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Cut, Copy, Paste, & Highlight
An idea for iOS and Android
When it comes down to it, my life is a series of hacks to save information I find for later use. This means I’ve spent decades trying different products to make such a process as efficient as possible. From notebooks to print outs to email to screenshots to audio memos and everything in between.
In the last decade or so, this has meant trying every note-taking app that I can get my fingers on. But the reality of what I want is far more simple.
I want a way to highlight a bit of text, no matter where it may be, and for that highlight to be saved somewhere, in an at least somewhat organized fashion, ideally with a link back to where I found the information saved.
Over the years, a few services have popped up to do this at a high level. Highly is one that comes to mind (well, did). Liner is another. OneShot, a “text shot” service is yet another.¹ Unfortunately, these services tend to pop out of existence as quickly as they pop in. More importantly, they’re often limited by the OSes on which they run. So the experience you’re left with is one that 99% of users will never bother with.
This is why I believe this needs to be OS-level functionality. Right up there with cut, copy, and paste. Ideally right next to those as an option.
