I’ve been thinking about how image syncing could be handled a bit differently on mobile. The main issue is that images often make up the bulk of the sync time, even when all I really need in the moment is the text. It would help a lot if mobile had the option to skip downloading images by default, but still keep the notes readable.
One idea is that when an image isn’t synced, the app could show a small placeholder instead. Something simple like “image not downloaded” that you can tap if you actually want to fetch it. That way the structure of the note stays intact, and you still have access to the image when you need it, but it doesn’t slow down the initial sync.
It might also be useful to have a way to download images in bulk for specific notebooks. For example, if someone has a notebook where images matter (recipes, diagrams, travel notes), they could choose to sync all images for that notebook, while leaving others in placeholder mode. That gives users control without forcing them into an all‑or‑nothing approach.
Notes made on mobile that contain images would still sync to desktop as usual. The real goal here is just to let mobile users choose speed and storage over downloading every image by default.
And if AI would become part of the toolset, it could even generate a brief description for any image that hasn’t been downloaded yet, so the placeholder still gives the user a sense of what’s there to download.
