The Story of Bear TagCon

Tags have always been the heart of Bear’s organization. Since our earliest mockups, we wanted the Sidebar to be more than just a list of words; we wanted it to be instantly recognizable. That spark led us to pair tags with icons, creating what we now call TagCons.

From the very beginning, Bear was designed to be smart. We included built-in associations in 11 languages so that typing #home, #casa, or #家 would automatically pull up the house TagCon. Of course, you’ve always had the freedom to pick your own TagCons, making your Sidebar feel truly personal.

260 in 1

Over the years, the collection has grown to 260 TagCons, spanning everything from wildlife and sports to pop culture and hobbies. With Bear 2.0, we introduced the Edit Tag panel to make searching through that library a breeze.

Now, Bear 2.7 takes that evolution a step further. We’ve redesigned all 260 icons to bring a new sense of harmony between Bear and the latest Apple ecosystem. By softening the shapes and unifying the stroke weights, we’ve ensured every icon shares the same elegant DNA as our custom typeface, Bear Sans.

Beyond Sidebar

This unified look now breathes through the entire app. Along with the Sidebar, TagCons have finally made their way into the Editor itself. They now sit naturally right alongside your #tags, making your notes more visual and fun.

Bear 2.7 also brings a redesigned Edit Tag panel on macOS and a new option that lets you decide where tags are placed when you drag a note onto a tag in the Sidebar.

What’s Next

TagCons have always held a special place in Bear, and we’re not done yet. We’ll be introducing new TagCons in the future and we’d love to hear your ideas. Keep an eye on our social channels to share your proposals!

Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X (Twitter), Bluesky, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think. Stay tuned for more awesome features!

Happy writing!

Here are a few things about links in Bear that you might not know.

Auto-filled titles for cleaner notes

On Bear for Mac, you can turn a raw URL like https://bear.app into a tidy titled link like: Bear. It is cleaner, easier to scan, and blend more naturally with the text. Prefer to keep things as plain URLs? No problem! You can toggle this feature off in Settings → General → Auto-fill titles when pasting web links.

Use the ⌘K shortcut to edit links faster

When you want to add or edit a link on macOS, you don’t need to dig through menus. Simply press ⌘K to open the Edit Link panel to customize URL, add title, and toggle the link preview option.

Smart clipboard detection

If you already have a URL in your clipboard and press ⌘K on macOS, Bear automatically drops that link into the Edit Link panel for you. Saves you extra pasting steps to get things done quicker.

Bonus Tip: If you already have some text that you’d like to add a link to it in the note, simply select the text in the note and paste the URL on it, Bear will automatically turn the selected text into a titled link.

Easy ways to make changes to titled links

Adding links in Bear is easy, and editing them is just as effortless. If you ever need to revert a titled link or strip a link away entirely, simply open the Edit Link panel:

• Delete the title → the link becomes a standard URL
• Delete the URL → the linked text becomes normal text again

Simple, direct, no fuss.

Wake up, Link!

We hope these tips help you keep your notes cleaner, tidier, and faster to work with. Bear may look simple on the surface, but there’s a lot of power hidden under the fur. There are plenty more secrets waiting for you to discover.

Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X (Twitter), Bluesky, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think! Stay tuned for more Bear tips!

Happy writing!

Today, we’re introducing Bear’s Educational Discount Program¹, offering 30% off on the first year of the Bear Pro yearly subscription for students, teachers, and academic staff.

Bear Pro unlocks great features including iCloud sync across all devices, note encryption, advanced export formats like PDF and JPEG, and more.

Learn more about Bear Pro →

How to apply

If you are part of an educational institution, you can apply using your school email, or by sharing a document that confirms your academic status. You can find the full instructions here:

Bear’s Educational Discount FAQ →

Happy Thanksgiving!

Whether you’re outlining a thesis, preparing a lecture, working on a school project, or simply writing flashcards, we are truly thankful Bear can be part of it. We hope this program helps you keep going, keep thinking, and keep writing throughout your academic journey.

1. The program is available all year round. You can apply anytime. ︎

A fruitful year

Over the past year, Bear has had quite a busy schedule. We shipped 20 updates in total, each one making Bear a little better and smoother.

Some of those updates brought the big features many of you have been asking for: Read-Only Mode for focused reading, a completely new encryption system that now protects notes with attachments, Callouts to make important details stand out, Math formulas powered by MathJax, and a better Web Clipper that saves web content faster and more reliable now.

We believe that small touches make a big difference too, and this year we made countless improvements under the hood to keep your experience smooth and seamless.

For instance, folding now works in Read-Only Mode, so you can collapse and expand sections as you browse without risking accidental edits. We also improved how tables are pasted, keeping their layout intact when you copy from Excel or Numbers.

Every small fix and hidden tweak adds up. You might not notice each one, but you’ll feel them when you write in Bear.

Challenges

Like every year, this one had its fair share of challenges. Some were technical, from creating a unified codebase for all Bear platforms including Bear Web, to fixing subtle crashes related to Spotlight indexing. But Bear has never been just about code. It’s about how writing feels, how the app moves with you, and how every detail quietly helps you write naturally.

One of the biggest challenges this year was design. With Apple’s new Liquid Glass look, we wanted Bear to feel fresh and modern without losing the simplicity and elegance that makes it Bear. That balance wasn’t easy, but we found our middle ground: softer corners, a “boxed” style Sidebar, and refreshed icons that add a sense of depth while keeping your writing space clear and focused. We’re still refining every corner until it feels just right.

