Bear 2.4 beta update

Announcement
1

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a great Easter! We’re back with a fresh round of updates, including a few highly requested features we think you’ll love.

:warning: Important: This beta includes some foundational updates. To avoid potential issues, we recommend backing up your notes before updating.

Highlights

  • :locked: A more powerful note encryption: You can now encrypt notes that contain attachments, meaning you can encrypt any notes in Bear now!
  • :pushpin: Pin notes within a tag: You can now pin notes locally inside individual tags without cluttering your global pinned list

New Pinned Section
New Pinned Section2056×1514 209 KB

  • :white_check_mark: Automatic To-Do sorting: Now completed tasks can gracefully move to the bottom, so you can keep your attention on what still needs doing

Full Changelog

CoreOS

New Encryption Support

  • Notes with attachments can now be encrypted
  • Encryption layer changes require native apps to be updated for sync compatibility
  • A warning will prompt users to update if version mismatch is detected

Automatic Sorting for Completed To-Dos

  • Completed to-dos are now automatically moved to the bottom of checklists.
  • This feature can be enabled in Preferences > General

Improved Local Note Pinning for Tags

  • Notes pinned inside tags are now only shown as pinned within that tag
  • Notes pinned outside tags still appear pinned across all sidebar locations
  • A new “Pinned” section under Notes lists all locally and globally pinned notes

Fixes & Improvements

  • Resolved file renaming issues
  • Minor theme color tweaks
  • Fixed crash related to wiki link autocompletion
  • Resolved edge case with @title special search
  • Various localization updates
  • Backups now retain the read-only state of notes
  • CloudKit sync updated to support Apple’s Advanced Data Protection

macOS

  • (macOS 13+) Live Text for Images: A small icon now appears in the bottom-right of images to enable Live Text
  • Style bar now restores automatically if left open before quitting the app
  • Image resizing no longer causes selection change
  • Minimum system requirement is now macOS12.4

iOS

  • ISO8601 date format is now supported in the BIU keyboard’s date tool. Option can be enabled in Preferences > General
  • Enhanced behavior of the virtual keyboard
  • Fixed issue with tag folding in the sidebar affecting note list context
  • Resolved table paste bug
  • Fixed a crash on the Watch app
  • Minimum system requirement is now iOS15.6

Feedback welcome! :heart:

This beta brings some big changes, and we’d love your help testing it thoroughly. Let us know how this beta feels, and don’t hesitate to share any feedback with us!

The Bear Team

9 Likes
3

The new pinning is awesome! Thank you!

1 Like
4

Could you clarify what this means for Bear users?

If I’ve enabled Advanced Data Protection in my iCloud settings, does that mean Bear’s notes are now automatically end-to-end encrypted during sync? Or are there additional steps I need to take?

2 Likes
5

Could I join the test? Thanks!

6

Reading that gave me hope too! Hopefully it means what it looks like it means :crossed_fingers:

7

+1 on the new local note pinning; really nice improvement!

8

These are fantastic updates! I’m most excited for the fully supported encryption and the local pinned tags.

9

For me personally, this is the highlight of the release. Thank you!

This on the other hand is disappointing, especially because I need local pinning for the locations. It is not at all clear to me how global pinning can be useful here. But apart from that, it prevents what I would have intended if local pinning had also been used here.

I would like to pin some templates in the untagged location. In the ToDo location, on the other hand, I am interested in the notes that currently contain urgent ToDos. There is no reason for me to see these notes under “all notes” as well. Here, I am mainly interested in the notes that I am currently working on. I am therefore in favor of implementing local pinning here as well.

I am curious to hear how other users see this or whether global pinning can be of any use

10

I have notes that are pinned as master “maps of content” notes that I use for research. This new functionality will allow me to pin key notes within tags and also see the master maps of content. This aids in research and jumping to relevant other notes. Global pinning is indeed quite useful and made even more useful (and powerful) by the addition of localized tag pinning.