Google Keep has introduced text formatting on Android [U: Old notes]

More than a year after we first discovered the feature was in the works, Google Keep for Android is finally rolling out the ability to format text.

Updated 10/22: Google has now introduced text formatting for old notes. Originally, the bold/italic/underline option was only available for text entries you created. The underlined letter “A” will now appear at the bottom left of all notes when you start editing.

Updated September 7: Text formatting is becoming more common in Google Keep for Android. Some users may get the message “New feature here: We recently added new features to Keep. To access it, update your account.” You can also force-stop Keep from the app’s info menu.

This feature is currently available only for new notes and not for old notes It is limited to the Android app and the format is not displayed on the web. When you copy formatted text in Keep, the bold/italic/underline is preserved. You can remove it using “Clear Formatting” at the end of the toolbar.

Updated on August 24th: Google hat officially announced Rich text formatting for new notes in Keep and those existing notes will be available “in the coming weeks”.

This highly requested feature allows you to customize and add bold, underline, italic and title text styles to your text.

To date we haven’t seen a wider rollout:

All Google Workspaces are available to subscribers and users with personal Google Accounts

Original 17/8: After After enabling text formatting earlier this week, text formatting started (via Michal Rahman) once it’s available on your device, you’ll encounter the “New! Format your text in new notes” prompt on the homepage: “Add text formatting to your new notes on Android.” It will also be activated on existing notes in the coming weeks.

A new underlined “A” icon will appear in the Notes toolbar after the plus sign and background options. This will open a bar starting with Heading 1 (H1), Heading (H2) and default heading “Aa”. Then you have bold, italic, underlined and strikethrough options. Formatting behavior is pretty standard and consistent with other text editors.

Text formatting was monitored live using Google Keep 5.23.322.05. This version is not yet generally published via Play Store, although availability has a server-side component. We haven’t seen this on many devices we’ve tested today.

It should be noted that it is initially available for new notes before it becomes available for existing notes. The introductory claim only refers to the Android app.

It’s always been an option for users who wanted it, but one of the advantages of Google Keep is its simplicity. We expect text pasted from other sources to be treated safely