Samsung appears to be tightening the noose around the use of Samsung Notes on non-Samsung laptops and PCs. The company has started actively blocking Samsung Notes on non-Samsung Windows laptops. A few months ago, the company stopped supporting the installation of Samsung Notes on non-Samsung computers, but there were ways to bypass those restrictions. However, that has changed now.
The Samsung Notes app no longer works (via Reddit) on computers running Windows that are not Galaxy Books. Even if the app is already installed on a laptop or PC, it now asks you to log in using a Samsung account. But when you log in, it says, “This app only works with Galaxy Books.” The South Korean firm is trying to create an ecosystem where some features only work on Samsung hardware. For example, features like Auto Switch and Fast Pair on Galaxy Buds only work with Galaxy phones, tablets, and TVs.
Samsung Notes is a useful note-taking app that lets you create notes, collaborate on them, and even draw and paint. It was launched with the Galaxy Note smartphone, and it later expanded to tablets with the S Pen. Later, all Samsung phones and tablets started supporting Samsung Notes, allowing people to sync their data. When Samsung launched the Galaxy Book lineup a couple of years ago, Samsung Notes was pre-installed on them, but the Windows version of the app was also allowed to be used on non-Samsung laptops.
With this feature gone, there is no way for people with Galaxy phones and tablets who have saved their data in Samsung Notes to be used on their computers. There is no web version of Samsung Notes. In comparison, Apple (iWork), Google (Docs and Google Keep), and Microsoft (OneNote) allow their apps to be used via a web browser, so people who don't have a first-party laptop can use them.
