Browser bookmarks are a mess. I’ve gone through phases of trying every solution, browser sync, read-it-later apps, note-taking tools, and nothing ever felt right for long. The ones that worked well were tied to accounts I didn’t control. The ones that were self-hostable were clunky or had terrible mobile clients.
Then I started using the Nextcloud Bookmarks app. It has a clean web UI, a solid API, and it runs on my own server. The only problem was the Android experience; there wasn’t a client I liked. So I built Merk.
Why Nextcloud Bookmarks?
Nextcloud Bookmarks does one thing: it stores links, with tags, titles, and descriptions. It’s not trying to be Pocket or Notion. It’s a simple, open-source bookmark store that you own completely. No algorithm deciding what to surface. No vendor lock-in. Just your links, organized the way you want, on your hardware.
The API is well-documented and reliable. Building a client for it was straightforward; the harder part was building a client that actually felt good to use.
What Merk actually is
Merk is a native Android client for Nextcloud Bookmarks. It connects via the official Nextcloud Login Flow v2, syncs your bookmarks to a local Room database for offline access, and provides a clean interface for browsing, searching, and opening your saved links.
The design follows the same dark glass aesthetic as the rest of my app suite; navy gradients, clean typography, no visual clutter. It’s meant to be the kind of app you reach for without thinking, where the interface gets out of the way and just shows you your bookmarks.
Features include:
- Full offline access with background sync
- Tag browsing and filtering
- Fast search across titles, URLs, and descriptions
- Open links in your browser of choice
- Biometric lock
- Light and dark mode
- No ads, no tracking, no account required beyond your own Nextcloud
Part of a larger suite
Merk is one of several apps I’m building under the andrei BARBURAS brand, all designed for the self-hosted community. Nóta (notes) and Blik (screenshots) are already live on the Play Store. More are planned. They share a design language and the same core principles: free, open source, privacy-respecting, and built for people who run their own infrastructure.
If you’re using Nextcloud Bookmarks and you want a proper Android client for it, Merk is for you.
The source code is on GitHub, the app is free, and donations are always appreciated.
