Open-source notes app
An offline stream for personal thoughts, notes, and to-do lists, organized with hashtags and synced directly between Android and Windows over your local network.
- Repository
- Museamo
- Default branch
- main
- README source
- README.md
- Portfolio snapshot
Portfolio notes
Why I made it
I wanted a quick place to jot down something before I forgot it: a note, a reminder, or one of my own internal ramblings. Twitter had the right shape for that, but I had no interest in posting those thoughts on social media. I wanted that same ease of capturing a thought without ending up with a sea of unnamed Google Docs.
So I made Museamo, a private, offline stream of thoughts, notes, and musings. Hashtags collect related posts, and a tag can become a to-do list. Everything lives on my own devices, with Android and Windows syncing directly over the local network. It is a way to message myself, organize things as I go, and find them again later.
Synced source
Inside Museamo
The project README is presented here as part of the portfolio, with links and source images kept intact.Museamo
A private stream of thoughts for Android and Windows.
Message yourself when an idea arrives. Save a word, a reminder, a photo, or something you want to remember. Come back to a searchable feed, star your favorites as Gems, and collect related thoughts with hashtags.
Your library lives on your devices. Capture works offline, and your linked Android and Windows apps sync directly over the local network. There is no account to create and no cloud service to keep running.
Download · Getting started · How to use it · User guide · Development
Screenshots use sample thoughts. Browser previews show simulated locations and a temporary-preview strip; native widgets are shown separately.
What you can do
- Capture quickly. Write in the app or tap a resizable Android home-screen widget. Closing capture keeps your draft.
- Find the good bits. Search your Stream, star thoughts as Gems, or browse by hashtag.
- Make a checklist. Turn a tag into a Checklist and check off its thoughts.
- Keep more than text. Add formatting, original photos and videos, clickable links, and optional locations.
- Use your own devices. Link Android and Windows libraries over your local network, with a matching-code check on both screens.
- Keep a way back. Export portable ZIP backups and restore deleted thoughts or earlier versions from Recovery.
Install
Open GitHub Releases and choose a version with downloadable assets. Early test builds may be under Pre-releases. The first release will appear there after it has been built locally and published.
| Your device | Download | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Android | Museamo-VERSION-android.apk (or -android-debug.apk for a test build) | Android 7 or newer; Android System WebView 105 or newer |
| Windows — recommended | Museamo-VERSION-windows-x64-setup.exe | 64-bit Windows 10 or 11; includes WebView2 offline setup |
| Windows — standalone | Museamo-VERSION-windows-x64.exe | 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 with Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime already installed |
Android
- Download the APK on your phone and open it.
- If Android asks, allow that browser or file manager to install unknown apps, then finish installing Museamo.
- Open Museamo and tap Message yourself… to save your first thought.
- For faster capture, long-press your home screen, open Widgets, and add Museamo.
Windows
- Download and run the setup.exe installer.
- Open Museamo from the Start menu and choose Message yourself….
- Optionally link your phone from Settings → Linked devices.
The standalone EXE runs without Museamo's installer, but still stores its library in your Windows user profile. Moving the EXE does not move the library. Use Export to transfer your data. Windows downloads are currently unsigned and may trigger a publisher warning; download them from this repository's release page.
Updating
Use Settings → Backup → Export first and keep the ZIP outside the app. Install the new APK over the existing app, or run the new Windows installer.
Android accepts an update only when its signing key matches your installed version. Debug and release keys are different. If Android refuses an update, keep the existing installation and export your library before changing installations. Uninstalling or clearing app storage deletes Android data. Backups include saved thoughts and attachments, but exclude unfinished drafts.
Use Museamo
1. Capture a thought
Tap Message yourself…, type, and choose Send. Use the photo, formatting, hashtag, and pin controls when you need them. Closing capture keeps the draft for later.
On Windows, Ctrl+N opens capture and Ctrl+F opens search.
2. Put capture on your Android home screen
Add a Museamo widget from your launcher's widget menu. Give it a label, then choose fixed tags or a tag picker. Each widget has its own draft. Drag the resize handles to make a compact tile or a wider card; supported sizes depend on your launcher.
Tap the message area to capture, the hashtag picker to choose a tag, or the arrow-out icon to open Museamo.
3. Find and organize what you saved
| View | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Stream | Everything, newest first. Search to find an old thought. |
| Gems | Your starred thoughts. Tap a thought's star to keep it here. |
| Tags | Collections such as #Ideas or #"Cool words". |
| Map | Thoughts with saved locations. Tap a pin or location to explore. |
Type # while composing to see matching tags, or use Add tag. A new complete hashtag is created when you send. Multiword hashtags use quotes: #"Cool words".
4. Turn a collection into a checklist
In Tags, open a tag's edit menu and select Checklist. Thoughts in that collection gain a checkbox, and unchecked items appear first. A thought has the same checked state wherever it appears.
The checklist icon in the Stream header filters the feed to to-dos across all Checklist tags.
5. Bring your phone and PC together
Open Settings → Linked devices on both devices while they are on the same local network. Select the nearby device, compare the complete matching code on both screens, then approve Combine and link on both. Your saved thoughts, tags, locations, original attachments, and Recovery can then sync both ways.
If discovery is blocked, use Link using an address. Guest Wi-Fi can prevent devices from reaching one another. Opening both apps and choosing Sync now helps Android catch up. Windows continues syncing in the tray when you close its window; choose Quit in the tray menu to stop it.
6. Keep a backup
Choose Settings → Backup → Export and save the ZIP somewhere safe. Import restores a portable archive. Use Recovery to restore a deleted thought or an earlier version as a new thought.
Backups are unencrypted. Keep them somewhere you trust. Sync gives you copies on linked devices, but deletions also sync, so it does not replace a backup.
Phone screenshots — light and dark themes
Your data and privacy
Museamo stores your library locally and has no analytics or account system. Full-library sync is limited to devices you explicitly link. Android also supports explicitly shared hashtags; review the sharing screen before sharing their thoughts, attachments, or locations with other people.
Some optional features use the internet: linked media contacts its host, address lookup may send coordinates to your device's geocoding service, and maps request OpenStreetMap tiles. Attached original files remain in your library. Android location capture uses foreground permission and does not track you in the background.
Detailed user guide · Sync behavior and trust
Development
The shared interface uses React and TypeScript. Android uses Capacitor with native Kotlin/Room storage and widgets. Windows uses Tauri with Rust/SQLite storage. Both share a Rust core for local-network sync.
For a temporary browser preview, install Node.js 22 or newer, then run:
npm ci
npm run dev
The preview resets on refresh and does not save a real library. Use its layout switch for the Windows view. Native builds require the tools in the development guide.
npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run test:release
cargo test --workspace
Release builds happen locally on Windows. Run npm run release:signing once to create and securely save the Android signing key on your PC. After committing a version, npm run release loads that key, tests and builds the APK, Windows installer, standalone EXE, and source archive, then pushes the source/tag and publishes the downloads to GitHub Releases. Release setup, signing backup, and commands
GitHub Actions validates changes and retains test reports. It does not publish release binaries.
Contributing · Architecture · Design system · Device checklist · Verification records
License
Museamo is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. Commercial use is allowed. Distributed derivatives must provide corresponding source under the AGPL; modified network services must also offer that source to their users. Preserve copyright and license notices. See licensing and third-party assets.