Vive Notes

A handwritten note-taking app built for students, combining the natural feel of pen and paper with the power of digital documents.

All features are completely free, including cross-device sync. Your notes stay private: no data leaves your device, and all AI features run entirely on-device.

Demo Video

Download

F-Droid	Google Play	APK
Available	Coming Soon!	Available

Features

• Local storage and AI processing on device.
• Fuzzy notebook search across text, tables, handwriting, and text found inside images.
• On-device handwriting and formula recognition, including math solving, evaluation, and graphing tools docs.
• Highly performant Ink rendering (7ms on over 10k strokes).
• Free-form page infinite canvas.
• Rich-text editing.
• Inline and free-form LaTeX equations with native rendering.
• Handwriting with configurable pens, pressure, smoothing.
• On-device image OCR.
• Custom paper: ruled, multiple grid sizes, dotted, hexagonal.
• Automatic database snapshots, and revision restoration.
• Open source export file format .vive , docs.
• Hardware keyboard shortcuts and configurable stylus buttons mappings.

Gallery

Self Host server

Sync Server

Road Map

• Fdroid release
• Play Store
• Linux & windows port
• Apple
• Web Client

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Dev

Build prerequisites

Item	What this project uses
JDK	21 in CI
Android SDK platform	Android 37.0 (compileSdk 37)
Android SDK Build Tools	A compatible version selected by AGP; 37.0.0 is a known-good choice
Python	python3.13 executable
Android NDK	28.2.13676358, selected by AGP 9.2.1
Platform Tools and a device or emulator	Android API 35 or newer; arm64-v8a or x86_64 for debug and -PtestRelease

The Gradle wrapper downloads Gradle 9.7.0; the build pins Android Gradle Plugin 9.2.1 and Kotlin 2.2.10 in gradle/libs.versions.toml. Gradle invokes python3.13 directly; the exact Python 3.13.14 pin in the root pyproject.toml is for a separate Python environment.

Install the SDK packages with Android Studio's SDK Manager or the Android SDK command-line tools:

sdkmanager 'platforms;android-37' 'build-tools;37.0.0' 'ndk;28.2.13676358'

Build and install

For a first build, use the debug variant. An Android device is needed only for installDebug:

./gradlew :app:assembleDebug
./gradlew :app:installDebug

An unsigned release can be built without signing credentials:

./gradlew :app:assembleRelease

To sign and install a release, put the upload-key values named in env.example in a gitignored .env at the repo root, and keep the keystore outside the working tree. Then run ./gradlew :app:installRelease. The normal release APK includes arm64-v8a only; use debug or -PtestRelease for an x86_64 emulator.

local.properties may also hold the optional public Google Web client ID and cloud URL settings described in app/build.gradle.kts. They are not required to compile the app.

Run tests

Local tests need no device:

./gradlew :app:testDebugUnitTest

The release instrumented suite tests the R8-minified app on a connected API 35+ device or emulator.

It installs as com.vivenotes.testrelease, so it neither collides with nor uninstalls a signed com.vivenotes.

./gradlew connectedAndroidTest -PtestRelease

The debug instrumented suite uses the same device requirements:

Reports are written under app/build/reports/androidTests/connected/.

./gradlew connectedDebugAndroidTest
./gradlew connectedDebugAndroidTest \
  -Pandroid.testInstrumentationRunnerArguments.class=com.vivenotes.ui.editor.PageViewTest

Acknowledgments

• SymPy , powers the math engine
• Chaquopy, also the math engine
• PaddlePaddle , using their local models
• Claude & Codex