How to Use Tags in Apple Notes on iPhone and Mac

The default Notes app on iPhone and Mac carried the folder/subfolder style for organizing notes. That changes with iOS 15 as Apple introduces stickers for the note-taking app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac to organize your notes. Here’s how to use tags in the Apple Notes app.

With the latest Notes app on Apple hardware, the company is stealing the best Evernote feature for editing notes on iPhone and Mac. If you’re in danger of migrating from Evernote or Bear to Apple Notes, now is the ideal time to jump in.

At first, Apple’s app looks simple, but dig deeper and you’ll see a secret weapon called Smart Folders that takes the entire note organization experience to the next level. Let’s talk about everything in detail.

Add Tags to Apple Notes on iPhone and Mac

In true Apple style, all Notes features are available on all platforms including iOS, iPadOS and macOS. In the screenshots below, we are using the Notes app from the iPhone. You can expect the same functionality on iPad and Mac.

Note: Tags functionality in the Apple Notes app is available in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12.0 Monterey. They are currently in beta. You can download the relevant operating system to your host at your own risk, or wait for Apple to release the stable version this fall.

Let’s start by considering the notes above.

Stage 1: Open the Notes app on iPhone.

Step 2: Open any note or create a new note from scratch.

Stage 3: When writing a note, you can create a related #tag to quickly find it.

In the screenshots below, we’ve added the #GT and #Writing tags to identify related notes.

Step 4: As soon as you add the tags, you will see the Create Notes Tag section on the Folders page.

Labels appear below iCloud, Gmail, and Outlook notes in the app. Tap on the little arrow icon and you can expand the labels.

Here you will see all the tags you have created in Apple Notes. Tap All Tags and expand the list of tags. Here’s how labels appear in Apple Notes for Mac.

Organizing Notes with Tags in Apple Notes

Open your notes in Apple Notes and start adding related tags to each note. If you add too many tags, it will be difficult for you to find a corresponding note in the tags menu.

Unfortunately, there is no way to organize tags via nested tags. This is a term popularized by the Bear notes app on iPhone. It allows users to create subtags under a primary tag.

For example, a prime Finance tag can be created and finance-related tags like Crypto, Budget, Bank, and more can be added under it. Maybe Apple is saving it for future updates? We’ll see.

How to Delete Tags in Apple Notes

Unfortunately, there is no way to delete tags from the Apple Note sidebar or the tags menu on iPhone.

You have to go to the respective notes and remove the tags one by one. Only then will you see the tags disappear from the Apple Notes app.

How to Create Smart Folders Based on Tags

This is a killer feature of Apple Notes. You can automatically create folders based on tags and add notes to them. Sounds interesting, right? Here’s how to use Smart Folders in Apple Notes.

Stage 1: Open the Apple Notes app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Tap on the create folder option at the bottom.

Stage 3: Select the New Smart Folder option.

Step 4: Give the folder a relevant name and select the tags below it.

Step 5: Hit Done at the top.

Apple Notes will create the Smart Folder for you. It is different from other folders in the Notes app. Next to the folder you will see a small gear icon indicating that it is a Smart Folder.

As soon as you add defined tags to any note, Apple Notes will automatically add them to the created Smart Folder. It’s clean, isn’t it? The possibilities are endless here and we can see that this functionality saves countless manual hours for moving notes between folders in Apple Notes.

Edit Notes Like a Pro

Apple is finally taking default apps seriously with the latest OS updates. On the surface, tags may seem like a minor addition to the mix, but add Smart Folders to the mix and you can see how end users are in for a real treat with the new additions to the Notes app.