The private option shouldn’t be the paid one.
Notes are where the unguarded things go — the diagnosis, the resignation letter, the passwords you meant to move. Most notes apps hold all of it in the clear on someone else’s machine. The ones that don’t usually charge a monthly fee for the part that matters: getting your notes onto your other devices.
We charge for none of it. Encryption, sync, biometric lock, import and export are free, permanently. That isn’t generosity — sync runs on your iCloud or Google Drive, not a service we operate, so there was never anything for us to rent to you. Pro lifts the note limit. That is all it does.
A notes app that cannot read your notes.
Everything you write is sealed with AES-256-GCM on your device — through Apple’s CryptoKit on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Android’s own cryptography on Android — before anything reaches the disk. Titles, folder names and dates are encrypted too — not just the bodies — so browsing the files shows random identifiers and nothing readable. There is no account to create and no server to trust, because we do not run one.
Serious encryption, ordinary to live with.
Encrypted before it touches disk
Note bodies, attachments and the index are sealed with AES-256-GCM on your device — not locked behind a passcode screen with the text still readable underneath. Unlock with Face ID or Touch ID, with your passcode — or your Mac’s password — as the fallback; on Android, with a biometric such as your fingerprint, or the phone’s screen lock, and with your passphrase on a phone that has no screen lock or does not hold your library’s key.
No account. No server.
Nothing to sign up for, no hYYa account to sign in to, and no hYYa backend anywhere. Apart from the store’s own purchase screen, the app’s only network connection is the optional Google Drive sync, and it reaches only Google’s sign-in and Drive services. On Apple devices a build check enforces that, so it is a property of the code, not a policy we could quietly change.
Bring the notes you already have
Come across from Apple Notes, Bear, Obsidian, Joplin or Evernote — Markdown, plain text, HTML, RTF, RTFD and Evernote .enex. Your folders come with you, and every file is read on your own device. Nobody should have to start their notes over to start encrypting them.
Sync across your devices — free
iPhone, iPad and Mac sync through your own iCloud Drive or your own Google Drive, and Android through Google Drive — so an iPhone, iPad or Mac and an Android phone can share one library. Files sync already encrypted, so iCloud and Google Drive only ever hold your notes as ciphertext. Most encrypted notes apps charge a subscription for exactly this; we cannot, because it was never our server.
Sync that doesn’t lose your writing
Every note is its own encrypted file, so edits made on two devices are merged back together instead of one device’s copy winning. And if the same note is genuinely edited in two places at once, both versions are kept — nothing you typed is ever silently discarded. If we are asking you to trust sync, that is the guarantee worth making.
Your words are not handed to AI
On iPhone, iPad and Mac, Apple’s Writing Tools are explicitly switched off in the note editor, so your note text is never passed to system AI features. It is a small line of code and a rare one — very few notes apps can claim it.
Even the titles are encrypted
Titles, folder names and dates are ciphertext at rest, not just note bodies. Metadata is where most notes apps leak — a file called Divorce lawyer.md tells the story without anyone opening it. Here the files are random identifiers.
Search that never writes your words down
Full-text search across everything, and no plaintext index is ever written to disk — writing one would leave readable note text sitting beside the encrypted notes, quietly undoing the encryption. The index is cached inside the encrypted library, sealed under the same key as your notes, and rebuilt from them whenever it is missing or unreadable.
Attachments, encrypted like the rest
Images sit inline in the note; any other file becomes a chip that opens it. Both are sealed with the same encryption as your note text — an attachment is not a side door.
Export everything as plain Markdown — free, always
Write your whole library out to a folder you choose, as ordinary Markdown files any other app can open. Images and attached files come out with it, each note's in its own folder beside the Markdown. Never behind the paywall, never a Pro feature, and not something we could take away later without you already holding a copy.
A real native app, not a web wrapper
SwiftUI on iPhone, iPad and Mac, with a full Mac menu bar, keyboard shortcuts, printing and a proper Settings window. Folders with colour labels, pinning, checklists and Markdown that formats as you type. Dynamic Type, VoiceOver and Reduce Motion throughout, in light and dark. On Android, it is built natively for Android.
Encryption you can forget is there.
Real screens from the Mac and iPhone apps — one for each thing it does.
On iPhone
There is no server.
Not a server we promise not to look at. Not a server with a good privacy policy. There isn’t one. The app’s only network connection is the optional sync to your own Google Drive — so there is no account database, no note store, and no telemetry pipe on our side, nothing that has ever held a word you wrote.
Nothing to subpoena
If we were handed a legal demand for your notes, we could not produce them. We do not hold them and cannot decrypt them.
Nothing to leak
No accounts, no analytics, no advertising identifier — and on iPhone, iPad and Mac, no third-party SDKs at all. A breach needs a database; there isn’t one.
