iOS Releases

21.2 — February 25, 2021

My favorite bug reporter reported MORE BUGS. Bugs are bad, but finding them is good! Because then they can be squished. DIE, BUGS!

If you typed an emoji (I would demonstrate here, but the App Store is apparently run by the No Fun Police, so I can’t put emoji in the release notes), then the text after the emoji was this weird nerd font. How does that even happen? I don’t know! I just forced it to be the regular font instead. Bugs are weird sometimes.

21.1 — February 7, 2021

whaaaaaa? Two updates right in as many weeks? Turns out I actually still know how to make apps when I’m not dealing with syncing issues all the time.

So, in that big giganto-release last year (20.0), I tweaked some of the styling to look better in dark mode. Turns out, it didn’t look better if you scrolled. Looks fine until you have more than one page of text, which, I mean, that’s too much text, come on. Just have less text.

But alas, I can’t control how much text people have in their notes (wait… yes I can. Hm.), so ultimately I was forced to just make it look nicer. The app now fades out text as it approaches the status bar so that you don’t end up creating a peanut-butter-and-chocolate scenario with your notes and the current time. Also, the buttons now have a nice background so that it “floats” over text instead of letting text peek through.

These new buttons work better with accessibility technologies like VoiceOver and Voice Control as well! Now the help button is called “Help” instead of the significantly-less-helpful “Button”. Whoops.

Enjoy!

21.0 — February 2, 2021

whoo boy

Okay, so the last version of Scrawl had a pretty nasty bug. I don’t think it affected a huge number of people? But for those who it did, yeah, the app basically didn’t work. Crashed immediately.

It took a while to fix, and even longer to figure out how to make sure that I didn’t ship an even worse bug. Or that it was actually even fixed. Or that there was really only one bug (there wasn’t—there were two). Sigh.

But I’m, like, pretty sure it’s fixed now. I’m honestly pretty scared to ship this version. But I think it’s better than the one before. I hope it is.

Sorry.

20.0 — September 22, 2020

Hey there, everyone. In case you’ve forgotten who I am, I’m Geoff, the dev who writes really dumb release notes. Also I make this app. Shoulda led with that one, probably.

I totally spaced on updating this app for a few… years. I ended up releasing some other apps instead — check them out! Two out of three of them are good and also there’s Debigulator. And, in my defense, I was still updating Scrawl, I just kinda… kept those updates to myself. (Have y’all tried dark mode? It’s great.)

Anywhose, I figured it was time to break that streak and actually ship something. Scrawl 20.0 includes:

  • Widget support for iOS 14 — place your notes on your home screen!
  • An Apple Watch app, so you can take your notes on the go. More on the go. On the wrist.
  • A share extension, making it easier to get notes into Scrawl in the first place.
  • Multiple window support on iPad, so you can edit your notes alongside multiple other apps. Or just edit the same text side-by-side, I don’t know your life.
  • A new, more-robust syncing system so things don’t get all busted so much.
  • Dark mode. Still kinda can’t believe I never shipped that.

Hopefully, this is the return of more frequent updates. I imagine we’ll be seeing another one real soon, to support that thing it’s obvious this app should support. You know the one.

1.2.5 — July 15, 2018

Story time!

A long time ago in this very App Store, now lost to the mists of time, there was an app update. A very small app update to a very small app. Version 1.0.4 of Scrawl, the villagers called it. In that update, there was a feature. This feature was a pleasant feature. This feature helped the villagers, easing their neck pain by shortening the width of text on large devices.

But hidden inside that feature was something lurking: a bug. And not just any bug. A user interface bug, who liked to hide text from the villagers. Now this bug, he was a clever bug. He knew that in order to continue his tricks, he had to hide from the app developer, who benevolently ruled the village and wouldn’t stand for bugs disturbing his favorite villagers. So he hid somewhere the app developer wouldn’t find him. He hid in the devices marked Plus, which the developer never used (#SEforlife).

This bug, he likely spent time tricking a number of the villagers, hiding their text whenever they rotated their devices. But all the villagers stayed silent, not wanting to anger the bug further. But one day, the bug crossed the wrong person. A nameless hero discovered the bug’s hiding spot and promptly wrote a letter to the developer, giving up all the secrets of the bug and his tricks.

Immediately (well, three weeks later), the developer struck forth! The developer delved deep into the feature, found the evil bug, and booted him right out of the village! And then everyone lived happily ever after, probably.

THE END

1.2.4 — May 28, 2018

AN UPDATE TO OUR PRIVACY CAPABILITIES

¯\_(ツ)_/¯, everyone else was doing it.

No, I’m not changing anything about what data Scrawl sends to my personal servers, third party advertisers, etc. That’s the same as always: absolutely nothing. The only data Scrawl sends anywhere is storing your notes in your own iCloud account, if you have one. I can’t look at that data, and neither can anyone else.

But maybe you don’t want anything out there. Or you’re done with Scrawl and you don’t want your old notes lingering in a warehouse somewhere. Or you want separate notes on separate devices. I get that.