Balance has always been a challenge for us, especially this year. As Bear grows, every new feature brings new possibilities, and a touch more complexity. We don’t want to be a bloated “one-for-all” app, instead, our goal is to make Bear more capable without ever sacrificing its ease of use. For example, math formulas stay invisible to most users, yet easily accessible to those who need them through the BIU keyboard or the $$ syntax. We want Bear to feel light in your hands, simple for quick notes and strong enough to hold everything that matters.

News on Web

This year also marked a big milestone: We started Bear Web Beta. Bringing Bear to the web has been an exciting challenge, and matching the same level of polish and performance as our native apps is no small feat. We’re getting closer every week, thanks to our incredible testers who spot bugs, share ideas, and help us make the experience better with every update.

We can’t wait to bring Bear Web to everyone soon, one step closer to our dream of writing anywhere.

Happy 9th Bear-thday!

Happy 9th Bear-thday, to Bear, to those who’ve been writing with Bear for years, and to those who just started today. We still have many pages to write in Bear’s story, and we can’t wait to share them with you. From the tiniest polish to the next big idea, the caret is still blinking, and nowhere near the final full stop.

Thank you for being part of this journey. A new note has just been added.

What’s new

The Web Clipper 2.0 has been completely rebuilt from the ground up, changing how it works under the hood to bring you an even better experience bringing the web into your notes. With the upgrade:

• Faster and more private: The Web Clipper 2.0 works directly on your device, no remote servers, no detours. Nothing leaves your device, and saving content happens in the blink of an eye.
• More reliable: Now you can capture content from password-protected pages and even local sites. That means your study guides, internal resources, and personal projects can be saved right alongside everything else, with fewer interruptions.
• Smarter customization: New options let you fine-tune clipping to your workflow. For example, enabling “Ask for tags” lets you assign a tag before saving, so your notes stay organized from the start.
• Now on iOS and iPadOS: Beyond Mac, the clipper is now available in Safari on iPhone and iPad too. You can save content directly into Bear with a single tap from the Safari address bar.

For the technically curious, we’ve detailed the under-the-hood changes here.

How to install

For Safari users, the new Web Clipper 2.0 comes bundled with Bear 2.6.3, no extra steps needed. For other browsers like Chrome and Firefox, you can install the Bear browser extension from the respective store.

You can learn how to install and enable Bear’s browser extensions on your devices here.

Try it now

 iOS App Store

 Mac App Store

Update to Bear 2.6.3 and give the new Web Clipper 2.0 a try! Whether you are capturing an entire page or just a snippet of text, the process feels smooth, instant, and perfectly in tune with your workflow. Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X (Twitter), Bluesky, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think!

New UI

Bear’s interface has a fresh, refined look with more depth that makes everything feel more alive. The toolbar has been refreshed to match the new OS style, and the sidebar now blends naturally with Tahoe with a modern and softer look. It’s expressive and beautiful without losing Bear’s clean, minimal essence. Just open Bear, and you’ll feel right at home.

New icon

Our icons now carry a touch of Liquid Glass, with elegant gradients and subtle light. They fit beautifully with the new OS design, yet remain instantly familiar on your Home Screen. It’s the little details that make everything feel just right.

Update now!

 iOS App Store

 Mac App Store

Update now and check out Bear’s new look with a touch of Liquid Glass magic. Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X (Twitter), Bluesky, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think!

The Bear team’s mind-mapping choice: MindNode

MindNode is an intuitive mind-mapping tool that makes it easy to brainstorm and organize ideas visually. Many of us on the Bear team use it daily, whether it’s for sparking new ideas or shaping outlines before diving into the details. What we love most is how powerful it is without ever feeling complicated. It lets us capture what’s on our minds without slowing us down.

Why Use Bear and MindNode Together?

As an indie team ourselves, we naturally admire other indie apps, but that’s not the only reason we pair Bear with MindNode. They complement each other in ways that make our work faster, clearer, and more enjoyable.

• Seamless workflow: Both apps are native apps and support tags, links, and Markdown, so moving notes and ideas back and forth feels seamless. Formatting stays intact, and your work remains tidy without extra cleanup.
• Big pictures and details: MindNode helps you map out the forest; Bear lets you focus on the trees. Together, they let you think at both the macro and micro level so nothing gets lost.
• Work anywhere: Because both apps run on iOS and macOS with reliable syncing, your projects follow you across devices, ready whenever inspiration strikes.

How to Use Bear and MindNode Together

Whether you’re new to Bear, new to MindNode, or just getting started with both, here are three simple ways to get more out of them when you use them together.

1⃣ Brainstorm in MindNode, refine in Bear

Start by sketching your ideas or outlining a project in MindNode. Once you’re ready, export the mind map as Markdown and bring it into Bear to expand on the details.

The structure carries over seamlessly: nodes become headings, while todos, links, tags, and quick notes all appear neatly in your Bear note. From there, you can dive in and flesh out each section until your project is complete.

Use Case: If you’re a student writing a thesis, you might use MindNode to brainstorm ideas and map out the main sections. Then switch to Bear to turn each point into a polished chapter or argument.

And to make things even smoother, we built a Mac Shortcut that imports MindNode file straight into Bear and opens it for you. Give it a try!

