TheBrain: Smart Notes & Links15.0.643 - App Store

YOUR DIGITAL MEMORY. VISUALIZED.

TheBrain is the unique knowledge app that helps you capture everything - ideas, notes, web pages, files, photos - and connect it all the way you naturally think. Stop hunting through folders, tabs, and search bars. Start seeing your knowledge as a living network you can navigate with a tap.

Described by the Wall Street Journal as "Software that thinks like you do" and MacLife as "the most compelling mind mapping adaptation we've encountered." Winner of KMWorld's Trendsetting Products award.

WHY THEBRAIN?

Traditional notes apps trap your ideas in folders, tags, or endless lists. TheBrain lets every piece of information connect to anything else - so the right idea finds you the moment you need it. It's note-taking, mind mapping, file management, and AI rolled into one beautiful experience that works the same on every device.

KEY FEATURES

CEREBRO - TALK TO YOUR BRAIN WITH AI
Our built-in agentic AI assistant. Ask Cerebro anything - and let it create new thoughts and notes, surface exactly what you need, summarize long documents, suggest meaningful links, or just have a conversation about what you know. It can do anything you can do - only faster.

DYNAMIC THOUGHT NETWORK
Move beyond conventional mind maps and folders. TheBrain's animated visualization shows your ideas, their context, and the relationships between them - at any scale. Tap a thought, and the entire network reorganizes around it.

NETWORKED NOTES
Rich notes shown in context with automatic backlinks and concept discovery. Hybrid WYSIWYG + Markdown writing, powerful tables, resizable images, math, and folding - all the modern editor essentials.

EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE
Attach web pages, PDFs, photos, and documents to any thought. Link people, projects, files, and ideas in a single living workspace.

POWERFUL SEARCH
Find any note, file, web page, or idea in seconds. Every match appears in the context of your thought network, so you instantly see how it relates to everything else you know.

SEAMLESS SYNC ACROSS DEVICES
Your brain is always with you. Mobile, Mac, Windows, Linux, and web stay in sync - even with large brains. Smart Sync downloads attachments on demand, keeping your brain fast and lightweight on every device.

INFINITE SCALE
Effortlessly handles hundreds of thousands of items and many gigabytes of data - without slowing down.

COLLABORATE AND SHARE
Publish your brain online for the world, or sync thoughts privately with your team. Great for shared knowledge bases, project planning, and team research.

====================================

WAYS TO USE THEBRAIN

. Build your second brain - a living reflection of how you think, ready when you need it.
. Manage everything in your life: projects, people, goals, files, and ideas in one place.
. Capture interesting articles, videos, and references so they're activated when you need them.
. Organize trips, travel, and major life events with all the right context at hand.
. Power your research - go deeper on any concept and see how it connects to everything else.
. Turn goals into action by linking them with the resources needed to achieve them.
. Build a knowledge base that sparks new ideas and breakthroughs.
. Link people, projects, and information for a smarter view of your business.
. Create topic brains around your passions, hobbies, and special interests.
. Plan personal projects like home renovations, weddings, or major purchases.

GET STARTED IN MINUTES

Start with a single thought - your name, a project, an idea you want to explore. Add a few connections. Within minutes you'll understand why people have trusted TheBrain for over two decades.

For the best experience, install TheBrain on your phone, tablet, and computer. Our iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, and other mobile clients all sync seamlessly - your best thinking is always with you.

Version History • Quick Thoughts: jot a note from anywhere, file it later
• Quick Thought widgets and Control Center button
• Note Versions: browse a note's earlier versions
• Notes edited on two devices are merged
• Undo keeps working after a sync
• Instant Search shows matches as you type
• Thought aliases and embedded notes
• Many more improvements and fixes 15.0.643 15h ago • Standard Markdown, footnotes, and diagrams
• YouTube and Vimeo videos play inside notes
• Notes reopen where you left off
• Cerebro AI handles much larger brain areas
• Many more improvements and fixes 15.0.613 Aug 12 • Zoomable timeline interface
• Callouts in notes
• New brain themes UI
• Redesigned brains list
• Cerebro AI is now your expert tutor on TheBrain
• Import from more apps
• Faster notes edit and loading
• and more... 15.0.587 Aug 1 • Better PDF export
• Global find and replace
• Evernote import
• Fixed problems selecting text on iPhone
• Various fixes and enhancements 15.0.572 Jul 6 • Increased capabilities of the free plan
• Better search
• Redesigned brain theme chooser
• Two finder drag to reposition plex
• Pinch to resize plex text
• Content area icon indicates when a thought has any notes or attachments 15.0.571 Jun 25 - PDF export from notes
- Improved localizations
- UI improvements
- More support for typed markdown syntax
- Reports now support sorting and navigating thousands of results
- Various fixes and enhancements 15.0.561 Jun 10 TheBrain 15 has arrived — and for the first time, your iPhone and iPad have virtually every feature of the desktop version. With agentic AI, blazing speed, and over 150 new features, this is the most powerful TheBrain mobile experience ever.

