🚀 Bear 2.7 update: Redesigned TagCons

[zowiewho]

Bear 2.7 is officially here for macOS and iOS/iPadOS, and it brings a top-to-bottom reimagining of our TagCons.

The Story of Bear TagCon

Tags have always been the heart of Bear’s organization. Since our earliest mockups, we wanted the Sidebar to be more than just a list of words; we wanted it to be instantly recognizable. That spark led us to pair tags with icons, creating what we now call TagCons.

From the very beginning, Bear was designed to be smart. We included built-in associations in 11 languages so that typing #home, #casa, or #家 would automatically pull up the house TagCon. Of course, you’ve always had the freedom to pick your own TagCons for tags, making your Sidebar feel truly personal.

260 in 1

Over the years, the collection has grown to 260 TagCons, spanning everything from wildlife and sports to pop culture and hobbies. With Bear 2.0, we introduced the Edit Tag panel to make searching through that library a breeze.

Now, Bear 2.7 takes that evolution a step further. We’ve redesigned all 260 icons to bring a new sense of harmony between Bear and the latest Apple ecosystem. By softening the shapes and unifying the stroke weights, we’ve ensured every icon shares the same elegant DNA as our custom typeface Bear Sans.

Beyond Sidebar

This unified look now breathes through the entire app. Along with the Sidebar, TagCons have finally made their way into the Editor itself. They now sit naturally right alongside your #tags, making your notes more visual and fun.

Bear 2.7 also brings a redesigned Edit Tag panel on macOS and a new option that lets you decide where tags are placed when you drag a note onto a tag in the Sidebar.

What’s Next

TagCons have always held a special place in Bear, and we’re not done yet. We’ll be introducing new TagCons in the future and we’d love to hear your ideas. Leave a comment below to share your proposals!

Happy writing!

[bolive]

It would be nice to have more business related ones.

[krssno]

Some folder and documents icons

[silvanstarfire]

I am missing one for a flower. Some more music and business related ones would also be nice.

[KillerWhale]

I second this: I often find myself looking for a common object in work related purposes and often need to default to an approximation.

[Angel101]

More anime ones would be really cool

[PowerNap]

Hi! Loving the tags at top feature! One issue I’ve stumbled upon is that the classic iOS “Share Sheet” based web capture doesn’t seem to respect this option. Only the new Safari Extension works as expected. Is this a bug? I know the Share Sheet may not be the preferred capture method anymore, but it’s still something I use semi-regularly. Thanks!

[IdeaSandbox]

Yay! I’m updating now… I was hoping to find something like a:

• suitcase
• map or compass (for planning or travel)
• funnel (for marketing flow)
• trash can (I’ve got a “to delete” hashtag)

Thanks for asking for our input. - Paul

[KillerWhale]

Yesterday I was looking for some kind of crate or box, couldn’t find any.

[citrus]

Chess pieces as tagcons would be fun.

[ffmich]

I’m quite happy with the current icon set. I think it strikes the right balance between completeness and simplicity.

That said, here are some icons I missed (though I managed to find suitable substitutes for all of them):

• Social: LinkedIn
• Generic icons: Person (like the people icon, but with a single person)
• Parenting: Feeding bottle, kids, toddler, or similar
• Sport: Parachute

Overall, great work

[KillerWhale]

I also find myself missing a map icon (we have the map pin, but it’s not really the same).

[Raph]

I’d like to have more nature-related icons (mountains, trees, animals). It would also be fun if you had different “bear” options.

[bolive]

I suspect this has been asked before but I could not find anything when searching. Since this is primarily an Apple app why aren’t we using the Emojis? It seems there are plenty of those that would satisfy everyone and they have already been designed for Apple.

[matteo]

@bolive

why aren’t we using the Emojis?

We considered using emojis as tag icons, but a few things led us in a different direction.

First, emojis don’t adapt to the current theme, they’re fixed images that can look out of place in a minimal or dark interface, and they can’t be styled the way native UI elements can.

Second, there’s no consistent emoji standard across platforms and OS versions. The same emoji can look quite different on different platform (native vs web), and different again on older systems; which would make the experience feel inconsistent depending on where you’re using Bear.

Finally, if you really want an emoji tied to a tag, you can already add one directly in the tag name! Just type #🐻 bears and you’re good to go.

[bolive]

Thank you for the explanation. It just seemed that you were having to do so much extra work for the Tagcons. I was just wondering.

[nikos]

I don’t want to be the vibe killer here, but is there a way to disable tag icons? Even tags without icons now have a new, larger, hashtag symbol, which, to me, is too bulky. I know in the past we had the option to disable tag icons in the themes page, but not anymore.

[Gruts]

Sorry, when I put a hashtag in the body of a note, I want it to look like a hashtag. I don’t want it to have some unwanted icon automagically inserted—even if the icon is of a hash symbol. Hashtags are now way too intrusive, and take up far too much screen-space.

How do I turn this wonderful new feature off?

[mlw]

A also think that tagcons in the editor are noisy

I do like them in the sidebar though

[panda]

I do see, why people like to see tagcons next to the tags and I appreciate the amount of work you invested in the redesign, BUT PLEASE make it optional. Having icons in the sidebar is one thing, but inline they add far too much noise. the beauty of bear has always been its minimalism that helps focusing.