Flow: Sketch, Draw, Take Notes Reviews

by Steve Loriot

I tried the free trial with full intention of subscribing for the year but when I tried to draw or sketch all I could do it make lines and circles or a box, those seam to be the only option to me. When I looked for the help section I found everything but how to free hand draw like the advertisement said I saws able to do. I worked with the interface for nearly 2 hours and never could do what I wanted to do and I couldn’t ask for help from any representative of Flow there was now way to do that,I pushed every and any button switch sentence that I could find and nothing and no one to answer my questions. I terminated the session and canceled the subscription deleted Flow with haste. I was completely frustrated and angry so the only way I can tell someone from Flow was to do this. Maybe it’s just me but even the most basic app has the capability to get help from someone but not this one, tried it don’t like it would not recommend this to ANYONE!
Sincerely #&$%@ off

by 💢💥👀

Love Flow, I use it as my main sketchbook. HOWEVER, I would love it if it didn’t all of a sudden shut down everytime I opened it. I can’t even use it anymore which is super disappointing since I paid for the yearly subscription and I have a lot of work in there that I would like to salvage. Can someone please help me fix this

Update: I just want to include that my phone and iPad are on the most recent ios, I have tried offloading Flow and reloading, deleting Flow and reinstalling. Force quitting Flow and rebooting both of my devices and it’s still quitting as soon as I open Flow . It’s having trouble “syncing” and loading the document. At this point I’m scared to lose all of my work and have trust issues when it comes to Flow. Which is such a shame cause I really did enjoy it.

Update 2: sent two emails, two tweets, and this review has been updated multiple times. I’m irritated by the lack of customer service. Especially when I see that the developers has responded to someone else’s comment here 21 hours ago at the time that I’m typing this. When I sent my first email 5 days ago.

by Radiofreemal

Word of warning: this app documents limit you to 50 maximum pasted images. I use this app as my personal sketchbook, and as part of my creative process, I’m cutting/pasting all the time. After working for a month in a sketchbook, I hit the wall, and was alerted that I could not paste any more images into my file. This was completely out of the blue, no advance warning. Be aware: if your creative process involves pasting images, then you too may see this as a deal-breaker limitation to Flow.

Sadly, as a result of this I am forced to write a negative review. I’ve been enjoying this app for about a month. Nice UX, quality tools, intuitive, and I love being able to have tools on my phone while drawing on the iPad. I also like having my sketchbook on the cloud, available on either phone or iPad (a function that comes in extremely handy). However, a paster must paste; this is a deal breaker.

App developers, please remove this limitation. Thank you.

by P8nk

This program was great at first through the trial, once I paid for it I have to constantly restart every time I use the eraser. It’ll work just fine while I’m drawing. When I erase, it works fine on the first try, if I lift my pen and do it again it does nothing. I’ll try to draw and nothing happens. I rechecked my preferences, I saw there was an update, so I did the update, and it still continued to do the same thing. When it stops working I have to close Flow and restart it. It works fine at first use, but if I want to erase it’ll do the same thing all over again and I have to restart. Prior to the update, I had used the pen to see if it was the program or my preferences and it didn’t draw anything. When I restarted the program I had all the squiggles and erase marks I had done with the pen and eraser. It’s really annoying to have to restart the program every time I need to use my tools multiple times.

by Azkaban1

I’m very excited that I found Flow. I really like taking notes and diagrams with it. The ability to have customized “pens” on the side for quick switching is great. I prefer the black paper and using white primarily. Also being able to side scroll forever means I can be messy and have plenty of space at all times. The customizable gestures is a key feature for Apple Pen users.
Wish list:
**More vertical scrolling space. I feel limited when drawing diagrams and run out of vertical space. It’s a common issue. Wish the page was optionally 2 (maybe 4) times taller.
**End-to-end encryption. Currently data is encrypted in transit, and at rest, but is decrypted in between. The company *does* have access to your unencrypted data. This means the government and/or a bad actor could gain access. The data *should* get encrypted *on my device* then be uploaded in chunks. There are just too many data breaches these days to not demand end-to-end encryption. (See Zoom’s encryption scandal)