DESKTOP POWER ON IPHONE AND IPAD
For the first time, the mobile app delivers the full scope of TheBrain — every feature, every workflow — in an interface purpose-built for phones and tablets.
• The complete desktop feature set, optimized for touch
• Familiar layouts and tools across all your devices, tuned to each screen
• Create, edit, link, and explore your brain anywhere with no compromises
• Move between iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, web, and other mobile clients without missing a beat

INTRODUCING CEREBRO — AGENTIC AI FOR YOUR BRAIN
Talk to your brain in plain language. Cerebro can do anything you can do — only faster.
• Create new thoughts, notes, and structures on demand
• Search and surface exactly what you need
• Summarize long notes and attachments into clear overviews
• Suggest links to strengthen your knowledge graph
• Hold real conversations about what you know

LIGHTNING-FAST PERFORMANCE
A rebuilt engine delivers a fundamentally faster experience.
• Startup and brain opening in a fraction of the time
• Immediate response for navigation and content creation
• Reduced CPU, memory, and energy usage
• Rock-solid stability for long-running sessions

A BEAUTIFUL, MODERN INTERFACE
A redesigned UI that puts your thoughts center stage.
• Immersive design — your content always comes first
• Adaptive colors follow your brain's theme
• Refined visuals make large brains easier to scan
• Crisp, modern look on every screen size

NEW NOTES EDITOR
A more powerful editor that combines visual comfort with markdown rigor.
• Hybrid WYSIWYG + Markdown — write visually, store as clean markdown
• Folding for headings and lists to focus on what matters
• Multi-language spellchecking in nearly 100 languages
• Smart paste converts web content to clean markdown
• Improved math, powerful tables, and faster PDF export
• Popover editing without changing context

VISUAL THINKING UPGRADED
The plex you love, faster and richer than ever.
• Smoother animations using fewer resources
• Link icons reveal which thoughts have notes or attachments
• Visual drag-and-drop indicators show relationships before you release
• Theme editors with real-time previews, synced across devices

MULTIPLE WAYS TO SEE YOUR THOUGHTS
TheBrain 15 introduces and refines four powerful layouts you can switch between at any time.
• New Card View — browse and triage thoughts in a clean visual grid
• Tree View — a traditional hierarchical interface that feels instantly familiar, ideal for keyboard-driven navigation, classic folder-style organization, and managing large structured projects
• Redesigned Mind Map — more intuitive and performant for radial brainstorming
• Redesigned Outline — focused reading and faster editing

SMARTER SEARCH AND REPORTS
Find what you need, faster.
• Redesigned search with recent searches and visited thoughts
• Tabbed results organized by brain
• Smarter childward search with clear feedback
• Redesigned reports with simple and advanced modes

AND MUCH MORE
Refinements abound throughout the app — from the precise rendering of toolbar icons to the seamless UX of syncing. Every detail has been carefully crafted. 15.0.555 May 21 Fixes for creating brain archives and compatibility with TheBrain 15 Desktop. 14.9.9 09/26/2025 Smoother animation and various fixes 14.9.8 05/19/2025 Various fixes and enhancements, including improved stability and better support for receiving shares from other apps via the share sheet. 14.9.7 05/10/2025 Various fixes and enhancements. 14.9.6 04/01/2025 New Features and Enhancements

• All-new notes editor with improved performance and interface
• Seamless fullscreen editing of notes
• Supports UI scaling—adjust in Settings > Display & Brightness for better readability
• Smoother animation and better performance
• Faster startup

Fixes

• Enhanced stability and reliability
• Fixed: Tapping to edit the thought name exits edit mode 14.9.5 03/27/2025 New Features and Enhancements

• All-new notes editor with improved performance and interface
• Seamless fullscreen editing of notes
• Supports UI scaling—adjust in Settings > Display & Brightness for better readability
• Smoother animation and better performance
• Faster startup

Fixes

• Enhanced stability and reliability 14.9.4 03/25/2025 New Features and Enhancements

• All-new notes editor with improved performance and interface
• Seamless fullscreen editing of notes
• Supports UI scaling—adjust in Settings > Display & Brightness for better readability
• Smoother animation and better performance
• Faster startup

Fixes

• Enhanced stability and reliability 14.9.3 03/22/2025 New Features and Enhancements

• Improved mind map and outline layouts
• Performance improvements for search, navigation, and server connectivity
• Keyboard shortcuts when creating and searching
• Compact attachments option
• Deep linking support
• Apple Pencil support for dragging from gates to create and link thoughts and more
• To do list and reports panel on iPad
• In-app purchasing

