Apps for journalists
Note taking apps for desktop and mobile
A real app on the desk and in your pocket.
Most journalists capture on a phone and think on a laptop. Grape is a real app on both, with the same library in each and interviews and doorsteps landing wherever you are.
Full workspace on desktop: sidebar, editor, chat, canvas and search
Ten second capture on mobile: open, talk or type, done
Keyboard shortcuts on desktop for everything you do often
The same library on every device once sync is on
Desktop for the long work
Writing up, cleaning up and asking bigger questions of everything.
Mobile for the moment it happens
Recording, chat and search are one tap from the note list.
Local on both
Each device keeps its own copy, so a dead connection changes nothing.
Ten second capture on mobile
Open the app, talk or type, and it is already saved when you look up.
Shortcuts for what you repeat
The desktop app has a key for everything you do twice a day.
One library on both
Turn sync on and the desk and the pocket hold the same notes.
The lede
Three things that stop costing you the afternoon
No feature tour. What changes between the interview and the filed copy.
Without Grape
The quote is on a recording you have not had time to transcribe.
The story you dropped in March is in a folder you no longer open.
The documents are in four apps and the copy is in a fifth.
With Grape
The quote is text before you are back at the desk
Record on the phone, get the transcript in the note, and pull the line you need straight into the draft.
Reopen a story you dropped in March
Ask your notes what you had on a subject and get the answer with the note attached.
Keep the background in the same place as the copy
Documents, PDFs, links and your own notes sit in one folder rather than four apps.
On the job
What that looks like for journalists
Three points in a story where the app saves the hour.
In the field
Record, tag the note with the story slug, and move on to the next call.
Back at the desk
Read the transcript, mark the usable quotes and draft in the same note.
Six months later
Search the archive by what happened rather than what you named the file.
The rest of the app
What Else Grape Does
Every part of the app is built around the same idea: keep what you write, and hand it back when you need it.
Questions
Questions Before You Install It
The rest of them live in the help center.
- How protected are my notes and sources?
- Grape keeps everything in a local database on your device unless you switch sync on. It is not a secure comms tool and it makes no legal claim about source protection, so treat it the way you would treat any notebook you carry.
- How accurate is transcription?
- Good enough to work from and to search, not good enough to publish without checking. Always listen back before you quote.
- What is Grape, in one paragraph?
- Grape is a note app for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android with AI built into the middle of it rather than bolted on the side. You write, record and collect things the normal way, and then you can search by meaning, ask questions about your own notes, and turn any note into a summary, a set of flashcards, a quiz or a mind map.
- What makes it different from other note apps?
- Most note apps treat AI as an extra panel. In Grape the agent works on your workspace: it can read, create, edit, move, tag and delete notes, and every answer points back to the note it came from. Semantic search, voice transcription, flashcards, quizzes, mind maps and the drawing canvas all live inside the editor rather than in separate tools.
- Where do my notes actually live?
- On your device, in a local database, and you can choose where that file sits. Nothing needs to leave your machine for the app to work. If you turn on sync with a Sync or Pro plan, your notes are also stored in the cloud so your devices can stay in step. On Lifetime they sync through your own Dropbox or Google Drive instead, and Grape never sees them.
- Do I need an account to use it?
- No. Download the app and start writing. You only need an account for the paid plans, which is where cross device sync and built in AI come in.
File the story the same day.
Transcripts, background, quotes and the thread you have been pulling for months, all searchable by meaning while the deadline is still hours away.
macOS
Windows
Linux
iPhone
Android