🚀 The Bear 2 Beta is here!

Announcement
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Hi there! The time you knew was coming is now here: the Bear 2 beta is ready for you with sync on macOS and iOS! The next section is really important, so please read it:

:warning: We highly recommend backing up your notes before installing the beta on any devices. If you need a refresher:

  • Mac: File > Backup notes
  • iOS: Settings > Import & Export > Backup all notes (at the bottom)

:warning: Once you go Bear 2 beta, you can’t go back. This new beta will migrate and upgrade your old Bear 1 database and use it from now on. Install this beta on all devices since Bear 1 cannot read or sync notes from Bear 2.

:warning: If you were using the Bear 2.0 private Beta: Be sure to export all new and edited notes since Bear 1, then import them into this new beta. The /Application Data v2/ folder is no longer used.

What’s new? Everything! :tada:

This is the first semi-public but not-really-public beta of Bear 2 for both macOS and iOS. Please backup your notes (see instructions earlier :arrow_up:), then test, try, and bang on basically everything, including:

  • Tables!
  • Markdown hiding
  • Nested styles
  • Folding sections (tap a heading icon)
  • The new sketching tool and canvas
  • GIF support
  • Link previews
  • PDF previews
  • Image resizing and cropping
  • The new Info Panel with ToC and Backlinks
  • Our all-new editing keyboard (Tap the BIU button)
  • The all-new photo picker
  • In-note search on iOS (searching inside photos and attachments)
  • Footnotes
  • New widget: Random Note
  • New Lock Screen widgets on iOS: Random note, Last edited note, New note, New todo note, New photo note, Search
  • Pin tags in the Sidebar
  • Note List sort options
  • Note List preview style options
  • Document scanning
  • Six new Bear Pro themes: Notes, Dark Notes, Rosé Pine, Rosé Pine Dawn, Tokyo Night, Academia
  • Two new Shortcuts: Export Note and Backup (Mac only)
  • Apple Watch visual refresh and tables support
  • …and more!

Be sure to read the pinned Welcome Note in the beta to get more details on how many of these features work. Share all feedback, bug reports, and your personal hopes and dreams here on our forum!

What’s missing

Stuff that’s planned for our final release but isn’t ready for beta testing just yet:

  • macOS Info Column (the panel can become a 4th column) integration
  • History navigation buttons
  • Editor preferences
  • Theme and icons preferences
  • New illustrations across the app

Thanks a ton!

Thank you so much for helping us test the next generation of Bear. We know it’s been a long wait, and we’re excited to hear what you think.

Below are your download links. Please don’t share these with anyone, and especially not on social media. TestFlight restricts us to a limited number of seats for testing, and we want to ensure we get in you wonderful beta forum testers.

iOS TestFlight Link
macOS TestFlight Link

Have fun testing! :bear::heart:

64 Likes
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Use beta software at your risk! Don’t blame us if you lose your notes, your house burns, or your dog poops on the doormat :slight_smile:

ENJOY!

28 Likes
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Thank you and congratulations team!

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Fantastic! So once Bear 2 is out of beta and publicly released, will it be a smooth transition to just move over to the public version (including carrying over our premium membership)?

(asking this now before I install the beta so I know what I’m in for later)

3 Likes
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Congratulations to the whole team - super job :-)!

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Thank you very much!

The Lock Screen widgets are much appreciated!

And also markdown (links/highlights etc) in headings! You guys rock

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Excited to dig into the beta. Thanks for making an awesome product.

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Congratulations to the Bear team! Well done!

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Oh yes, thank you team :star_struck: I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into the new features now that iOS and Mac are both available to test. On first look, it’s stunning.

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It looks amazing. One very first thought - please can we have the option to set the app icon with the stick-on eyes permanently? It makes me smile every time I see it! I absolutely love it

9 Likes
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Great update! Finally! Wish the history navigation made the beta, but looking forward to it (I use it all the time!).

One thing that annoys me so far, if the page has scrolling, adding a table, and clicking into it constantly places the table at the bottom of the page (and will scroll it down if you moved it up). Very difficult to use tables in this case. This is on the Mac, it seems to hold steady on the page on my iPad just fine.

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Thanks !
This is the function I wanted! on iOS ver.

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1 Like
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This is great news!

Have the x-callback-url changed?

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I missed that. Is sync enabled in this beta?

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Cool! Do I see correctly that you removed TouchBar support or is that still coming? :frowning:

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+1 for keeping an optional googly eyes icon! Keeps me from taking my softwarez too seriously.

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I fought for this one. :smile:

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This beta uses bear:// an should behave as Bear 1.