2⃣ Link Bear notes in MindNode for reference

Sometimes MindNode is where most of your planning happens, but you still want to pull in details you’ve already saved in Bear. With Bear’s x-callback-url support, it’s easy: just use the/open note action to link directly to your Bear notes from within MindNode. That way, all your references and key info are only a click away.

Use case: For travelers, you can map out your itinerary in MindNode, then link to Bear notes that hold your packing list, booking details, or sightseeing research.

3⃣ Import a Bear note into MindNode for a visual overview

Bear’s Table of Contents makes it easy to jump between sections, but sometimes you need to step back and see your writing as a whole. By exporting a note as Markdown and importing it into MindNode, you can instantly turn your text into a structured, visual map.

Use case: Say you’ve drafted a marketing campaign in Bear and now need to turn it into a presentation to show your team. Importing the note into MindNode gives you a bird’s-eye view of your draft, making it easier to reorganize points, highlight key messages, and shape a presentation that flows naturally.

Better together

When you combine Bear and MindNode, you get to see the big picture and then bring it to life in writing. MindNode helps you map your thoughts, while Bear gives you a focused space to turn them into polished notes, drafts, or plans.

Give it a spin and let us know how Bear and MindNode fit into your workflow, reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X(Twitter), Bluesky, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think!

Happy writing!

How does it work?

Math in Bear uses familiar LaTeX syntax, powered by MathJax. To write a formula, simply use LaTeX syntax wrapped in $...$ for inline formulas or $$...$$ for block formulas. On iOS, you can also quickly insert math formulas via BIU keyboard.

As you type, Bear shows a live preview of the rendered formula beside or below your formula so you can check the result in real time. Once you’re done, Bear hides the raw LaTeX to keep things tidy, just like Bear’s hidden Markdown.

To learn more about how to write math formulas in Bear, check out our support page.

Why this matters

We won’t give you a lecture on the role of math in human progress as we are sure you already know it matters. But what we do know is that math plays a big role in note-taking for academic, technical, and professional work. It’s often complex, and we believe it deserves to be written clearly and beautifully, right inside Bear.

And if you don’t need math? It won’t get in your way, just like the rest of Bear features.

Full Changelog

• MathJax support
• Various editor improvements and fixes
• Fixed crash caused by the undo command in particular scenarios
• Obsidian importer attachments bug fixed
• Korean localization fixes

Update now

 iOS App Store

 Mac App Store

If you’ve been waiting to bring math into your notes, now’s the time. Update Bear now and give Math in Bear a try! Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X(Twitter), Bluesky, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think!

Happy Writing!

About Bear Web

The Bear Web is designed to complement our Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps. With Bear Web, you’ll be able to browse, edit, and search your notes from any web browser, especially for times when you can’t access our native apps.

Please note, Bear Web is not meant to replace the full-featured experience on Apple devices and will have certain limitations due to Web app restrictions, such as export and sketcher.

A few things to keep in mind

• Bear Web is in public beta, so things will improve as we go. Please do not use it for critical work and make sure to backup your notes regularly.
• A Bear Pro subscription is not required to access the Bear Web public beta. However, it is required to sync your notes with the native Bear apps, and will be required to access Bear Web once it’s out of beta.
• Advanced Data Protection (ADP) must be turned off to use Bear Web due to Apple’s restrictions.
• Some features, like encryption and export, are still on the way. We’re already working on future updates, and you can check the release notes for the latest releases.
• We are doing our best to bring the same Bear experience to your browser, but some features from the native apps may be unavailable or behave differently due to web limitations.

How to get started

1. Back up your notes
2. Open Bear Web in your browser and sign in with your Apple ID
3. That’s it, you are in!

Give feedback

We’d love to hear your thoughts about Bear Web. If you run into a bug or want to share your feedback, feel free to post in Bear Web category on the forum and join discussions. When sharing feedback, please include the operating system and browser you’re using — it helps a lot!

Keyboard shortcuts

Bear’s keyboard shortcuts vary slightly between the native macOS version and the web version. These differences arise primarily due to system-specific key mappings and conflicts with browser shortcuts. You can check the full shortcut list here: Bear Web keyboard shortcuts

Happy testing!

Thanks again for being a key part of the Bear journey. We can’t wait to see you access Bear on more devices, including Windows and Android!

• Bear Web: web.bear.app
• More information about Bear Web: Bear Web FAQ
• Release notes: Bear Web Updates
• Give feedback: Bear Web Category on forum

The Bear Team

Make it pop (nicely)

Callouts are styled blocks that help you emphasize significant part of your notes. It can be a handy tip, a critical warning, or just a note you want to leave for your future self.

Bear supports five Callout types:

• Note – Useful context worth noticing
• Tip – Smart advice to do things better or more easily
• Important – Essential info to stay on track
• Warning – Alerts to help you avoid big mistakes
• Caution – Points out risks or negative outcomes

Use Callouts to highlight class notes, add tips to tutorials, flag tricky steps in how-tos, or make sure important info never gets buried.

Easy to add, easy to read

You can add Callouts in a few ways:

• Use simple Markdown > [!TIP]
• From the Format menu in the menu bar, or BIU formatting bar on Mac
• From the BIU keyboard on iOS/iPadOS

You can write with rich formatting inside Callouts, customize titles, or even create title-only versions. Learn more here.

