The Best Apps Like Noteit for Drawing with Your Partner
July 6, 2026
The concept is brilliant in its simplicity: you draw a cute (or terrible) picture on your phone, hit send, and it magically appears on your partner's home screen or lock screen. Noteit popularized this trend and brought a new level of ambient intimacy to couples worldwide. However, if you are experiencing bugs with Noteit, want more features like mini-games, or are just curious about what else is out there, you have plenty of options. Several developers have taken the core concept of the shared drawing widget and expanded on it in unique ways. Here are the best apps like Noteit that you and your partner should try today.
Stay connected with Doodles
Share doodles, lock screen notes, play mini-games, and stay close to your partner.
1. Doodles (The Best Overall Alternative)
If you want everything Noteit has and more, Doodles is the undisputed champion. It takes the core drawing widget experience and polishes it to perfection.
What sets Doodles apart is its feature set. Not only do you get a robust drawing canvas with various brush tools, colors, and an undo button, but you also get interactive widgets. You can play asynchronous games like Tic-Tac-Toe directly on the widget. It also offers a clean history tab to save all your past drawings, ensuring your partner's artwork is never lost. It is fast, cross-platform, and incredibly stable.
2. Locket Widget (For Photos Instead of Drawings)
While Locket isn't a drawing app, it occupies the exact same space as Noteit: surprising your partner on their home screen.
Instead of drawings, Locket uses live photos. You snap a quick picture of what you are doing, and it instantly updates on their widget. If you find that you and your partner aren't very artistic and mostly just draw stick figures in Noteit, Locket might be a better fit for sharing your daily lives.
3. Widgetable (For Maximum Widget Variety)
Widgetable doesn't focus solely on drawing; it is a massive suite of widgets designed for friends and couples.
While it does have a 'Note' widget that allows you to send text and simple drawings, its main draw is its variety. You can share a virtual pet, track your physical distance from each other, and show your phone's battery percentage (so your partner knows why you aren't texting back!). If you want your home screen filled with couples-themed tools, this is the app.
4. Picnics (For Private Shared Spaces)
Picnics is a lesser-known but highly aesthetic app that acts as a shared digital space for you and your partner.
It has a drawing feature that syncs to a widget, similar to Noteit, but it also allows you to leave digital 'sticky notes' and photos in a shared feed. The design is very minimalist and cute, making it a great alternative if you care about the aesthetic of your home screen.
Why Switch from Noteit?
Noteit is a great app, but it has historically suffered from server overloads and syncing delays. There is nothing more frustrating than drawing a masterpiece only for it to fail to send.
Apps like Doodles have focused heavily on reliability and offering extra features (like games and better brush physics) to provide a more comprehensive experience for couples.