One of the best indicators of how sticky a cross-device utility will be in my setup is how quickly I install it everywhere. For Sindre Sorhus’ Scratchpad, the answer was “very sticky.” The simple text utility works on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro (via iPad compatibility mode), and as soon as I tried it on my desktop Mac, I grabbed all of my other devices and installed it on them, too.
At its core, Scratchpad is a single view for typing or pasting plain text that syncs everywhere. What sets it apart from similar apps is its many small touches that demonstrate a deep understanding of the way people use a scratchpad app.
I do most of my work on my Mac. Throughout the course of a day, I copy all manner of snippets of text from emails, things I read, text messages, and other sources. I’ve tried to rely on Raycast’s excellent clipboard history to retrieve those scraps of text, but too often, my clipboard fills up so quickly that things get buried and can be hard to find, even using Raycast’s built-in clipboard search.
Scratchpad for iPhone includes Lock Screen widgets (left) and similar functionality to the Mac version (center and right).
Instead, I’ve increasingly turned to Scratchpad. With the press of a global hotkey, I can summon Scratchpad’s window to jot something down for later or paste something from another app. Then, once a day, I go through my scratchpad note to move what I’ve saved somewhere else, like to Todoist, GoodLinks, or Obsidian, deleting from Scratchpad as I go.
Scratchpad’s window can hover above all the others on my Mac, which is handy for times when I’m going through an email backlog or doing a lot of reading. However, if pinning Scratchpad above other windows is a distraction, that feature can be turned off, an option I appreciate.
The app’s superpower is how easy it is to get text in and out of it. On the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, Scratchpad supports two Shortcuts actions: one to add text and one to retrieve it. The app also has a URL scheme that allows you to append or prepend text whether the app’s window is visible or not. Text can be added via the share sheet on the iPhone and iPad and from the Share and Services menus on the Mac. Plus, on the iPhone and iPad, Scratchpad can be added as a Lock Screen widget, and on the Mac, there’s even a pre-built PopClip extension available from Sorhus’ website; it’s my favorite way to save text snippets from anywhere on my Mac.
Other options available on the iOS, iPadOS, and macOS versions of the app include:
- text resizing
- adjustable line spacing
- a font picker
- the ability to “linkify” URLs, so clicking or tapping on them will open links in your browser
- smart dashes and quotes
- the option to place the cursor at the beginning or end of your note
- optional periodic backups
That’s quite a bit, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this is also meant to be a bare-bones plain text editor. You won’t find other common text editor features like support for rich text, Markdown syntax, or images.
Then, there’s the Apple Watch app. With the tap of a complication, you can open your scratchpad note. A three-dot More button in the top-left corner lets you clear the text or share it, and the plus button on the opposite side opens the Watch’s system text entry field where you can type, spell out words with your finger, or dictate text that is appended to the bottom of your note. It’s fast, easy, and reliable, which is more than I can say for most apps that support text input on the Watch. I just wish there was an option to prepend text instead of appending it, which is a choice I’d like to have for all of Scratchpad’s text entry methods, including the share sheet.
The glue that holds everything together in Scratchpad is iCloud sync. In my experience, it has been fast and reliable across every device. I’ve only run into one instance where a conflict occurred, and when it did, Scratchpad indicated which device created the conflicted copy, and it let me scan through each and choose to keep one, the other, or both. The app works well with Continuity, too. If I copy text on one device, I’m able to paste it reliably into Scratchpad on another.
[Update: Shortly after publishing this review, Scratchpad received an update that allows for prepending text via its Apple Watch app.]
Scratchpad isn’t going to replace your text editor. It also won’t serve as a system for organizing links, text, or anything else. The app is simply a place to park bits of plain text on their way to some other destination, and if you work with text a lot, that’s enough. I highly recommend giving it a try.
Scratchpad is available on the App Store for $8 as a universal purchase. A free trial of the Mac version that will remind you to pay for the app every 12 hours is available as well.