Full Changelog

ursOS (ursos, means bears in Portuguese, also known as coreOS in Bear Changelog)

• Callouts support
• New Shortcuts action for setting a note into read-only mode
• Added the ‘Pinned’ option for the open location Shortcut action
• Corrected undo behavior for read-only actions
• Fixed wiki links autocomplete panel entry duplication
• Improved copy and paste from chatGPT and other pasteboard minor fixes
• Corrected the red highlighter color for the light themes

macOS

• Corrected erroneous search state inside the editor

iOS

• Fixed issue causing unwanted scrolls when switching to another app and back
• Fixed sharing extension for the x.com URLs
• Added Copy As > Markdown in selection menu
• Solved issue causing the delayed appearance of the share menu inside a note
• Horizontal documents now produce horizontal PDF when scanned

Update now!

 iOS App Store

 Mac App Store

Update now and explore your way to use Callouts! Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X(Twitter), Bluesky, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think!

Happy Writing!

Bear 2.4 will require macOS 12.4 and iOS 15.6 or later to support new features and improvements. If you’d rather stay on your current OS, you can turn off auto-updates and update Bear manually.

Encryption, upgraded

For the first time, you can encrypt notes with attachments in Bear (Bear Pro required), meaning you can encrypt any notes in Bear now. Your images, PDFs, and other files are now just as secure as your text, giving you complete peace of mind.

To make this happen, we’ve made a fundamental upgrade to Bear’s encryption system:

We’ve upgraded Bear’s encryption system to encrypt every component of a note, including attachments like images, PDFs, and other files. This ensures everything stays secure and in sync across devices, with smarter checks to prevent conflicts during encryption. Your password is never stored anywhere, ensuring a complete protection of your data. Plus, we have made sure that the new encryption system is ready for Bear on the web when it launches. With these upgrades, your notes and files are more secure than ever.

Please note: You’ll need to update Bear on all your devices to keep sync running smoothly. If you’re on an older version, Bear will kindly remind you to update for seamless syncing.

Sort To-Dos with ease

Your To-Do lists should work for you, not against you. Sometimes a cluttered list of completed and unfinished tasks can be overwhelming. Now, Bear provides a new menu option to automatically moves completed To-Dos to the bottom, so you can always focus on what needs to be done. You can find the setting under Settings > General in Bear.

More Powerful Pinned Notes

Pinning keeps your most important notes within reach, and now it’s even more powerful. With this update:

• Pinned notes inside a tag stay pinned only in that tag. No more clutter across all your notes
• Notes are pinned globally when no tag is selected in the Sidebar
• A new Pinned section under Notes in the Sidebar gathers all pinned notes—both local and global—for easy access
• A refreshed pin icon for a modern and clean look!

For example, you can now pin the House Innovation Plan under #personal and the Annual Work Report under #work separately, keeping them neatly organized without cluttering your All Notes view. At the same time, you can still pin Daily Thoughts globally, so it’s always within reach whenever inspiration strikes.

You can find more information about Pinning here.

Full Changelog

CoreOS

• New Encryption Support
  • Notes with attachments can now be encrypted
  • Encryption layer changes require native apps to be updated for sync compatibility
  • A warning will prompt users to update if version mismatch is detected

• Automatic Sorting for Completed To-Dos
  • Completed to-dos are now automatically moved to the bottom of checklists.
  • This feature can be enabled in Preferences > General
• Improved Local Note Pinning for Tags
  • Notes pinned inside tags are now only shown as pinned within that tag
  • Notes pinned outside tags still appear pinned across all sidebar locations
  • A new “Pinned” section under Notes lists all locally and globally pinned notes
• Fixes & Improvements
  • Resolved file renaming issues
  • Minor theme color tweaks
  • Fixed crash related to wiki link autocompletion
  • Resolved edge case with @title special search
  • Various localization updates
  • Backups now retain the read-only state of notes
  • CloudKit sync updated to support Apple’s Advanced Data Protection
  • Improved in-note search performance

macOS

• (macOS 13+) Live Text for Images: A small icon now appears in the bottom-right of images to enable Live Text
• Style bar now restores automatically if left open before quitting the app
• Image resizing no longer causes selection change
• Minimum system requirement is now macOS12.4

iOS

• ISO8601 date format is now supported in the BIU keyboard’s date tool. Option can be enabled in Preferences > General
• Enhanced behavior of the virtual keyboard
• Fixed issue with tag folding in the sidebar affecting note list context
• Resolved table paste bug
• Fixed a crash on the Watch app
• Minimum system requirement is now iOS15.6

Update now!

 iOS App Store

 Mac App Store

Bear 2.4 is all about making your note-taking experience smoother, smarter, and more secure. Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X(Twitter), Bluesky, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think!

Happy Writing!

The Basics

Before we dive in, let’s touch on some fundamental tools that makes Bear’s integration with Apple apps so seamless. They might seem a bit technical, so feel free to skip ahead if it’s not your thing—but they’re worth knowing!

Clipboard

The clipboard is the magic wand behind copy-and-paste, and it’s at the heart of Bear’s interactions with other apps.

How it works: When you copy content into Bear, Bear transforms it into Markdown where possible. When you copy from Bear and to another app, you’ll get plain text (with Markdown) or rich text, depending on what the recipient app supports.

Quick Tips

• Bear’s Copy As options let you choose formats for selected text or entire notes. On Mac, you can find it in the right click menu; on iOS,  tap Copy As in the pop-up selection menu, or use the ⫶ menu at the top right corner for a whole note
• Pasting tables from a spreadsheet into Bear? Voilà! instant Markdown tables!
• URLs pasted into Bear often transform into titled links—but give it a moment to fetch the title

Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop gives you a hands-on way to move text, attachments, or even entire notes between Bear and other apps. For example, you can draft a note in Bear, then drag it into Mail or Messages to share it. Bear keeps formatting intact—simple as that!