Nothing to shut down
Your notes are files on your own devices, and in your own iCloud or Google Drive if you sync. If hYYa disappeared tomorrow, they would still open, and export would still work.
The honest flip side, stated plainly: your key never reaches us, so we cannot recover your notes for you either. If the key is gone and there is no recovery passphrase, nobody can decrypt them — including us. That is the consequence of the design, not an oversight. It is all set out in the privacy policy.
Free where it counts. One payment for the rest.
Encryption, sync, biometric lock, import and export are free and stay free. Pro lifts the note limit — a one-time purchase, covering iPhone, iPad and Mac, or bought separately on Google Play for Android. Not a subscription, and not per device.
- Up to 15 notes — no time limit, no nagging
- AES-256-GCM encryption
- Sync through your own iCloud Drive or Google Drive
- Biometric lock — Face ID, Touch ID or fingerprint
- Full-text search, folders, checklists and attachments
- Markdown export and import — never paywalled
- Unlimited notes — the only thing Pro changes
- iPhone, iPad and Mac in one purchase — on Android, bought on Google Play
- When you reach the limit, nothing is locked or deleted — everything you have written stays readable, editable, searchable and exportable
One payment. Yours forever. No subscription.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it really encrypted, or just hidden behind a lock screen?
Really encrypted. Plenty of "private notes" apps only put a passcode screen in front of notes that are still sitting readable on disk underneath. hYYa Encrypted Notes encrypts note bodies, attachments and the index with AES-256-GCM on your device — through Apple's CryptoKit on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Android's own cryptography on Android — before anything is written to disk. Browsing the files reveals random identifiers and nothing readable.
Do I need an account or an internet connection?
Neither. There is no hYYa account to create or sign in to, no hYYa server anywhere, and it works with the internet switched off. Apart from the store's own purchase screen, the app's only network connection is the optional Google Drive sync: it reaches only Google's sign-in and Drive services, and nothing is sent until you connect it. If you never turn sync on, nothing you write ever leaves the device.
Can hYYa read my notes, or recover them for me?
No, and that is a property of the design rather than a promise. Your key is generated on your device. On iPhone, iPad and Mac it is kept in the Apple Keychain and syncs only between your own devices, through Apple's end-to-end encrypted iCloud Keychain; on Android it is protected by the Android Keystore. Through Google Drive, it reaches another device only sealed inside your library with your passphrase. We never receive it and we run no server that could hold your notes. The consequence is honest and worth knowing before you start: if your key is gone and you have no recovery passphrase, nobody can decrypt your notes — including us. Keep your own backups of anything irreplaceable.
What happens if I lose my device?
On iPhone, iPad and Mac, if you use iCloud sync, your notes are already on your other devices and your key arrives there through iCloud Keychain, so you carry on as normal; you can also set an optional recovery passphrase, which wraps your key into a small file inside your own library as a fallback for a device that has not received the key yet. With Google Drive sync on — iPhone, iPad, Mac or Android — open your library from your Google Drive on the new device and enter its passphrase: Android always has one, and connecting Google Drive on an Apple device asks you to set it. We never receive that passphrase and cannot reset it.
Is sync really free?
Yes — and so are encryption, biometric lock, import and export. Most encrypted notes apps put sync behind a subscription. Sync here runs through your own iCloud Drive on iPhone, iPad and Mac, or your own Google Drive on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, rather than a service we operate, so there is nothing for us to charge rent on. Files sync already encrypted, which means iCloud and Google Drive only ever hold your notes as ciphertext. Those accounts are governed by Apple's and Google's terms, not ours.
What happens when I reach the 15-note limit?
Nothing is locked and nothing is deleted. Every note you have already written stays readable, editable, searchable and exportable — forever. The free plan's 15-note limit simply applies to any new ones. If you want the limit gone for good, Pro is a single payment and never a subscription — one Universal Purchase covering iPhone, iPad and Mac, or on Android a separate one-time purchase on Google Play.
Can I get my notes back out again?
Any time, free, and never behind the paywall. Export writes plain Markdown to a folder you choose — ordinary files that any other app can open. Images and attached files come out with it, each note's in its own folder beside the Markdown. Once exported they are no longer protected by this app's encryption, so keep them somewhere you are happy with. Import works the same way in reverse, reading Markdown, plain text, HTML, RTF, RTFD and Evernote .enex files entirely on your device.
Is my note text sent to Apple Intelligence?
No. Apple's Writing Tools are explicitly switched off in the note editor, so your note text is not handed to system AI features. Very few notes apps can say that.
When can I get it, and on what?
It is out now on iPhone, iPad and Mac from the App Store, and on Android from Google Play. On Apple devices it is a Universal Purchase, so buying it once on any of them unlocks it on the others with nothing more to pay; on Android, Pro is bought separately on Google Play, because there is no account to carry a purchase between the two stores. If you have a question, send us a line through the contact form.