I love Tot. I love how it treats plain text as a first-class citizen, and I use it constantly alongside Apple’s Notes app. The sync is rock solid, and it’s like a Swiss Army knife for quick text capture.
I use Tot on both iPhone and Mac. On iPhone, I have a Control Center shortcut for Quick Note in the Notes app to capture text snippets for later use. I fire up Tot on Mac and iPhone to jot down snippets of information like meeting notes or phone numbers during calls. I also depend on the helpful stats display like “31 lines • 103 words • 646 characters” to keep track of my content.
I got a chance to test Tot 2.0 after reaching out to the nice folks at Icon Factory, and this new update brings some really useful improvements.
What’s new in 2.0
One of the most helpful additions is the timestamp showing when each dot was last updated. This seemingly small feature eliminates a lot of confusion about which notes are current.
The new version simplifies many features that were hidden in previous versions. While I don’t personally use the Smart Bullets functionality, I’m excited about the new text dividers feature, which offers eight different styles accessible through the symbol picker.
The app continues to stay out of my way. I can still hit the escape key to quickly dismiss it. While customizable dot colors would have been a nice touch, I appreciate that the app now shows dot numbers.
Plain text, always
I always use Tot in plain text mode. If I need formatting, there’s the Notes app for that. I stick with the Menlo font and keep things simple. The automatic backups are excellent, and there’s now a proper history feature. I used to struggle with losing text occasionally, so this improvement gives me peace of mind.
iPhone experience
On iPhone, I wish the “Compact Dots” feature was available as a keyboard shortcut (this feature moves full dots to the left to eliminate empty gaps, though you can’t undo this action). I also use asterisks to make lists constantly, and having that symbol more accessible on the keyboard would be helpful.
I tried Sindre Sorhus’s barebones Scratchpad app, but the iCloud sync still seems unreliable compared to Tot’s rock-solid syncing.
Interface improvements
The redesigned settings screen is much cleaner and more discoverable. The new undo/redo buttons in the status bar of the iPhone app are handy. I’d love to see the status bar become more configurable in the future, since I don’t use the formatting, indentation, or Smart Bullets features.
Tot 2.0 refines an already excellent app. The Icon Factory team has focused on the right improvements: better organization, clearer interfaces, and rock-solid reliability. For anyone who needs quick, reliable text capture across devices, Tot remains an essential tool.
The app doesn’t try to be everything to everyone, and that’s exactly why it works so well. Sometimes the best tools are the ones that do one thing exceptionally well, and Tot continues to excel at being my tiny text companion.