Here are some quick tips to play with Drag and Drop on your fav device:

On iOS:

• If you are struggled to make selected text “float”, hold your finger on it and gently move it—soon it’ll follow you across screens!
• Keep one finger holding the item while another finger swipes up to select the destination app
• You can find more info about Drag and Drop on iPad here

On Mac:

• Drag files in a note in Bear to add as attachment
• Drag a file on the Bear icon in the Dock to create a new note with the attachment
• Drag notes from Bear to other apps—the exported format will be plain text or a Bear note, depending on whether attachments are included
• Instructions of Drag and Drop on Mac can be found here

Apple Shortcuts

Apple Shortcuts lets you string together tasks across multiple apps into powerful automations. If you’re new to it, check out Apple’s Shortcuts User Guide, our Shortcuts blog, and FAQ to get started.

On Mac, Shortcuts functionality is largely the same as iOS, but test cross-platform shortcuts to ensure compatibility.

Built-in Apps

Now, let’s explore how Bear works with specific Apple apps through real-world examples.

Reminders

Bear isn’t about bloated all-in-one solutions, but it teams up beautifully with Reminders for task management. Use Shortcuts to sync todos from Bear to Reminders, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

Shortcuts from users:

• Simple Bear and Reminders integration
• Mark todos complete in Bear from Reminders

Calendar

Looking to tie your schedule into Bear? Try embedding note links in Calendar event descriptions or attaching notes directly to Calendar events. Shortcuts can automate this for streamlined daily or weekly planning.

From users: Make your own journal shortcut with calendar events in Bear

Mail

Bear makes it convenient to draft emails in Bear and finish in Mail app. On iOS, use Bear’s Share option in the ⫶ menu to send a note to Mail. On Mac, drag and drop is your best friend—move a note directly into an email draft, and Bear keeps the formatting intact.

Saving email links in Bear is also easy. Just drag and drop an email from Mail into Bear, and it will create a titled link that takes you straight back to that specific message whenever you need it.

From users: Linking emails via drag and drop on iOS

Safari

Bear has amazing extensions for Mac, iPad, and iPhone, making it effortless to save “Read-later” content from Safari or capture an #inspirational quote that brightens up a rainy day.

On iOS: In Safari, tap the iOS share icon on the bottom, choose Bear, and customize how you save the content. Want to save only part of a webpage? Highlight the section you need before tapping the share icon. Learn more here.

On Mac: After installing Bear’s browser extension, simply click the Bear icon to save any webpage as a note. If you highlight specific text or images, the extension will clip only the selected content. You can also adjust some options of the Bear extension. You can add default tags to all clipped notes, and append the page URL to the note for a tailored experience. Learn more here.

: Occasionally, the extension may not capture a webpage correctly. If this happens, feel free to reach out to us with the link so we can investigate and improve.

More to Explore

Bear works with Apple apps in many creative ways. Highlight text and explore the selection menu to search, share, or copy content in the Apple built-in Apps. Combine apps for custom workflows, like capturing content in Safari, converting it to a PDF, saving it in Bear, and emailing it—all with a Shortcut.

Get started!

Bear’s seamless integration within the Apple ecosystem is all about enhancing your productivity while keeping things simple and fast. Whether you’re syncing tasks, scheduling your days, or just wanting to save a piece of article you loved when surfing online, Bear + Apple apps = endless possibilities.

Read-Only Mode

Sometimes, you just want to read your notes without accidentally editing them. With Read-Only Mode, you can scroll through your thoughts and ideas effortlessly—perfect for focused reading or quiet reflection.

To enable it, open the ⫶ menu and select “Make Read-Only”. You’ll see a read-only icon appear in the top-right corner. When you’re ready to make changes again, just click or tap the icon and select “Make Editable.”

4 New Themes

Introducing Shibuya Jazz, Shibuya Lo-fi, Everforest Light, and Everforest Dark! Shibuya Jazz and Lo-fi are two extended themes as Dieci with absolute black #000000 background, perfectly designed for AMOLED screens.

The Everforest light and Everforest dark are based on the Vim theme Everforest made by Sainnhe, bringing you a warm and soft tone with mild contrast. Check out more Bear themes here!

Full Changelog

As always, we’ve squashed some bugs to keep your experience smooth and reliable. Check the full Changelog here:

coreOS

• Read-only mode: By using the ⫶ menu inside a note > More or Long press/right-click on a note you can set a note to not being editable
  • Folding can be toggled for read-only notes by using the Side Actions
• 4 new themes: Shibuya Jazz, Shibuya Lo-fi, Everforest Dark, Everforest Light
• @readonly special search
• Fixed editor crash with collapsed sections
• Opening a note while a search is active in the Notes List correctly scrolls you to the first result and focuses it

⠀

⠀macOS

• file:// links now correctly open the Finder on macOS recent releases
• Fixed bug preventing attachments of archived notes to be opened with
• Shortcut export action bug corrected
• Fixed dictation issue with lists
• Small fix for print not preserving the image sizes in some conditions

⠀

⠀iOS

• Images inserted via the iOS sharing extension are now properly synchronized
• Corrected the Backlinks Panel scrolling behavior
• Now notes are correctly created when the Notes List has an active search containing a -
• Fixing the search term edit in the Notes List when it contains color-changing special characters
• Properly handling the visibility of the Editor’s left border
• Notes trashed, archived, or read-only don’t show the BIU keyboard button on the selection
• Improved the tappable area for resizing images on iPad
• Removed crashes while concerning the sketcher
• Leaving the current panel visible in the Editor when switching apps
• The disclosure button in the Backlinks pane is always visible
• Patched issue with text copied from chatGPT

Update now!

iOS App Store

Mac App Store

We would love to hear your experience about the all new Read-Only mode in Bear. Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, Twitter, Bluesky(NEW!), or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think.