by El Scottero

I’ve been using this app (paid version) extensively since purchasing it four months ago. Overall, it’s intuitive and has significantly increased my confidence to take on challenging projects. However, I have noticed near-constant crashes upon opening Flow on a drawing I’ve been working on for months! The frustration is immense, as I am nearing the work’s completion and planned to present it to my wife as a romantic gift. Unless there’s an alternative explanation, it would appear that this app cannot handle the number of brushstrokes and complexity of color and brush selection. Had I known this, I definitely would have used a traditional canvas and brush. Flow is also limited by its zoom capability. This makes fine touches tedious, but the ability to quickly erase and start anew partially makes up for it.

by Everette23

Learn from 53, this app team. Once upon a time there was an app called Paper, by 53. It failed to improve and progress the way it’s users needed it to and now it’s a piece of crap. You guys are riding a very thin line with having minimal tools and options while still remaining relevant and having a very elegant app that’s a joy to use. As long as apps like Procreate exist, where you only pay once and can be as “pro” or as basic as you want with it, this app is going to be a challenging sell. You’re riding on brand and aesthetics and that may not carry you forever.
But I get the vision of this app and I personally love it. I’m a graphic designer, so it’s nice having a digital space to draw and think while not worrying about layers or being too granular with my sketches. this app gives me permission to be messy, and I like that.
The paper formats are nice, I’ve found myself using the ruled format from time to time to take notes since this app has my favorite interface (and sounds!) of any drawing app...so why not? Tools are great, I love the color picker and lack of total freedom while still having a TON of options. I don’t feel restricted with color.
I’d be wary with adding much in the way of functionality, but new tools from time to time would be fun. I’m looking forward to Flow getting better at what it already does as opposed to becoming more feature-heavy.

by C C Cohen

I fell in love with the beautiful UI and clean aesthetic of Flow during my demo, and will definitely be willing to pay the reasonable $12/yr to keep enjoying it (please just don’t bump that price back up to $30). The sight of my digital notebook spreads looking just like my physical ones is super satisfying; it truly does make me want to keep writing and writing, whether it’s journal entries, work notes, or sketches.

There are still some visible rough edges, though. Resolution gets very blurry when you scroll through pages of a single file, and there’s no way to zoom out and view the whole thing. The minimal interface is a selling point so they shouldn’t clutter it, but certain organizational features and customization options (ex. better file management, the ability to save default page setups) are absent, and sorely missed. I expect quality from Moleskine and think, especially since this not just a paid app but part of a subscription service, they still have work to do. Assuming they continue to refine Flow though I will gladly comes back to renew my subscription.

by HarppertII

The reason I bought my iPad Pro is to use Flow! Last December I visited the Apple Store in the UWS and played around with the iPad Pro they had on display. They had Flow open and I fell in love. In Feb for my bday I got myself an iPad Pro and immediately subscribed after I couldn’t stop drawing with it after the free trial. I used to draw daily in my sketchbook, but now I draw daily with this app on my iPad instead. It is easier to share my drawings from Flow , rather than trying to take good photos of works on paper. I highly recommend Flow for artists! My only wishes are for more vertical space when in Portrait mode and for higher quality image saves when saving to camera roll. I usually end up taking a screenshot of my drawings, rather than saving to the camera roll from inside Flow . I have used Procreate, and it was not for me, as I am looking for something that feels like I am drawing in a sketchbook. If what you are looking for is a sketchbook-like experience for drawing, this is Flow to use.

by Dion Myers

I’d love to be able to choose to scroll the paper either horizontally as it does now or vertically as an option. The colors are incredible and I’d love more flexibility in choosing paper color and backgrounds. But this is well worth the money for a year and I love it for my Apple Pencil. I used to buy so many Moleskine notebooks and still do, but I love having Flow on my iPad. Please think about adding an option to toggle scrolling from horizontal to vertical and consider adding a way for users to customize each aspect of their digital paper as you do for the color of their digital ink! Thanks for such a great app for my doodles and thoughts. Maybe even try a notebook metaphor and I’d pay for an app with all the functionality of all your apps rolled into one digital day planner, notepad, doodle pad, to do list, journal, graph paper, every reason you used to need paper with easily exportable and importable file formats with OCR and handwriting recognition. Okay, lol, I’ll stop Great app, I love it

by Cpt Crandall

I love Flow! While apps like ArtStudio Pro, Infinite Painter and Procreate are the go to’s for mobile professional level concept, illustration and sketching, Flow offers a completely unique and wonderful experience! No fuss, just iteration and ideation...just like a real sketchbook. The infinite pages is amazing for concepting hundreds of ideas without settings and layers getting in the way.

