Capturing Text with Drafts

There is a new addition to my home screen, Drafts. Drafts came out about a month ago. The idea behind this application is a capture box for text. There is no mystery that I rely on text a lot to get work done and collecting random bits of text is pretty important to me.

In the past, I did this with a text file called “Daily” where I dropped bits of text and as I went through my day. The problem with this was that in order to capture text on my iPhone, I needed to open my text app, find the Daily file, insert the cursor, and begin adding text. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but those three steps could be a barrier to capturing something.

That’s why I have come to love Drafts. As soon as you open the application, it displays a blank screen ready for you to start adding text. Using the voice dictation features on the iPhone 4S, I’m able to add bits of text to my iPhone without any friction whatsoever.

Moreover, the developer has been aggressively adding useful features to this application. In addition to letting me send text to an e-mail message, I can also direct text to Byword, OmniFocus, Twitter, and the clipboard. There are more.

I find myself using this application all the time. I’d love to see the developer add versions for the iPad and Mac that incorporate iCloud syncing. This way, I could immediately access my captured text from the other platforms for use elsewhere. Hopefully that is somewhere on the whiteboard.

In the meantime, for just a buck, this one is a no-brainer.