Happy Writing!

Digitize Your Documents

Save as PDF: The document scanner is a great way to digitize physical documents. Open the scanner by holding the camera icon in the BIU keyboard, position your document, and snap a picture. Once scanned, all the pictures will turn into a PDF which then saves in the note.

Tip: On iOS, you can long-press the Bear app icon on your home screen to instantly access the scanner!

Save as photo and text: Bear makes it easy to add various file types to your notes. You can snap a photo and add them directly into Bear. Worry about storage? Use camera to capture text using Apple’s built-in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature, then select text and share to Bear, super easy.

Once you import your files, you can annotate, highlight, or link these files within your notes, making it simple to keep all related information in one spot. This flexibility helps you build a comprehensive digital library that’s accessible anytime, anywhere.

Organize Your Digital Files

Create Master Notes

To keep your digital workspace organized, start with creating Master Notes that serve as central hubs for related documents. For instance, if you have various invoices, contracts, and receipts, create a Master Note titled Financial Documents. Within this note, you can link to individual notes for quick access and add brief descriptions to provide context for later. This method not only simplifies navigation but also adds to your organization by grouping related files, making it easy to manage your digital information efficiently.

Use Tags

Organize your notes by adding relevant tags such as #personal_records, #contracts, and #receipts. It allows you to quickly filter and locate a specific type of documents, ensuring you can find what you need at a glance.

Using multiple tags on a single note helps you further manage documents with different purposes. For instance, with letters, you might want to tag both the date and the topic, making it easier to find exactly what you need later.

There are many different ways to tag your notes; check out this blog series for a full guide: How to Think with Tags, Create a Habit in Bear Part 1 and Part 2.

Maintain System

Regularly Digitize Physical Documents: There will always be new documents, so keep your desk and mind tidy by regularly scanning and digitizing physical documents. Make it a weekly or monthly habit to set aside time to scan your accumulated paper notes and organize them in Bear, ensuring everything is easily searchable.

Archive Notes: To maintain a clutter-free digital environment, routinely archive notes that you no longer actively use. This helps declutter your main workspace while still keeping important notes in a safe and reachable space, available for you to bring back any time you need them again.

Start today!

Going paperless isn’t just smart—it’s liberating! Ditch the clutter, save some trees, and enjoy the simplicity of a sleek, digital workspace with Bear. We would love to hear about your paper-to-digital transformation! Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X(Twitter), Bluesky (New!), or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think!

Looking back

Bear started as a side project by three developer-designers, with the idea of making a note taking app that provides a comfortable, private space to create beautiful notes. After 3 years of development, in November 2016, we launched the very first version of Bear. We received unexpected success and appreciation from both our users and the industry, winning App of the Year in 2016 and the Apple Design Award in 2017. We spent countless hours reviewing feedback, improving the app, and polishing every detail to make Bear the best it could be.

In February 2018, we made the bold decision to rewrite Bear from the ground up. It wasn’t easy, but we knew it was the only way to future-proof the app and build the features our users deserved.

In 2020, we began beta testing Panda, the new editor for Bear 2. We added tons of new feature we had been waiting for, such as tables, folding, Table of Contents and backlinks. After 3 years of dedicated crafting, the editor was finalized and implemented into Bear 2. In July 2023, we officially launched Bear 2.

The Journey Continues

We know Bear 2 is not the finish line; it’s just the beginning. Since the launch of Bear 2, we’ve kept busy over the last year—continuing to polish the app, fix bugs, and listen to feedback. We’ve added features like Quick Open and MultiColor highlighter to enhance the writing experience, all while staying true to our core belief in making Bear a place where you can write naturally. We are also working on a major upgrade to the note encryption feature, which will allow you to lock notes with attachments.

The foundation of Bear 2 also opens up tremendous opportunities for even better things to come—we’ve been keeping our heads down on Bear Web and we will soon start alpha testing. While we can’t reveal any details just yet, rest assured and keep an eye on our forum for updates—you won’t want to miss what’s coming next!

A Heartfelt Thank You

None of this would be possible without our incredible team. We may be small, but we’re a mighty, close-knit bunch where everyone’s voice counts (and sometimes debates get lively!). It’s that mix of collaboration and creativity that makes Bear what it is today.

And of course, a huge thank-you to you, our amazing users. Your support, feedback, and belief in us have kept us going through every high and low over the past 8 years. The best way we can express our gratitude is by continuing to make Bear a reliable place where you can freely write and capture your life—a true happy place for your thoughts.

Happy Birthday, Bear!

Happy birthday, our little Bear! The past eight years have been an incredible journey, but we’re far from done. Thank you for being part of Bear’s story—here’s to many more years of happily writing, creating, and growing together!