If you are looking for a professional painting app, look at the other big players. But if you want to DESIGN, without worry, just you and your page, uninterrupted, Flow is definitely for you. I will be recommending this heavily to my peers in Film and Games, especially those working on new projects during the visual development and world building phase. The way that exporting works is fantastic!

I half want a ruler and eclipse tool, but a real sketch book doesn’t have those things (though I will use a straight edge regularly in mine)..so I also think I am ok without them. My only real complaint is that I wish the markers didn’t blend so hard, especially as they are the primary feature of Flow . But overall this is a win. Glad I discovered it. I will use it daily in a professional and personal capacity.

by Shea14

Flow is extremely frustrating in that it does everything I need but this recent build is totally unstable (and I’m paying for it!) Seems to bug out after I use the eraser tool, the board stops receiving input, though I can change tools. I’m having to restart Flow every 2-3 minutes. I’m surprised this build passed internal+apple review. If this continues, I will be asking for my money back.

Long-term issue – Clipping Tool (needs to be fixed)
With Flow you can draw, erase and change colors. No rulers, no guides, no mirroring. The only reason Flow is better than a paper notebook is because you can theoretically edit drawings, except the tool used to select and move parts of your drawing is completely broken. You might highlight something in the bottom left and it grabs something in the top right also, or just entirely erases sections of your drawing, and even worse, with so many crashes, my drawings will often be saved with these destroyed artifacts. Reviews show this has been an issue for a long time, so I don’t expect this to actually get fixed at this point. Makes Flow unusable for my professional needs.

by Circadian-slip

Still issues with opacity build up, please please add a blend tool, I need to be able to select all more layers with the lasso tool to prevent “Please select fewer strokes” and/or at least be able to duplicate documents. I also want to be able to do more sizes with more tools. The airbrush tool is my absolute favorite, and the smallest size isn’t small enough unfortunately. Last thing, saving and loading color palettes.

The simplicity of Flow is a total winner for me and I’ve tried every drawing app in Flow Store. The way the color and brush picker works is innovative and intuitive to say the least. It’s my favorite app on my iPad.

This update brings me personally closer to what I want to do with this great tool, I just hope that you guys continue listening and implementing features to this fantastic app, while maintaining simplicity and intuitiveness to the UI.

by Jennifer_K

Whenever I see something featured in the design awards I know it will be fantastic. When I see it has such split reviews it is rarely because the product is only half as good, and nearly always because customers don’t understand things.

Like apparently people don’t understand the cost of developing and upkeeping apps. (For that I would like to challenge anyone who complains about an annual fee being less than half the cost of a nice notebook?? Go ahead and make your own app. I’ll wait.)

The color function alone makes this worth more than $12 a year. My friend is in interior design and loves all apps that can successfully combine pretty functions with usefulness.

Other things I love :
The super customizable toolbar. I can’t wait to create my perfect set for quick doodles.

Every color has a name. That is so thoughtful and a lovely nice touch. (The intuitive and beautiful way you change colors is also top tier)

You can just keep scrolling. I have sketches pro and procreate and I love them but when you work with layers there is this... need? To make everything perfect. I find myself overusing undo instead of just going. I already love the way this allows you to just keep designing.

I can’t wait to see how Flow will get better and better and am delighted to have this on my device.

