Apple has made some tremendous strides with updating Notes in the past few iterations of macOS. That in mind, they haven’t done the same with “Stickies” (their native sticky note app).

Stickies is one of many legacy apps that Apple insists on keeping as a part of macOS. Other apps forgotten by most are Dashboard, Chess, and more.



Stickies has lost a good deal of both its utility and uniqueness due to updates made to Apple’s native Notes app over the past few years. Not only can you now add rich text to Notes, but you can also integrate lists, checklists, images and as well as other features.



Stickies are great because they’re quick and disposable. But Notes are great because they’re richer and live across devices. Reddit user weoutheeyah

Screenshot from macOS Notes

Despite all of the updates made to Notes, Stickies still have utility in some form. Reddit user weoutheeyah mentions, they can be great because they’re so quick, noticeable, and disposable. Another reddit user, zombi3gee, suggested that the change could be more viable. He suggested UI should had a way to ‘tear off’ existing Notes into a self-contained Sticky”.



Other users chimed in with similar suggestions, including having Stickies function as a separate mode/section of Notes. If a thought is worthwhile, you might jot it down in a Sticky, but if it’s worth saving, you might save it as a Note. This approach solves the overall problem of continuity between your devices.

Screenshot from macOS Stickies

What makes this situation all-the-more interesting is the fact that Stickies, as discussed earlier, are great because they’re so “quick and disposable”, but a lot of the time the scribbles you add to Sticky Notes (physical or digital) are the things you need to take with you or solve quickly – and yet it does not sync with your devices via iCloud.