The Idea
I read a lot — papers, articles, lecture notes, random observations — and for years my notes lived in scattered files that I never returned to. The problem wasn't capturing ideas; it was that isolated notes don't compound. A thought written down once, filed away, is nearly as lost as one never written.
I wanted a system where ideas could accumulate and connect over time — something closer to a Zettelkasten than a document archive. Small, atomic notes. Each one complete on its own. Each one able to link to others. Over time, a network of thought rather than a pile of text.
Features
Write small, self-contained notes — one idea per card. A masonry grid keeps your whole collection visible at a glance.
Link notes to each other and view the result as an interactive graph. Clusters emerge naturally, and unexpected connections become visible.
Select any note and ask the AI to expand it, suggest related ideas, or sharpen the wording. Works with multiple models — choose based on the task.
Group notes into folders from the sidebar. Useful for keeping research topics, reading notes, and personal ideas in separate spaces.
Notes sync across all your devices automatically. Your data is private and isolated to your account.
Available as a native iOS app, currently in public beta. Join via TestFlight to try it.
How to Use It
Start by signing up at bloom-ly.net — there's also a guest mode if you want to try it without an account. Create your first note by typing a single idea into the input area. Keep it short and focused; one thought per note works better than trying to capture everything at once.
Once you have a few notes, start linking them. When two ideas relate to each other, draw a connection between the cards. Switch to the graph view to see the network take shape — notes that share many links cluster together, while more isolated ideas sit on the edges.
To develop a note further, select it and use the AI panel. You can ask it to elaborate on the idea, find related concepts from your existing notes, or just rewrite it more clearly. Use folders to keep different topics separated, or let everything sit in one space and let the graph show you the structure.
A Note on the Graph
The network graph isn't the feature you use most often — that's just writing and editing notes. But it's the one that makes the app feel different from a regular notes tool. Seeing a visual map of how your thinking connects over weeks or months is genuinely motivating in a way that a flat list of notes isn't.
Bloomly is live at bloom-ly.net and free to use. The iOS beta is available on TestFlight.