ruff 2.0 | ruff

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

That’s why I never thought to change ruff. It worked. And its users loved how it worked. But I couldn’t anyway, even if I wanted to, because of technical debt. Meeting Google Play’s many new requirements to update the app required substantial effort, so it was put off for several years. That changes today: ruff has been rewritten from the ground up using Android’s latest, best-supported APIs. Don’t worry though — it’s still the same ruff you love, just better.

Spaces

ruff’s simplicity is what makes it charming. A single sheet of text doesn’t require a tutorial to understand. It is what it is. Everyone gets it, and many love it for that reason. But what if we kept this principle and simply multiplied the number of surfaces available? That’s what Spaces unlocks. It lets you have different sets of text (each with their own stashes), so you can organise ideas, projects, and different parts of your life separately. You can hop between them easily — no jumping through hoops required. Just tap the pill in the bottom-right corner to switch Spaces.

Of course, this is entirely optional. If you’d rather stick with a single sheet, you can — you won’t lose anything.

Etc.

Every feature from v1 is still here, but the entire experience is much more customisable. Although there have been refinements across the board, everything should feel familiar. I don’t expect existing users to need onboarding again, and new users should pick it up just as quickly as before.

Nicer. Faster. Better. That’s ruff 2.

It’s a rock-solid foundation for ruff’s next phase of development. If something can improve ruff without compromising its simple mission — and there are plenty of nice touches that come to mind — expect to see it in the coming weeks, months, and hopefully years.

2.0.1 Update

Fixed a few issues raised by existing users who upgraded:

Swiping to stash should feel fast again.
Adding a list item from the Toolbar regardless of position of caret should work as expected.
Number of free entries returns to 10.
Widget should continue to function regardless of text length.