I’ve been self-hosting Nextcloud for a few years now. It’s my personal cloud, calendar, contacts, files, notes, all running on my own hardware, no subscriptions, no surveillance. But there’s always been a frustration I couldn’t shake: the official Nextcloud Android app tries to do everything, and as a result it doesn’t feel great at anything in particular. The notes experience especially felt like an afterthought.
So I built Nóta.
The problem with existing options
The Nextcloud Notes API is clean and well-documented. There were a few third-party clients floating around, but most were either abandoned, built with older tooling, or just not designed the way I think a modern Android app should look and feel. I wanted something that felt native to Android in 2026, smooth, dark, responsive, not a wrapper around a web view or a port of something from five years ago.
What Nóta actually is
Nóta is a focused Nextcloud Notes client. It connects to your existing Nextcloud instance using Nextcloud’s official Login Flow v2, which means you never type your password into the app; you authenticate through the browser, just like you would on desktop. Once connected, your notes sync automatically and are stored locally in a Room database, so everything is available offline.
The interface is minimal by design. Notes open in a markdown editor, categories are displayed cleanly, and the app stays out of your way. There’s a dark glass aesthetic throughout, navy gradients, clean typography, because I spend a lot of time in this app and I wanted it to be pleasant to look at.
Features include:
- Full offline access with background sync via WorkManager
- Markdown rendering and editing
- Category filtering
- Biometric lock for privacy
- Light and dark mode toggle
- No ads, no tracking, no account with me required
Why it’s free and open source
I’m not trying to build a business around this. I host my own stuff, I want tools that work for people like me, and I believe software like this should be available to everyone in the self-hosted community. Nóta is free, the source code is on GitHub, and if it saves you time or frustration, there’s a donation link on the Play Store page.
What’s next
Nóta is the first app in a suite I’m building under the BARBURAS brand; each one focused on a specific Nextcloud or self-hosted workflow. Merk (bookmarks), Blik (screenshots), and others are either live or coming soon. They all share the same design language and principles.
If you’re already running Nextcloud and you want a cleaner Notes experience on Android, give it a try.
The source code is on GitHub, the app is free, and donations are always appreciated.