Please keep up the amazing work 💕⭐️💕

by NewbLuck

Though I do prefer a one time purchase over a subscription any day, 12 dollars a year isn’t too bad. I’m still currently in my trial that ends October 3rd, and I plan on keeping Flow because it’s something that I’ve been wanting in a note taking app for a while. I’m a bit nervous about losing work to glitches, but I hope this never happens. Everything works seamlessly and beautifully. A couple things I’d like are transparency options for the pen tools. I’m sticking with ones that are already transparent but the air brush type tool could really use it. Also, a press and hold color picker would make my millennia. I’d also like to backup the files somewhere else in case something does happen so I can pull them back to recover. That’s all I’ve personally noticed thus far. Wonderful app, otherwise, great job.

by IsoBan

I’ve never been more disappointed with an app I had such high hopes for. The user interface is beautiful, the idea behind the infinite page is great. The simulation of different pencils and pens is very good. But, oh lord, is Flow slow. Maddeningly slow and glitchy. I want so badly for this to work correctly.

I’m on an iPad Pro, 3rd Gen, with an Apple Pencil. I’m a professional illustrator and designer, and I’ve used all the apps people like me tend to use...procreate, Adobe Fresco, Photoshop, Illustrator for iPad, etc etc etc. My iPad is my daily driver device for content creation. And I create a lot.

What I wanted from Moleskine this app was a *sketchbook.*. Something I can just *think* in. And from the outside it was going to be perfect.

But after using it for a few days, its just...terrible. It can’t keep up with my sketching. It shuts down if I even look at it wrong. It takes forever to load when opening Flow . It’s so slow and glitchy that its essentially unusable...and this is after I paid for a year’s access.

My iPad is in tip top shape, and I have zero problems with any other app. It runs procreate and Adobe Fresco & Illustrator like they’re nothing. But Moleskine this app....unusable.

Help. : (

by Armorless

I find myself continually amazed by the fact that people want everything to be free these days. So how do you expect the engineers that build Flow to get paid? How do you expect Moleskine to continue to add new features? The irony is that many of the same people would be complaining about "too many ads" if Moleskine used an advertising model instead.

Putting that aside, Flow is an amazing drawing app! The tools are precise and great replicas of their analog counterparts, the drawing experience is smooth and satisfying, and Flow is thoughtfully designed. But perhaps the feature that stands out the most for me, is the fact that all of the colors are labeled. For someone that is color blind, this is a life changing feature. Thank you for designing with accessibility in mind and making drawing in "true color" possible for me!

by LTUP

After clicking the free trial option, which did not ask for any payment information, I began journaling and doodling in Flow (at 2-3 am), which I haven’t done in years. I felt so comfortable writing in it and did not feel the unease I felt when figuring out some of the drawing apps. I’m now questioning what I should do with my empty moleskin journals that I haven’t used since purchasing them years ago. That same morning, I purchased the yearly subscription. I am already using it in all aspects of my life (school, personal journal, learning scripts for my job) and can’t wait to see what else they may add. Within Flow is a “community thread” where people post what they would like to see improvements in and the developers have notes that say “in progress” and such to see what suggestions they are working on.

by Murdernocturne

I’ve been searching for a drawing program EXACTLY like this for years now. Everything is exactly how I’ve wished drawing programs would be and feels completely natural. I got an iPad hoping to reignite my passion for art but didn’t have much luck because the programs I was using didn’t this app (no pun intended) or feel natural. I felt held back. Switching to this app has brought everything I loved about art back full-force. It’s easy to use and just feels “right.” For the first time in years I’ve been looking forward to drawing every second of my day- during work all I can think about is how excited I am to draw during break, and after my break, I can hardly wait to get home to keep drawing. Art was such an important thing to me growing up and losing it hit me hard. this app bringing my enthusiasm back means more to me than I could put into words. **Edit: I originally wrote this saying that I wished layers would be added, but after a few days of usage, I take that back. I’ve quickly adjusted to not using layers (though I will say, I’m used to using 2-3 layers at most, so there wasn’t a huge readjustment I had to go through) and I prefer the program without them. I never noticed before how much layers stall and complicate the process. So, I truly and honestly wouldn’t change anything about this app. I honestly think it’s the perfect art program.

