5 apps for emailing notes to yourself
A 2026 comparison

There are countless ways to "take notes". Dedicated memo app, note app, task management tool... However, there is a simple method that many people overlook. That's the memo technique called "send an email to yourself".

Why is this method so strong? There are two reasons for 5.

• Check your email every day → It's hard to miss notes: No matter how good the memo app is, it's meaningless if you don't open it. However, the email is different. Almost everyone checks their emails many times a day. The next time you open the email, you will see the note you sent to yourself. It will be less likely to happen that I forgot even though I made a note.
• No need to organize folders → Search: The biggest pitfall in the memo app is to worry about "where to save it". Create a folder, tag, choose a notebook... This organization work becomes a cognitive load, and in the end, you will not be able to take notes. If it's an email, you can find it quickly by searching.
• No synchronization between devices required → Access from any device: I want to see the notes I wrote with iPhone on my Mac. I want to check with iPad. If you use a memo app, you need to set up cloud synchronization. If it is an email, it has been synchronized with all devices from the beginning. It can also be accessed from the company's PC.
• Less backup work → notes remain on your email server: Data in a note app depends on that app. If the app or service is discontinued, the data may also disappear. With email, your notes remain on your email service’s servers, subject to that service’s retention and storage policies.
• This is why Captio retained its appeal for so long: from around 2010 to 2024, the app Captio kept users’ support for about 14 years with the simple concept of emailing yourself. An app that only sent notes by email survived while more feature-rich note apps appeared. That illustrates the strength of this method.

Simple Memo is an alternative app inspired by the workflow of Captio, where the cloud service ended in 10, 2024. " You can use it in the same flow as Captio: "Open the app → write a note → send".

app, the input screen is displayed and you can start writing immediately. To send, tap to the destination you set. The startup speed varies from the terminal and state, so this article does not compare it with other apps in terms of seconds (the measurement conditions and values are summarized in benchmark).

Notes sent while offline are stored in the device’s Outbox and automatically retried when connectivity returns. The Outbox and sent history are encrypted on the device using AES-GCM; email itself is not end-to-end encrypted. The Free plan allows up to 3 messages per day. Unlimited sending costs ¥500 per month or ¥5,000 per year.

Note to Self Mail (Developed by Mathias Lipowski) is an app that connects to your own mail server or mail service and sends notes in the background. It is not exclusively for Gmail. Basically, it is free, and attaching photos and files, handwriting, audio, and scanning documents are functions of the Pro version (in-app purchase).

According to the developer's site, it supports multiple destinations, sender settings, subject customization, shared action expansion, Siri (Apple Watch, CarPlay), canned text, and archives of sent notes. In addition, it is explained that the app does not use external services and does not store or share data outside the app. Offline handling and encryption in the terminal are unconfirmed here.

It is suitable for those who want to send from their own email account or those who want to combine it with email import in the task management app. The latest update on App Store is 2024 10.

Drafts is a high-performance text editor with the concept of "writing text and deciding what to do". If you set up email actions, you can send the text you wrote to your email address.

Drafts's strength is customizability. In addition to sending emails, you can use actions to pass the text you wrote to other apps and services. On the other hand, in order to "email yourself with one tap", you need to take an email action with the addressee. According to official document, creating and editing actions (including pre-setting the destination of the message) is a function of Drafts Pro.

Drafts is free to use, and Drafts Pro is a monthly and annual subscription (1.99 dollars per month and 19.99 dollars per year according to official documents. Please check the Japanese price at App Store). Since the memo is also saved in Drafts, the idea is different from the simple workflow of "sending it by email and finishing". It is for power users who use a lot of text processing in addition to sending emails.

The easiest way is to send an email to yourself with the standard email app installed on iPhone from the beginning. No additional app installation is required. You can start using it immediately with your Gmail account or iCloud email.

However, this method has a big drawback. You need to enter the destination every time. Open the mail app, tap Create New, enter your address (or choose from a candidate) as the recipient, enter the subject, write the text and send it. In total, 5~6 taps are required. " There will be a lot of moves for "taking notes on what comes to mind immediately".

In addition, the inbox will come into sight the moment you open the email app, so there is a risk of being distracted by saying, "Oh, I have to reply to this email." Everyone should have had the experience of trying to take notes, but before they knew it, they were replying to an email. The biggest reason for using a dedicated app is to prevent this "derailment of attention".

With the "Shortcuts" app of iOS, you can create your own workflow to send emails to yourself. " If you create a simple shortcut called "Ask for text input → Send the input content by email to the specified address" and place it as a widget on the home screen, you can start the memo sending workflow with a single tap.

The advantage is completely free and can be freely customized. You can build various workflows depending on your ideas, such as automatically inserting a date and time into the subject, changing the destination depending on the day of the week, and adding canned sentences before and after a memo. Click here for detailed how to set up shortcuts.

On the other hand, the creation of shortcuts itself requires a certain amount of knowledge, and it is a method with a high hurdle for beginners. The movement when out of range has not been confirmed here.

"Which app is right for you" depends on what you value the most. Please refer to the following guide by use.

When you open it, the input screen appears, and Simple Memo that can be sent to the set destination with one tap is suitable (developed by the author). It is for situations where you want to finish it in a few seconds, such as memos of ideas during meetings and notes of tasks during commuting. Please check the speed benchmark for the actual measurement of activation.

If you don't want to spend any money, iPhone standard email or self-made shortcuts are the best. Standard emails do not require settings and can be used right now. Shortcuts are time-consuming to initialize, but once you create them, you can achieve your favorite workflow. However, standard emails take the trouble of selecting the addresse every time, and shortcuts have the trouble of creating the first one.

If you are looking for an alternative to Captio, Simple Memo, developed by the author, is one option. Its “open → write → send” workflow is the same as Captio. Its Outbox encrypts unsent notes on the device and retries automatically; Captio also had temporary on-device storage. See the details of the Captio shutdown.

Drafts is recommended for those who want to link text to various services as well as sending emails. You can use actions to pass text to other apps and services. If you want to pursue your own workflow to the extreme, making your own shortcuts is also an interesting option.