In Scrawl 1.2.4, you can disable iCloud sync, if you so choose. Deleting everything you’ve ever sent to iCloud is easy: just “Select All”, and delete it. Then flip the “Sync to iCloud” switch and nothing goes there ever again. Well, at least until you flip the switch back. But, I mean… duh.

1.2.3 — March 29, 2018

I once promised in these very release notes that I would never post a release that just said “bug fixes”. But I really do only have bug fixes this time. They aren’t even interesting bug fixes, like maybe we’ve had in the past, and I can’t fill up a whole post about how maybe it won’t duplicate text if you leave a blank line in your note anymore. So I’m just going to tell you a story about my commute.

There’s a kitten in the neighborhood that I see sometimes when I’m walking to the bus stop. I haven’t seen it for several months, because it was winter and I guess it was staying inside where it’s warm? Anyway, I saw it again today, and holy cow, it’s so much bigger! It’s a cat now! So, that was fun. It saw me and I guess it recognized me, because I walked by without talking to it, and it followed me and meowed at me until I acknowledged it.

One time I was talking to the kitten (back when it was still a kitten), and a kid came out of a house and yelled at me for doing so. “Hey, that’s my cat!” So I was hesitant to talk to the cat this time, but it was so insistent! So I turned around and asked it how it was doing, and then I took a picture of it to send to my office’s #cats Slack channel.

No one yelled at me.

Oh, hey! This is version 1.2.3! That’s pretty neat.

1.2.2 — March 12, 2018

Bug fixes! Get your bug fixes here!

In some cases, right when you’re trying to edit your note, the cursor would jump to the very end. That’s useful if that’s where you want to type next, but REALLY FRICKIN' ANNOYING if it isn’t. Which, considering you weren’t already typing there… it’s probably not where you wanted to type.

Anyway, it doesn’t do that any more.

Today’s update is courtesy of Scrawl user Jonathan Hansford, who was a great help tracking down this bug.

1.2.1 — February 5, 2018

In the last update, one of the features I promised was background updating of the lock screen widget. That turned out to be less true than anticipated in real-world cases. This version makes that more true.

In the last update, one of the features I promised was fun new bugs. That turned out to be more true than anticipated in real-world cases. This version makes that less true.

Also in this issue: minor visual tweaks!

1.2 — January 30, 2018

Here’s one of those medium-sized updates I’ve been promising for a while: a complete overhaul of the syncing engine! YAY!

…okay, that was less exciting than I’d hoped. What does this new syncing actually DO?

  1. Background Updates: If you change your note on one device, the lock screen will update on all your other devices without having to re-launch the app.
  2. Better Merging: Rather than always overwriting what your note says, changes will merge intelligently, avoiding the case where notes you’ve taken disappear unintentionally.
  3. New Bugs: Hey, I didn’t say it was all sunshine and roses.
  4. Brighter Future: These new capabilities open up some pretty cool new doors…

Also in this version: I fixed a bug where the iPad version would crash if you tried to open the share sheet. Whoops.

1.1.2 — January 15, 2018

Hi! Me again. Did you miss me?

Turns out the time around the holidays is surprisingly busy! As such, it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to release an update. Someone even e-mailed me and was like “hey, I had an idea” and I replied “sounds good, I should have that done this weekend”. That was a month and a half ago.

Anyway, here’s that release! Now you can export your note from Scrawl Notes to other apps by way of the share sheet.

I think that’s the only new thing in this release. If you find anything else, that was DEFINITELY A SURPRISE and I didn’t just forget I added it.

1.1.1 — September 26, 2017

Bug fixes and performance improvements.

…just kidding. You know I’d never do that to you, right? I love you too much for that.

Let’s get serious. I had a screenshot in that last update that looked real dumb. Turns out, if you put a bunch of text in the Scrawl note, it got cut off on the widget. There wasn’t any way to view the whole thing except to load up the full app! Terrible.

But now, you can just tap a little button that says “Show More”, and it (gasp) SHOWS MORE. Amazing.

Also I fixed a bug where if you’re typing in the middle of the note, the cursor kept jumping to the end. That was terrible, too. But not doing that is less “amazing” and more “works like it should”, so it doesn’t get top billing.

###

You’re probably wondering why this version is 1.1.1, if the last version was 1.0.6. Well, probably not. But I like to think people care about version numbers of random apps they download. ANYWAY, the answer is I decided that adding Siri support was sufficiently important enough to retroactively re-version 1.0.6 as 1.1. Mainly because I have another thing I’m working on that’s about as big that I want to make 1.2. Mainly because then I have an even bigger thing that I want to make 2.0, and I don’t want anyone going “why did you jump straight from 1.0.9 to 2.0, that’s unreasonable!”. Because, again, I pretend people are obsessively tracking my version number history, and will make fun of my arbitrary versioning decisions. WHICH THEY WILL.

So, yeah, I’ve just leaked that I’m working on a nice “medium” feature and then a “big” update in the conclusionary ramblings of my release notes. But you’ve read this far, so I want your input on something: what is your favorite color? Leave a review or send me an e-mail with that information, I need it for… reasons.