New Writing Tools

We’re thrilled to announce that Bear has now integrated the powerful new Apple Intelligence, available on iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, together with other amazing apps! This innovative feature unlocks a whole new world of writing enhancements in Bear, allowing you to write and edit effectively without compromising your data privacy.

Rewrite, proofread, and summarize

With the new systemwide Writing Tools built directly into your devices, you can now rewrite, proofread, and summarize text right inside Bear:

• Rewrite: Effortlessly refine your text with multiple rewriting options. Whether you need a formal tone for a business email draft, a touch of humor for a wedding speech, or a creative flair for a blog post, Apple Intelligence provides different versions to suit your specific needs right in Bear.
• Proofread: The Proofread tool checks your grammar, word choice, and sentence structure, suggesting edits along with helpful explanations. You can review and accept these suggestions instantly in Bear, ensuring your writing is polished and professional before shipping to the world.
• Summarize: The Summarize tool allows you to condense your text into a concise paragraph, bulleted list, table, or key points, making it easy to grasp the essential information at a glance.

Lists and Tables

Writing tools aren’t just for tackling complicated edits; they’re also your secret weapon for those tedious tasks like turning text into lists and tables. If you want to transform some text into a list or table, just use the “List” and “Table” functions to save yourself time on formatting.

How to use Writing Tools in Bear

On macOS

• Open a note in Bear
• Select the text you’d like to edit
• Right-click the selected text, then choose Writing Tools from the menu
  • Alternatively, go to the Menu Bar and select Edit > Writing Tools
• In the Writing Tools menu, choose Show Writing Tools to access all options, or select a specific tool for quick editing

On iOS and iPadOS

• Open a note in Bear
• Select the text you want to edit
• The Writing Tools shortcuts and Apple Intelligence icon will appear above the system keyboard
• Tap the Apple Intelligence icon to access Writing Tools

Note: Currently, Apple Intelligence is not available in all countries. Learn more: How to get Apple Intelligence on iPhone

Try it now!

Whether you’re tidying up class notes, perfecting a cover letter, or crafting the perfect email, with the built-in Writing Tools powered by Apple Intelligence, Bear is here to help you write with more confidence and ease.

We would love to hear your experience about Writing Tools in Bear. Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think.

Happy Writing!

Multi-Color Highlighter

You asked, and we listened! In Bear 2.3, we’re excited to introduce the highly requested multi-color highlighter feature, giving you the flexibility to choose from five dynamic colors:

• Green
• Red
• Blue
• Yellow
• Purple

Now, you can easily distinguish different types of highlighted content by using multiple highlighter colors—whether it’s highlighting key points, marking sections for further editing, or color-coding tasks.

These colors are also consistent across all Bear themes, ensuring that each highlight color remains easy to recognize and distinguish even when you switch themes.

How to use

Mac

• Select the text you want to highlight in the editor
• Use the keyboard shortcut ⌘ ⇧ M to quickly highlight your text
• The green highlighter will be applied to the text by default
• To change the highlighted color, click the highlighter icon before the text and select a different color
• Alternatively, click the BIU button in the top right of the editor and select the highlighter icon, then choose the highlighter color you’d like to apply to your text

iOS

• Open the BIU keyboard
• Tap the highlighter icon to apply the default highlighter color to the text, or long-press the icon to choose from different colors
• To change the highlighter color, tap the icon before the highlighted text and select a new color from the popup menu

New Tinted Color Icons

We’re excited to announce that Bear now fully supports iOS 18’s new Tinted Color Icons! 

Whether you prefer bold hues or subtle shades, this feature lets you customize your Bear app icon to match your unique style, adding a tint to all your Home Screen icons.

Control center widgets

Bear now offers quick access to our core features with our brand-new Control Center widgets! Choose from New Note, New To-Do Note, New Scan Document Note, or Search Notes to streamline your workflow and keep your productivity tools just a tap away.

There’s More

We’ve also fixed a bunch of bugs and added some more actions to make life easier. Check out the full Changelog below:

macOS

• Fixed note scrolling glitch
• Fixed Timing.app integration

iOS

• Support for tinted icons
• Support for control center widgets
  • New Note
  • New ToDo note
  • New Scan Document note
  • Search notes
• Restored the correct coloring of Bear’s custom keyboard
• New attachments export menu
• Fixed issue with side actions positioning

coreOS

• New Highlighter colors: It’s possible to choose between 5 different colors for highlighting your notes
• Added more actions to the … menu inside the note
  • Pin/Unpin
  • Trash/Restore
  • Archive/Unarchive
  • Privacy
  • Sort ToDos
• DOCX exporter fixed issue with markdown [unlinked references]
• Minor changes to the existing themes
• Code blocks no longer change height during markdown hiding/showing
• Header links now work correctly if the target header is folded
• Fixed attachments path issue with merged markdown exports
• Fixed wiki link name update bug concerning locked notes
• Fixed an issue with note search and attachments no longer connected to notes
• Better handling of HTML comments during exports
• The Add file shortcuts action now has an extra parameter to limit insertion to a specific header inside the note
• Fixed issue with copy as > HTML when performed from the note list
• Fixed lag popovers appearing lag for notes with a lot of links
• Better handling of inline stylers when they are toggle off inside a word
• Fixed HTML export W3C validation issues
• Fixed issue preventing attachments to be correctly linked in textbundle and BearNote exports when they were in some folding conditions
• Changes in the Quick Open panel search algorithm

Update now and tell us what you think!

