Google Keep to Integrate With Google Drive

Google Keep was supposed to integrate with Google Drive, but it's still a distinct app. Google Keep is a pretty basic app and doesn't have a lot of features, so you can't expect that it will improve.

Right now, you can only insert images and save audio files when using the dictation feature from the mobile app. Google Keep's code includes multiple references to an upcoming feature that lets you upload any file to Google Drive and add it to a note, preview the file using the Google Drive Viewer or open it using various apps. You'll also be able to add videos (YouTube URLs or videos uploaded to Google Drive) and play them inside Google Keep.

While this isn't the Drive integration I expected, it's still a cool feature. Hopefully, Keep will become a Google Drive app and you'll be able to open and edit your notes from Google Drive.

Update: The screenshots are from the Chrome app for Google Keep, but there are similar references in the desktop Google Keep web app.

Google Keep Reminders

Google Keep now allows you to add reminders to your notes. Just like in Google Now, you can add time-based reminders and location-based reminders. "Time reminders work on all devices, but location reminders will only be triggered on mobile devices," mentions the help center.

"To get started, select the 'Remind me' button from the bottom of any note and choose the type of reminder you want to add. You can add time-based reminders for a specific date and time, or a more general time of day, like tomorrow morning. Adding a location reminder is incredibly easy too — as soon as you start typing Google Keep suggests places nearby," explains Google.

Here's the desktop Google Keep site:

The Android app has been updated and now supports reminders. There's a new navigation drawer with separate sections for archived notes and reminders and you can now add photos from the Gallery without using the "share" feature.

Google Keep integrates with Google Now, so all the Keep reminders are added to Google Now. You'll find them in Settings > My Stuff > Reminders. For some reason, the reminders added from Google Now aren't available in Google Keep.

You'll get notifications in Google Now, the Google Keep app for Android, the Google Keep app for Chrome (desktop notification) and the Google Keep desktop site (alert box), but you won't see redundant notifications. If you have both the Google Search app and Google Keep, you'll only get notifications from Google Keep.

When Google Tasks is discontinued (it will happen eventually), Google Keep will be the replacement. It's optimized for mobile and it doesn't integrate with Gmail or Google Calendar, but at least it's constantly improving and it has a cool mobile app.