While Google rolls out improvements to Google Keep once every few months, its note-taking app still leaves a lot to be desired, especially when compared to the best note apps for Android. While the missing AI features are one thing, Keep still lacks many basic features, such as collapsible headers, the inability to add images between text, and limited sharing options. It seems Google will finally address one such limitation: the ability to search within an existing note.

An illustration of a hand with a magnifying glass in front of a corkboard with Google Keep icons

Google Keep lets you search through all your notes. However, there’s no way to search through a note’s content, at least on mobile. On the web, you can use the browser’s search feature to work around this limitation.

While going through the code in Google Keep v5.25.282.00.90, the Android Authority team discovered and activated a new “Find in note” functionality. It’s accessible through the 3-dot menu button, though it does not work in its current form, as it leads to the app crashing. Admittedly, only power users might find the ability to search within a note useful. Most people would likely use Keep for taking short, quick notes.

Still, it’s good to know Google is working on finally adding such a basic functionality to Keep — a feature that should have been there right from the start. If anything, this shows how barebones the Google Keep experience is.

Google needs to do a lot more to improve Keep

Google Keep open on an Android phone showing the Notes and Reminders option

Google recently started rolling out Keep’s Material 3 Expressive design refresh, giving it a fresh coat of paint, both on mobile and Wear OS watches. Before that, it redesigned the floating action button (FAB) and redesigned the widgets to make better use of the space on your home screen.

While these are welcome changes, there’s still a lot more Google needs to do to improve the Keep experience.

For starters, it should make note-taking more powerful by adding support for images within blocks of text in a note. It should also look into adding support for password-protecting notes. While Keep’s still missing such basic features, Apple has gone ahead and added Markdown export support to its Notes app in iOS 26.