We’d love to hear what you think about the new tinted icons and the multi color highlighter. How will you use the new highlighter colors? What tinted icon will you choose? Have you added any new widgets into your control center? Reach out to us on our new Community Forum, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think about these new features!

Happy Writing!

Whether you’re a seasoned user of Bear or just starting out, there are always things to discover. We strive to keep your workspace clean and clutter-free, revealing features only when you need them. This design philosophy ensures that you can focus on your writing without distractions.

In this blog, we’ll share 5 hidden features that you may or may not have found yet. These features are exclusively in Bear on Mac, but don’t worry, we will share part 2 with iOS hidden features soon! Now let’s dive in!

Instant Search

Bear automatically triggers the search function when you focus on the note list and start typing. This means you don’t need to click on the search bar or navigate away from the note list. Simply begin typing, and Bear will start filtering your notes.

This feature is designed to make finding notes faster and more intuitive. Whether you have a few notes or hundreds, this instant search capability helps you quickly locate the information you need without disrupting your writing process.

Detach Info Panel

A flexible way to keep important details at your fingertips is by detaching the info panel. You can easily do this by dragging the info panel to the side of your screen. Once detached, the panel remains visible even as you switch between different notes.

As you navigate through your notes, the information in the panel updates automatically to reflect the details of the current note you’re viewing. This feature is especially useful for keeping track of word counts and other metadata without repeatedly opening and closing the info panel.

Our info panel holds many more features you may be interested in learning about, check out this FAQ page.

Quick Open (⌘ O)

Our Quick Open feature is designed to make navigating your notes faster and easier. Using a simple keyboard shortcut, the Quick Open box appears, regardless of what you’re doing in the app. This lets you quickly access any note, tag, or section without interrupting your workflow.

Just type the first few letters of a note,#tag, or @section into the Quick Open box, and Bear will instantly display matching results. Select the desired item, and you’ll jump right to it.

Want to know more about Quick Open? Check out this blog post for a deep dive!

Add links to a local file

You can simplify referencing local documents by adding links to a local file in Bear. This feature is particularly useful for keeping all relevant information connected without uploading documents located on your devices. It’s easy to add a link to a local file:

• Open the Edit Link Panel (⌘ K)
• Type file:// in the URL section
• Drag the file from its location on your Mac into the URL section
• The path to the file is now added
• Press Done

Note: This doesn’t upload the actual file to your Bear notes; clicking the link will merely navigate you to the file on your Mac. The link will not work anymore if the file path changes.

Whether you need to quickly access a document for a project or keep track of important local resources, adding links to local files ensures that everything you need is just a click away.

Double Click a Note to Open in a New Window

Enhance your productivity by working on multiple notes simultaneously. Simply double-click on a note to open it in a new window. This feature is ideal for multitasking or referencing different notes side by side.

To further streamline your workflow, you can use the “Window > Float on Top” option. This keeps your Bear notes always visible on top of other windows, ensuring you don’t lose track of important information while working with other applications.

New Abilities Unlocked

This is only the tip of the iceberg! We have so many secrets to share, from instant search and detached info panels to quick open options and linking local documents, Bear empowers you to work smarter and more efficiently.

Reach out to us on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, our new Community Forum, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net

Whether you’re a student, professional, or creative, these tips will help you master the art of folding. In case you missed it, in update version 2.2 we completely revamped folding in Bear, it now has a sparkling new look, check it out here.

Let’s get into the essentials

What is folding?

Folding is a powerful feature that allows you to collapse or hide sections of your notes. This can be really helpful to reduce visual clutter and make it easier to navigate through large or complex notes by only displaying the sections that are currently needed.

How to use Folding?

Folding has been around since Bear 2 launched, however recently we’ve integrated folding into the Side Actions to give you a quicker and easier way to manage sections with just a single click. It has never been easier to navigate your notes without tiring your fingers scrolling.

Check out our FAQ page for more information on folding, where you’ll find additional methods beyond this overview of the new folding system.

Mac

• Move the cursor to the left side of the editor text
• Folding chevrons for collapsible sections will appear
• Click the chevron to toggle folding

iOS

• Go to the more menu (⫶) on the top right in a note
• Select “Toggle Side Actions” in the menu
• Side Action icons will appear on the left side and remain visible
• Tap the folding chevrons to toggle the folding

Useful things to know

Hide sections of long notes – Regardless if your note is 5,000 words or 50,000 words, folding sections is a great way to stay focused and hide away any distractions.

Easily move folded sections – The ability to drag and drop folded sections makes reorganizing your notes incredibly easy. We have many bookwriters in the Bear community who can attest that editing long documents can be tiresome, so being able to grab a folded section and move it where needed can save you a lot of time.

Fold Multi-level lists/todos – Writing lists in Bear is an extremely helpful method of keeping your thoughts and tasks aligned, but did you know you can also fold sublists or subtasks. This allows you greater control over your planning and can make detailed lists more organized.

Folding & TOC – Combine folding with the table of contents for an extra boost of productivity. Jump from section to section easily in the table of contents and with 1 click, fold or unfold your sections. Extra tip, drag your info panel to the side to have it float outside your note, this will allow it to stay put and update its info depending on the note you are viewing.

Let’s Fold It Up

Folding can really change the way you manage your tasks and projects. Enjoy a smoother, more efficient workflow that helps you stay on top of your responsibilities without distraction. Give folding a try and let us know in what magical ways you have folded up your notes.

Reach out to us on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, our new Community Forum, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net