharing a note. You can then focus on increasing the base of engaged users, or moving them along a spectrum from ‘mildly engaged’ to ‘very engaged,’ depending on your product goals.
Another metric to assess product love and loyalty could be the number of cross-platform users. While Apple Notes is not available on Android, Google does allow you to use Keep on iOS. For Google Keep, then, an interesting metric could be the number/percentage of people using Keep on an iOS device.
What would we do next if we were the PMs of Notes or Keep?
[Kay] As a PM in Notes/Keep where my primary goals are engagement and creating a deep relationship between the user and the overall ecosystem, my primary focus would be on how we can strengthen this relationship, and how the app can integrate further with the ecosystem.
Both companies have been heavily investing in the health and fitness space in early 2021, with Google’s acquisition of FitBit and Apple’s release of Fitness+. One opportunity I see here to strengthen the user’s bond to the ecosystem would be being able to export their workouts from the workout apps into Notes/Keep.
In the case of Keep, I would leverage pre-existing tools and features from other Google apps to create an enhanced experience.
For example, Gmail already notices when you haven’t opened emails from specific addresses and asks if you’d like to unsubscribe. Google Keep could do something similar with notes that have been buried in the app and are taking up space by asking the user if they want to clean up apps they haven’t revisited in over X months. The Keep app could also convert notes with dates specified into reminders. In a similar vein, just as the Google Photos app detects a batch of photos taken together, this functionality can be extended to the Keep app, to gather and group related notes and suggest to apply a common label.
What do Apple and Google lose out on if you don’t use their native app?
[Kay] When users don’t use their native apps, Apple and Google are losing their users to competitors. This weakens the user’s tie to the ecosystem. Keeping users integrated within their ecosystems is critical to their businesses.
[Amanda] Like Kay mentioned, what’s at stake in the long run is the health and strength of the ecosystem. Notes or Keep may not be the main revenue drivers for Apple or Google, but this kind of utility app still plays a key role in gaining and maintaining mindshare for the brand.
Final Thoughts
[Kay] Unlike many apps, such as Starbucks which we covered last week, that focus on growth and revenue, Notes and Keep focus on engagement, quality, and consistency to overall branding to keep their current users happy within their ecosystem.
We set out to see, from a product perspective, who did a better job of addressing their unique set of user problems. After going through both apps, we found them on fairly even ground.
Check out our teardown of the Starbucks mobile app.
Want to read more product teardowns? Subscribe to our content direct to your inbox here.
