We’re not sure exactly when OneNote Mobile received such a significant update on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile, but it seems to have been pushed out in the last week or so. Last week’s update to version 17.6326.10031.0 had these new features, and another update to 17.6366.15391.0 has (apparently) the same “What’s New” notes. And so, it’s hard to tell exactly when these new features were added.
They’re significant significant enough, though, that’s it’s worth making a post about them even if it’s not the most timely. What are these magical new features, you ask?
Well, here’s the list of changes:
- Automatically transform your drawings into shapes
- Move/copy pages and sections to keep everything organized, just the way you like
- Share a copy of a page from your phone to other apps like Outlook Mail
- Quickly insert a photo from your phone’s camera
- Copying and pasting content on your phone just got easier
- Additional bug fixes and improvements
Combined, those features make for a significant upgrade, but let’s start with the one that’s most important.
For quite some time now, the OneNote Mobile app for Windows 10 has been seriously behind its iOS and Android counterparts, in one particularly egregious way. Simply put, you couldn’t copy or move pages or sections, meaning that managing your notes and creating any kind of meaningful workflow was just about impossible on Microsoft’s own platform. If you’re a Windows user exclusively, you need to use OneNote on the desktop to manage your notes, which isn’t the most touch-friendly version.
Now, however, that’s no longer true. With the ability to copy and move added in, OneNote mobile is now (finally!) a fully functional solution for Windows 10 tablets and Windows 10 Mobile smartphones. Just long-press (or right-click) a note, and you can copy and move pages and sections at will.
That functionality alone is worth its own story, and it significantly improves the OneNote Mobile app for Windows 10 and brings it much closer in parity to iOS and Android. The adage “better late than never” applies here, and we’re certainly happy to see Microsoft giving its apps some love.
The other major feature, shape recognition, has been in iOS for a couple of months now and it’s nice to see it finally added to the Universal Windows 10 app. Just enable the recognition button, draw a shape, and you’ll see it instantly converted to its perfect representation. Pen users on the OneNote desktop version have enjoyed this functionality for years, and now it’s gone fully mobile. We like.
Sharing is also highlighted in the “What’s New” notes, although we can’t confirm that it’s actually a new feature. We’ll mention it here because if it didn’t exist in previous versions, that was silly.
This is a hefty update and dramatically improves OneNote Mobile on Windows 10. Hit update if you haven’t already, and download via the link below if you’re not using OneNote on your Window 10 tablet or Windows 10 Mobile smartphone. You really should be using it, because it’s the best note taking solution on the market.