by SerenityJLee

I use Procreate and GoodNotes for when I need to get really in depth with my notes or drawing. I’ve been craving an app that has a beautiful, intuitive interface and is simple enough for me to quickly open and use it. this app is inviting for someone somewhat unartistic as me to use, but I can also see its implications for more detailed sketching. I consider that Flow is freshly made and so many features are on the way, and the team of developers is attentive to community suggestions although it is a small team. You can tell a good app by its developer response, so I have a lot of hope for the future of this one. I’m going to use Flow more as it evolves, but I’m very pleased now. As to anyone who claims Flow is too expensive—$12 once a year is not too much to pay if you pay about that much for a notebook you use in your hands from a bookstore. Flow is a well executed attempt to emulate that personal experience with a paper notebook. That’s not easy, but it’s one of the reasons I purchased my iPad Pro with pencil. And if you’re a user that has the same intent as me, who’s already spent $900 or so on an iPad and pencil for that experience, another $12 every year is well worth it for the value returned. Thank you!

by Coffeepopsicle

I use Procreate and the Apple Notes app all the time. I recently discovered this app and was blown away. The ui is beautiful. The color pallet is beautiful. The tools are, you guessed it, beautiful. The infinite canvas is something I didn’t know I needed until I used it. Now I can’t imagine life without it. I got so excited by Flow the moment I discovered it. However, there is one obvious thing that breaks my this app state and ruins the experience. The Apple Pencil lag in this app NEEDS TO BE IMPROVED. Come on developers! Open the notes app with the newest iPad Pro and you will see the difference. If I’m expected to get lost in my ideas and forget that I’m using a digital notebook, I can’t be distracted by the line lagging behind the pencil. That doesn’t happen in Notes or Procreate. Fix it and I will shower you in all my cash. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by an update very soon, I know I’m not the only one.

by S. Gresham

I wasn’t keen on the idea of subscribing to a digital notebook/sketchbook, but Flow won me over in a free trial (and the subscription is less than I’d spend annually anyway buying multiple 2-3 Moleskine notebooks, so 🤷🏻‍♂️)

After using it almost daily for a few months (for work , personal journaling, and doodles), my biggest gripe is how nearly invisible the lines/dots/grids are on every page color option. I need my work notes to stay organized, but even with my screen as bright as possible I cannot see the guides on the page when I’m in the office. Even at home, in indirect/softer ambient light, I still struggle to consistently see the lines across the screen while I’m writing.

Give us the option to toggle between subtle or bolder lines, and you’ll nearly have 5 stars in my book. I’d also like the option for Flow to launch not on my most recent page, but at the collections menu.

by Dion

I’d love to be able to choose to scroll the paper either horizontally as it does now or vertically as an option. The colors are incredible and I’d love more flexibility in choosing paper color and backgrounds. But this is well worth the money for a year and I love it for my Apple Pencil. I used to buy so many Moleskine notebooks and still do, but I love having Flow on my iPad. Please think about adding an option to toggle scrolling from horizontal to vertical and consider adding a way for users to customize each aspect of their digital paper as you do for the color of their digital ink! Thanks for such a great app for my doodles and thoughts. Maybe even try a notebook metaphor and I’d pay for an app with all the functionality of all your apps rolled into one digital day planner, notepad, doodle pad, to do list, journal, graph paper, every reason you used to need paper with easily exportable and importable file formats with OCR and handwriting recognition. Okay, lol, I’ll stop Great app, I love it

by J. Grimm

App stories article talked on how dev obsessively worked on the pencil/finger drawing tool control, and how natural it feels. I knew I had to give the Moleskine this app app another try and resubbed!

Smart thinking devs! Most apps focus on new features, forgoing further refinement of drawing control, the most important thing! And that is what drew me...

1. Pencil Control is now as near natural feeling as currently possible! I love ProCreate but they have struggled here and I can say that the default hb pencils certainly lack the refinement of control that this app app has here.

2. Paper background options. I’d love to see maybe some grain texture and patterns but still keeping it all simplified.

IDEA: Ability for people to custom create and import a small circle or square texture, would broaden Flow ’s popularity as people would be sharing them across the internet. Free promotion and staying relevant.

IDEA:FEATURE REQUEST: Consider filling the void left ever since 53 changed their paint app into a strange hybrid notetaking app, abandoning what made Flow especially popular, it’s journal page system and ability to print order moleskine books. Sure they tried to add it back, kind of, sort of...



competing w/ProCreate