Comparison

1secNote vs VisibleHour

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

1secNote

This app allows you to view notes discreetly while using your device's camera or other applications. It offers AI-powered suggestions and syncs across all your Apple devices, with a unique retro aesthetic option.

Highlights
  • Floating note display
  • AI line suggestions
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • Notch and status bar integration
  • Retro aesthetic mode
Features
Read full description

1secNote โ€” Floating Camera Prompter & Live Markdown Note Check your script without looking away from the camera. Slide notes out from your Mac notch or menu bar in 1 second. Write with live Markdown, zero data loss, and unmatched aesthetic warmth. Whether you're recording video for social media, presenting on Zoom, taking quick meeting notes, or drafting long manuscripts, 1secNote keeps your eyes on your audience and your thoughts at your fingertips. WHY PEOPLE LOVE 1SECNOTE: โ€ข Floating Camera Prompter: Float notes seamlessly over your iPhone camera or Mac video calls. Speak naturally while looking directly into the lens. โ€ข Hands-Free Remote Control: Control teleprompter scrolling using Bluetooth buttons, AirPods, or Control Center. Pause to step line-by-line. โ€ข Seamless Live Markdown: Images, links, headings, bold, lists, and checklists format instantly. Raw syntax markers gracefully hide when you move your cursor away for clean, distraction-free reading. โ€ข All-New Interactive Widgets: Keep your chosen note or recent notes right on your Home Screen with rich image previews and instant one-tap capture. โ€ข Zero Data Loss & 7-Day History: Never lose a draft. Automatic micro-snapshots let you jump back to any revision from the last 7 days. โ€ข Mac Notch & Menubar Integration: Access your notes in a single click or glance right from the MacBook camera notch. CRAFTED FOR WRITING LOVERS: โ€ข Bespoke Typography: Enjoy writing with our custom-engineered pixel font, designed for razor-sharp readability at any size. โ€ข Modern & Vintage Displays: Switch freely between clean modern typography and cozy retro CRT displays (IBM Amber Plasma, Apple ][ Green, Commodore PET Blue, and e-ink). โ€ข Instant at Any Scale: From 10 notes to 10,000, 1secNote launches in 1 second with near-zero memory footprint. โ€ข Instant Spotlight Search: Find any note in 1 second straight from macOS Spotlight or iOS Search. โ€ข Complete Apple Ecosystem: Seamless iCloud sync across Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. No subscriptions. No account sign-ups. No trackers. Just the fastest, most satisfying note-taking companion on Apple devices.

About

VisibleHour

Features
Read full description

An always-visible view of time on your phone, your wrist, and your spatial workspace. The day, drained as it passes. Your session, draining as you work. A quiet tap on your wrist when you've been at something too long. For when 30 minutes feels like 5. VisibleHour is a single-purpose external time sense โ€” designed for people whose internal clock isn't always reliable. For time blindness. For hyperfocus. For the moments when "just five more minutes" becomes an hour. The dial isn't a clock face you check. It's a clock face you live alongside, on every surface you already glance at. Three rhythms, on every screen. The day. Your waking hours rendered as a draining amber arc โ€” from the moment you start your day until you wind it down. Tells you how much day is in front of you, not just what time it is right now. The session. A focused block โ€” 15, 25/5 Pomodoro, 30, 60, or 90 minutes. The pie at the center drains as time passes โ€” a visual timer at session scale. Tap it to zoom into a visual timer face with minute marks. Pomodoro mode shows two amber tones โ€” work, then a softer break. The body. A quiet tap on the wrist at the interval you set โ€” 60, 90, or 120 minutes. No banner. No streak. No "you've been at this for two hours" guilt. Just a tap that says: notice the time. Optional desk mode โ€” keep your phone or iPad awake during a session so the dial stays visible while you work. Cross-device sync. Start a session on your Vision Pro while working in spatial. Within a second, the Live Activity appears on your iPhone Lock Screen and the dial fills on your Apple Watch. Stop on the Watch โ€” every screen clears together. Powered by iCloud private database, with no telemetry leaving your device. Calendar-aware. Optionally show your day's events on the dial โ€” a quiet ink line for each meeting, sitting alongside your session. Tap the dial to surface the next event's title. Widgets everywhere. Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets on iPhone. Native complications on Apple Watch in four families. A spatial widget on Apple Vision Pro that coexists with your email, your MacBook display, and whatever else is in your spatial workspace. What it isn't. This is not a habit tracker. Not a productivity hammer. Not a notification machine. There are no streaks, no leaderboards, no "you used the app 12 days in a row" celebrations. There's no analytics, no third-party SDKs, no ads. The whole product is one quiet answer to a quiet question โ€” how much time has passed? Privacy. No tracking. No analytics. No third-party services. The only data that ever leaves your device is the small piece of state that syncs through your private iCloud (active session, day boundaries, awareness interval, appearance preference). Calendar events are read locally on each device โ€” they never sync to the cloud. Made quietly by sthreelabs.

Screenshots

1secNote4 screens
VisibleHour4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: 1secNote at every 4 weeks against VisibleHour's every 3 months. 1secNote also leads on price ($2.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

1secNote costs $2.99 and VisibleHour $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

1secNote ships an update every 4 weeks, VisibleHour every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 5 level
1secNote versus VisibleHour: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter1secNoteVisibleHour
Price$2.99 โ€” better$4.99
Positive reviews66.7% of reviewsโ€”
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks โ€” betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidโ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch โ€” betteriPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better18.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size34 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developereditoy Inc.sthreelabs LLC

In-app purchases

None

1secNote

No in-app purchases

None

VisibleHour

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is 1secNote free?
1secNote costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is VisibleHour free?
VisibleHour costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do 1secNote or VisibleHour have ads?
Neither 1secNote nor VisibleHour shows ads.
Which is updated more often, 1secNote or VisibleHour?
1secNote ships an update every 4 weeks, and VisibleHour every 3 months. Most recently, 1secNote was updated on November 4, 2026 and VisibleHour on October 31, 2026.

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