Fixes

• Inaccurate error detection and stability improvements
• Hover of thought does not show multiple lines of text
• AI fixes and UI improvements
• Logging out does not always work
• Attachments list is truncated in edit mode
• Improved context menus
• App tries to open remote brain as if it’s local
• Some brains from early versions can cause app to not load
• Thoughts do not display in the pins and past thoughts list
• BrainBox: Item fails to be added if it already exists in a brain
• BrainBox: Problem items prevent future shares from being processed
• Various other fixes and improvements 14.9.2 01/03/2025 New Features and Enhancements
• Long press on a thought to show the radial menu for creating and linking thoughts
• Long press expands thought to show its entire name if truncated
• Improved performance
• Better mind map layout, including parents and jumps
• Thoughts in mind map and outline layout are easier to expand and collapse
• Plex splitter is easier to drag
• Auto-focus thought name when tapping on the active thought to edit
• New buttons on tablet toolbar for reports and to do list
• Tap on unlinked mention for link/activate options

Fixes
• Some URLs fail to share to BrainBox
• Duplicate items appear in BrainBox
• Improved UI when there are no search results
• Localization improvements
• Saving reports does not work
• Can't link to recent thoughts without searching
• Full thought name should always be visible in edit mode
• Creating thoughts via AI not working due to API change

• Tapping on links and unlinked mentions does not work properly
• Long attachment names are not handled correctly
• Moving a dialog can dismiss it unintentionally
• Various other fixes 14.9.1 11/03/2024 A complete reimagining of TheBrain experience on phones and tablets. We’ve introduced a host of new features, an exclusively redesigned UI, and many capabilities that were once limited to the desktop. Here are some key new features the have been added:

• Redesigned Modern User Interface
• Integrated AI
• Enhanced Performance
• More Powerful Notes Editor with Backlinks and Unlinked Mentions
• Type and Tag Management
• Desktop-Grade Search
• Faster, Parallel Syncs of Brains
• Multi-Thought Actions
• Search Filtering and Reports
• Multitasking on iPad
• Customizable Brain Themes, Wallpapers, Thought Icons
• No-Plex Navigation
• Cross-Brain Search 14.9 10/22/2024 Various fixes. 13.0.4 03/07/2024 Various fixes and enhancements. 13.0.3 11/01/2023 Various fixes and enhancements.
* Added ability to connect to a TeamBrain enterprise server

* Fixed: Crash when following link to thought from notes
* Fixed: Crash on cut/copy of image in notes
* Removed FPS indicator
* Fixed: Copying from notes and pasting to Apple Notes pastes an HTML attachment 13.0.2 12/10/2022 There are many improvements and fixes included in this update. Major features and improvements include:

* WYSIWYG editing of notes
* The size of the plex/notes area can be adjusted (iPad only)
* Powerful tables in notes
* To do list support
* Tap the icon in the toolbar to open the to do list
* To do items are displayed and can be checked, unchecked, edited, etc.
* Thoughts in the to do list can be activated
* The to do list is updated automatically as notes are edited
* Improved spellchecking
* Better keyboard shortcuts
* All new settings to customize editor behavior
* Toggle the display of markdown and many other options
* Navigate thoughts without leaving notes via mapped links
* Back/forward within notes using swipe from left/right edge
* Mentions of thoughts are displayed in note text with a dotted underline
* Long press on a mention to navigate or turn into an explicit link
* Collapse expand controls for titles, headings, etc. appear in the left margin of notes
* Phone numbers are recognized and can be tapped to initiate a call
* Thought title is editable within note
* Attachments are displayed at the top of the note content
* Long press on attachment to delete/rename
* Add button in notes toolbar enables insert of attachments, links, table, clipboard
* Notes supports capturing text from the camera 13.0.1 10/18/2022 * Various fixes and enhancements including updated sync framework 11.0.10 08/16/2021 * Improved sync stability
* Various fixes and enhancements 11.0.9 02/15/2021 New Features

* Navigation on iPad using an external keyboard: Highlight a thought using the arrow keys. Cmd + Enter activates a thought. Option + Space toggles expand/collapse in mind map and outline layouts.

Fixes

* Thought properties should not allow empty thought name
* iPad notes editor input problems with auto suggest
* iPhone notes status bar is hard to read when colored white on a light page 11.0.7 08/28/2020 New features

* Outline and mind map view on iPad
* Notes: Toolbar buttons to insert image, URL, link to thought
* Notes: Keyboard shortcuts to move cursor and select text, Shift+Enter to add inline breaks
* Thought properties button to swap name and label

Fixes

* Notes: Dictation does not work
* Various other fixes and enhancements 11.0.6 08/04/2020