Talking About Supernote's Next Major Software Focus
October 15, 2025
This year, we launched features like Sticker and Digest, adding more elements to your handwritten notes. Every time we improve a feature, it's thanks to the great feedback and support from our long-time Supernote users.
Now, we want to share what our software team will be focusing on next.
Fixing Multi-Device Sync Issues and Making Notes Faster
We’ve noticed that over 10% of Supernote users own a second, or even more, Supernote devices. Usually, people use a large one for deep writing and reading, and a smaller one to quickly capture ideas while on the go. As our most loyal and heavy users, your need for seamless creation across multiple devices deserves the most reliable and smooth system response.
However, to be honest, the current sync system is far from "smooth." Sync conflicts between multiple devices happen sometimes. The main reasons are:
- File Structure: To make sure your handwriting is safe even in extreme situations (like a sudden power cut), our note files currently use a "large file structure". It wraps multiple pages, operation cache, and other data into one big package. While this design makes note files very robust and safe, it also means the file size is quite large when in use. When the cloud has to compare and merge these large files from two devices, the chance of a conflict increases.
- Backup Logic: Our current sync logic prioritizes a complete and reliable backup over real-time collaboration between multiple devices. It works perfectly for a single device, but it’s not "smart" enough to accurately predict and handle tiny differences during frequent back-and-forth use on multiple devices.
Therefore, fixing these issues is urgent. This is not just a technical fix, it's how we put our principle of "Prioritizing Existing Users" into practice.
Next, we are starting a major project: a complete, future-focused overhaul of our file structure and sync system. We need to design a brand new, lighter file structure and develop a smarter sync algorithm. It must be able to:
- Handle multi-device syncing much faster and more reliably, reducing conflicts as much as possible.
- Be fully compatible with all your old note files, ensuring a smooth, loss-free upgrade experience.
The benefits of this big system upgrade aren't just for multi-device users. It’s also a major improvement for single-device users: the new file structure will help speed up your daily data transfers, making the overall note-taking experience smoother.
This is a complex and challenging project because we need to be compatible with and upgrade many different versions of existing note files. We expect to spend several months completing this deep-level rebuild.
Starting a Plugin Ecosystem to Make Notes More Extensible
Supernote's note-taking software has already evolved to include structure (headings, keywords, links) and multiple elements (stickers, digests). Next, we want to make Supernote even more "Super"—by using plugins to greatly increase what your notes can do.
We've been quietly working on this for over a year. The Sticker feature we launched this year was the first internal success developed and tested using this new plugin architecture. This showed us the huge potential of this approach.
In the future, new notes features can be developed faster and more stably as plugins (including allowing the community to develop their own), and they will interfere with each other less. This architecture will allow Supernote to integrate more features in a more flexible and lightweight way, giving individual and business users much greater customization possibility.
Based on these plans, here is our software release schedule:
- Plugin Base Features: The groundwork for the plugin architecture is mostly ready. After further testing and refinement, this will be the first update we bring you. It will make it easier for the community and third-party developers to get involved, paving the way for a future plugin ecosystem.
- File and Sync Optimization: This systemic redesign will take several months. We will release this update once we can guarantee its stability and compatibility.