BLACK NOTE Pad vs Dao Journey
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BLACK NOTE Pad
This app provides a comfortable writing experience in dark environments. It features a true dark interface, instant blackout capabilities, and a red mode to protect night vision. Ideal for nighttime note-taking without disturbing others or straining your eyes.
- True dark interface for OLED screens
- Instant blackout screen functionality
- Red mode for night vision preservation
- Customizable text brightness
- Automatic time-stamping for notes
- Quick keyboard hiding
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BLACK NOTE is the ultimate text editor meticulously designed for writing in completely dark environments. Whether you are stargazing, in a dark theater, journaling in bed without waking your partner, or simply want to protect your eyes at night, BLACK NOTE ensures that taking notes will never blind you or ruin your night vision. Key Features: • True Dark Interface: An absolute black background that utilizes OLED screens perfectly to minimize light emission. • Instant Blackout: Double-tap the top of the screen to instantly turn the screen pitch black. Tap once to bring it back and resume typing. • Red Mode (Night Vision Protect): Switch the text to red to preserve your dark adaptation and night vision—ideal for astronomy and stealthy use. • Customizable Brightness: Granular control over the text brightness independent of your device's global brightness setting. • Time-Stamped Notes: Pressing 'Enter' at the end of a line automatically inserts the current time, perfect for logbooks and observation records. • Quick Stealth: Tap the top or swipe down to instantly hide your keyboard. • Maximum Darkness Guide: Includes built-in tips and shortcuts for utilizing iOS "Reduce White Point" to make your entire device, including the keyboard, as dark as physically possible. Don't let bright screens interrupt your focus in the dark. Experience the most comfortable night-time writing with BLACK NOTE.
Dao Journey
This app helps you track daily efforts as a personal cultivation journal. Record activities, attach media, and receive reflections tied to five growth attributes. Advance through cultivation levels by accumulating Qi from consistent actions.
- Daily effort journaling
- Voice and image attachments
- Cultivation-themed reflections
- Qi accumulation and leveling
- Achievement paths
- Progress tracking
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Dao Journey turns everyday efforts into a personal cultivation journal. Record practice, exercise, reading, learning, creativity, kindness, social moments, and new experiences. Write an entry, dictate in English or Mandarin according to your selected app language, or attach up to nine images. Keep the original voice recording with your entry, and revisit your words, images, and audio in the journal. After each entry, receive a cultivation-themed reflection based on what you did. See how it relates to five attributes—Body, Insight, Composure, Resolve, and Kindness—along with the reasons for each change, Qi earned, and your progress toward the next level. Build Qi through small, consistent actions and advance through cultivation levels. Each Qi Refining layer has its own icon, with a brief celebration when you break through. Explore nine achievement paths with milestones from Initiate to Transcendent. Progress comes from completed actions in exercise, reading, mindfulness, kindness, creativity, study, tidying, social connection, and exploration; plans alone do not count. Practice, Achievements, and Journal each have their own tab. Open saved images for a closer look and play back voice recordings. Choose Simplified Chinese or English in Settings, and tailor the style of your reflections. Dao Journey is a personal tracking and reflection app. Its cultivation language is a playful way to describe everyday growth.
Screenshots
Verdict
BLACK NOTE Pad and Dao Journey are too close to call on the numbers: across 8 compared parameters — price, rating, ratings volume and ads among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for BLACK NOTE Pad against 5.0 for Dao Journey. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
| Parameter | BLACK NOTE Pad | Dao Journey |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | SUGAR SOUND, K.K. | Boyang Deng |
In-app purchases
BLACK NOTE Pad
No in-app purchases
Dao Journey
No in-app purchases





