Notes & PDFs · Goodnotes Limited

Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF

Handwriting, PDFs and an infinite canvas: three things that have never fitted on a phone at a size you could work at.

Free · 4.65 from 51,670 ratings · iOS 18.6 or later · updated 1 November 2026

Goodnotes outgrew handwriting a while ago. The current listing describes a whiteboard with diagramming and real-time collaboration, typed documents built from inline blocks, audio notes that stay pinned to the point in the page where you were writing when they were recorded, transcription and summarising for meetings, PDF import and export, and presenting over AirPlay or HDMI.

Before you download anything, know the version history. Goodnotes 5 and the app in the store now are separate products, and the listing states that Goodnotes 5 users can stay there indefinitely or move across. If you last used it a few years ago, you are not picking up where you left off.

What the fold changes

Marking up a PDF on a 5.4-inch screen means zooming until you can no longer see the paragraph you are marking up. Unfolded, a page can sit at something near its own proportions, and the margin you are writing in is still recognisably a margin. The whiteboard has the same dependency. An infinite canvas is only ever as useful as the window you look at it through, and a phone-sized window turns infinity into a keyhole.

That is an argument rather than a test. The iPhone Duo has been on sale since 23 October 2026 and this app has not been seen running on one.