Write a note together, from your inbox

A note is usually for someone else

Meeting notes, a launch plan, the packing list for the offsite. Most of what goes into a notebook is meant for another person eventually, and getting it to them used to mean pasting it into an email and losing the formatting on the way.

Otto's notes now leave the notebook. Open a note, tap Share, and choose how it travels.

Write it together, live

Choose Edit together and type the addresses of the people writing it with you. Each one can edit or only view. People on Otto find the note under Shared with me; anyone else gets an invite from your own mailbox and lands in the note once they sign up.

Everyone works on the same note at once. Two people can type in the same paragraph without losing a word, a Markdown note keeps its source exactly as written, and on a drawing each stroke appears for the others as soon as the pen lifts. Avatars in the header show who has it open and who is editing right now, and undo only takes back your own changes.

Starting a shared note is part of Plus and Pro; anyone you invite joins for free.

Send a copy by email

Type up to 20 email addresses and, if you like, a short message. You do not need to know who uses Otto. People who do find the note straight in their notebook. Everyone else gets an email sent from your own mailbox, with the note in it and a Save to Otto link.

Copies from people you have emailed with, or from teammates, land directly. A note from someone new arrives as a request the recipient can save, decline or block, so sharing does not turn into a new way to send spam.

Publish a read-only link

Some notes are for whoever has the link: an agenda, a reading list, directions to the venue. Turn on a public link and anyone can open the note in a browser, no account needed. Edits show up on the page within a minute, and you can turn the link off at any time. On Pro, a link can expire on its own after 1, 7 or 30 days.

Images that stay small

On Plus and Pro, paste a screenshot, drop a photo or pick one from your device. Before it uploads, Otto optimizes the image on your device to the smallest file that still looks identical, so a note full of screenshots stays quick to open and to share.

Version history and comments

While you edit, Otto keeps a version of the note every 10 minutes. Preview an earlier one and restore it when the morning's rewrite went the wrong way. Free keeps 10 versions per note, Plus 50 and Pro 200.

In a team notebook, comments sit beside the note. Type @ to mention a teammate, resolve the thread when it is done, and reopen it if it is not.

From the notebook into your mail

Export a note as Markdown or HTML, or as a PDF on the web, and save drawings as images. When a reply needs the details you already wrote down, insert the note into the email from the composer.

The assistant can handle the sharing too. Ask it to invite Sam to edit the launch plan, send it to Maya as a copy, publish a link, turn one off, or restore this morning's version. It shows you what it is about to do and waits for your confirmation first.

What leaves, and what you can take back

A copy is a snapshot of the note at the moment you share it. Edits you make afterwards stay in your note and do not reach anyone's copy, so share the version you mean to send. A public link works the other way: it shows the current note and stops working the moment you turn it off. A note you write together stays yours: change who can edit, remove someone, or stop sharing and keep it as it stands.

Sharing copies and links is free on every plan. The edit together guide covers live notes, the sharing guide walks through copies and links, images in notes and history and comments cover the rest, and what Otto stores explains how saved notes are kept.