Collections Plus

The mobile app

The Collections Plus mobile app runs in your phone's browser and installs onto your home screen, so there's no app store involved. It opens full screen, works offline, and updates itself.

Install it

On Android (Chrome):

  1. Open getcollectionsplus.com/app in Chrome.
  2. Tap Install app when Chrome offers it. If it doesn't, tap ⋮ → Add to Home screen (or Install app).
  3. Open Collections Plus from your home screen.

On iPhone or iPad (Safari):

  1. Open getcollectionsplus.com/app in Safari.
  2. Tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.
  3. Open Collections Plus from your home screen.

Your collections are stored in the app on that phone. To see the ones from your computer, connect Dropbox: see Sync with Dropbox.

Find your way around

  • Home lists your collections and folders, in the same order as on your computer. Pinned collections stay at the top, and the Reading list sits above them when you have unread pages.
  • Tap a collection to open it. Tap a page to open it in your browser.
  • The ⋯ at the top right holds the app's settings and extras: sync, Archive, Trash, new folders, AI settings and importing a backup. Inside a collection, ⋯ holds that collection's options.
  • Every page, note and quote has its own ⋮ with Open, Edit, Mark as read, Mark as done, Move to… and Delete. Deleting offers Undo for a few seconds.
  • The ＋ button at the bottom right adds things.
  • Your phone's back button closes menus and goes back a screen.

Save things

From any app (Android): once the app is installed, Collections Plus appears in your phone's Share menu.

  • Share a page from Chrome, YouTube, Reddit or any app: pick a collection and tap Save. If you've set up auto-file rules on your computer, they pick the collection for you.
  • Share text, such as a message or part of an email, to save it as a note.
  • Select a passage on a web page in Chrome and share it to save it as a quote, with a link back to the page. Tapping that link later jumps straight to the passage. Prefer the page itself? Switch to Link before saving.

iPhones don't let web apps into the Share menu yet, so on an iPhone, copy the link and use the ＋ button instead.

With the ＋ button:

  • On the home screen: Save a link, New collection or New folder.
  • Inside a collection: add a Link, a Note or a Collection inside this one.

You can type a web address without https://; the app adds it.

Read through a collection

On your computer, Open all opens a whole collection as tabs. Phones open one page at a time, so the app has Read through instead.

  1. Open a collection (or the Reading list) and tap ▶ Read through. It follows the list's order, so tap Reorder in the Reading list first to read in the order you want.
  2. Tap Open page to read the first one. Each page you open is marked as read.
  3. Come back to the app and tap Next, or swipe left. Swipe right, or tap Previous, to go back.
  4. Tap the progress button ("3 of 12") to see what's Up next. Tap a page to jump to it, or drag the ⠿ handles to change the order. That changes the collection's (or the Reading list's) real order, so it's saved and shows up on your computer too. If the collection is sorted, tap Use your order first.

Checklists and custom fields

  • Tap Checklist at the top of a collection to show checkboxes, with a running count like "3 of 8 done". Ticks sync with your computer, so you can build a list at your desk and tick it off in the shop.
  • Custom fields such as price or quantity show on each item. To add or change them, tap the item's ⋮ → Edit.

Find things

  • Tap 🔍 on the home screen to search every collection, including notes, tags and custom fields. Results come back best match first; tap the sort button to see them newest, oldest, A–Z or grouped by collection.
  • Tap a tag (on the home screen or on a collection) to see just the collections with that tag.
  • Search by meaning uses AI to find things that match what you mean, not just the words you typed. See AI search.

Organize

  • Sort: tap the sort button at the top of a list ("Your order") to sort by date or A–Z. This only changes the view on your phone.
  • Rearrange: tap Reorder, then drag the ⠿ handles. On the home screen that's your folders and collections; inside a collection, it's the collections and items in it. Tap Done when you're finished.
  • Move a collection: in the collection, ⋯ → Move to… puts it in a folder (or a new one), inside another collection, or back at the top.
  • Folders: tap the ⋮ beside a folder to rename it, give it a color, start a new collection inside it, or delete it. Deleting a folder keeps its collections.
  • Pin, Rename, Archive or Move to Trash a collection from its ⋯ menu.
  • Change a cover: in the collection, ⋯ → Cover lets you choose a photo from your phone, use the picture from one of its pages, or pick a color. Remove cover goes back to the automatic one. Covers sync, so your computer shows the same one.
  • Share links: ