Google Keep Desktop Client Through Google Chrome Extension

Google Keep is an Evernote rival from the house of the search engine giant. Essentially, it is a note-taking app on the cloud designed for Android users at the moment. It will let you take notes quickly from the web version as well. The bare minimum interface will give you no respite and no options to tinker with. Google is yet to announce or release a desktop client for Google keep, however canny Chrome developers have already fathered a Chrome extension which will serve you as a dedicated Keep client, albeit unofficial one.

With an inclination towards cloud service, Google keeps releasing services that are more cloud dependent. First, they merged docs with Google drive, and provided plenty of options to tinker with which made Drive as one of the best cloud service, and now they provided Google Keep note-taking service integrated with the drive. The general consensus about this service is that Google has baked the product hastily. Currently, there are little to no features available in this service. Moreover, the service is available to Android users only.

Google Keep Chrome extension is just a penalized shortcut of the web version. Non-Canary channel users of Chrome owner should enable panel option from chrome://flags. See the screenshot to understand the process in a clear manner.

Just relaunch the Chrome to take the changes into effect.

By default the panel option will show as a popup if you do not perform the above step. Click on the settings icon on Google Keep panel and you will find some options. As you can see there is a width and height option available which you can reduce or increase according to your wish. By default, the size is 400 x 400 px, which you can change from here. Height and width doesn’t work always in Panel option. The “Open in” option will let you choose following options.

• Panel
• Popup
• Tab

All the options are self-explanatory. Currently, there is no API available, also there seems to be an issue with Google chrome which stops users from uploading file to the Keep folder. The panel or pop-up window will let you edit and add new notes. Optionally, you can try Grid View and List view to view your notes. A new note will also allow you to upload pictures.

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There is a right click context menu option which is just there for the sake of it. There is no copy-paste option available so that you can copy the text or a link from the webpage and save it to your Google Keep account. You can open the Google Keep from this context menu as well as change the settings of the extension.

Issues with the extension

There are a few known issues with the extension. For example, we were unable to upload image from Panel option but a pop-up option worked like a charm. Even, tab option allowed us to upload an image. Also, the height and width doesn’t work always in Panel mode. Both the issues are related to Chrome and not the extension.

The Google Keep extension will probably be much more helpful when Google releases the API or official version. In that case, the development will take a giant leap. Till then you have to keep yourself happy with this extension. Overall, the Chrome extension does a nice job considering there is no official API available at the moment. You will definitely love your newly gained power to take notes in the cloud from a hassle free interface.