1.0.5 — June 26, 2017

Okay, get this. An iPhone and an iPad walk into a bar. Someone types a note into the iPhone. Hours go by. Nothing happens on the iPad.

…what a joke, right?

We’ve made Scrawl (slightly) less of a joke now by adding iCloud support! If you’re signed in to iCloud on multiple devices, your latest note will be waiting for you the next time you launch Scrawl.

Also, there was a bug where the widget wouldn’t update if you typed too fast. Focus groups didn’t respond well to a “please type slower” banner, so we just fixed the bug instead.

hey

are you still reading this

please write a review

ok bye now

1.0.4 — June 19, 2017

Hey! There’s a new iPad out. If you’re running Scrawl on it, you’ll want this update.

  • Switched to using a more-readable text width on larger devices, so you won’t wear out your neck reading any notes you write in landscape.

1.0.3 — June 7, 2017

  • Fixed a bug where you could launch to a black screen by using the Clear Note 3D Touch action. (Thanks to Scrawl user Adam McDonald!)
  • Fixed a bug where the cursor could become stuck in the “dimmed” state.
  • Recentered the app icon. (Thanks to Scrawl user Emily Stewart!)

1.0.2 — May 10, 2017

So… I only made it about two weeks before deciding that the icon on my own app was too ugly to keep on my home screen.

Then I figured, hey, I’m supposed to pretend to actually like this app; other people who don’t care probably HATE looking at this app icon.

Considering the app icon is a major point of entry for this app, that seems like a Bad Thing.

So I made a better icon.

1.0.1 — May 2, 2017

Hey. Turns out I forgot a feature I wanted to include in 1.0. Now you can tap your note on the lock screen to quickly launch Scrawl and make edits.

Also in this release: a button and home screen quick action to quickly clear your notes, to begin again from a clean slate.

1.0 — April 25, 2017

Scrawl is a place to put those little notes you need for just a minute and then never want to see again. Where did you park the car? What’s the ten-digit code to disarm the bomb? What gate do you need to meet your mother at?

Scrawl gives you a small space to write these notes, then helps you access them again quickly. You don’t even need to open the app again!

  • Includes a widget that can be added to your lock screen and Notification Center.
  • Displays notes when you 3D Touch the app icon.

Scrawl isn’t a complicated app. It’s not even a particularly good app. It’s just a place to put some text for a bit, and then look at it later. If that doesn’t sell you on it, you probably don’t want it. But if it does sell you on it: good news! It’s free! I’m not even going to sell your information to pay for it! Act quick to take advantage of this unlimited-time offer!

macOS Releases

21.0 — February 2, 2021

Okay, so I’m a little later with this one than I would have liked. Sorry about that. But this release brings a new feature for once!

You can now view your notes in one more place on the Mac: in your Notification Center with the new Scrawl widget.

Also this fixes the same crashing bug from the iOS app. But I never had any reports of it happening on the Mac app? So maybe it doesn’t actually happen. Either way, it’s fixed now.

20.0 — September 22, 2020

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: compatibility with the iOS app. Sorry. I promise the next version will have actual macOS features.

1.1.2 — March 8, 2019

Hey, I don’t really have much to say about this one. It adds a preference to control whether the notes window sticks around when you switch apps. I actually did this a while ago and forgot to actually ship it. Whoops. Followthrough isn’t my greatest strong suit. If only I had an app where I could write down things I wanted to remember for a short period of time…

1.1.1 — September 24, 2018

Jeez, they said they were going to make the Mac more Metal three years ago, but it took them this long to let you make everything black and moody? Have these people ever been to a metal concert?

So, yeah, this release adds support for Mojave’s dark mode, to make your notes just a little more metal.

Personally, I’m still waiting for them to switch to illegible pointy scribbles for macOS code names.

1.1 — January 30, 2018

This update is mainly to provide compatibility support with iOS version 2.2. It includes a newer syncing engine, which merges rather than overwrites your notes when you change them!

That’s all I have to say about that.

1.0.1 — August 10, 2017

Made it easier to activate Scrawl in windowed mode by clicking the Dock icon. Special thanks to Scrawl user Rob Howard!

1.0 — July 31, 2017

Scrawl is a place to put those little notes you need for just a minute and then never want to see again. Where did you park the car? What’s the ten-digit code to disarm the bomb? What gate do you need to meet your mother at?

Scrawl gives you a small space to write these notes, which shows up when you need it and goes away when you don’t. Keep it in windowed mode and show it as necessary, or stash it in the menu bar for one-click easy access.

Scrawl is also available on iOS where it’s far more useful, but sometimes you want those same notes on your Mac. Scrawl syncs with your other devices over iCloud, so you can jot something down on your Mac, look it up later on your iPhone, and then show it off on your iPad to friends who pretend to care about weird note apps you’ve downloaded.

Scrawl isn’t a complicated app. It’s not even a particularly good app. It’s just a place to put some text for a bit, and then look at it later. If that doesn’t sell you on it, you probably don’t want it. But if it does sell you on it: good news! It’s free! I’m not even going to sell your information to pay for it! Act quick to take advantage of this unlimited-time offer!