A teardown of the latest version of Google Keep has revealed that a major addition could be on the horizon -- text formatting support. The addition of text formatting would be monumental for the note-taking app, as the app has been fairly bare-bones for quite some time. Although Google recently updated the app with new widgets and a redesigned UI, the company hasn't added any noteworthy features since its initial release in 2013.

The folks at 9to5Google have decompiled the latest update of Google Keep (v 5.22.182.00), which has revealed new code hinting at upcoming formatting options. The code suggests that the app will soon get options to turn on typographical emphasis: bold, italic, and underline. There also seem to be options for "Show formatting controls" and "Clear Formatting." Below you can find the icons for the options mentioned above, which appear to be stylized similarly to what you would find in other Google products like Google Docs and Google Sheets.

Google Keep text formatting

The change would be a welcome one since Google Keep has only offered plain text entry since it first launched in 2013. While it may not seem like it, Keep does have some advanced features, like being able to pin a note, change note colors for better visual organization, and create labels for curation. However, looking through notes can sometimes be agonizing. Google Keep only has two viewing options in the Android app, both of which are not that great. Of course, if you need a more robust app, you always have the option to copy your notes directly to Google Docs.

You might have to wait a while to get the new formatting options in Google Keep, though. As mentioned before, this information was found by looking through the decompiled code of the latest update. This means that the feature is currently in development and could arrive in a future release (or maybe never).

Source: 9to5Google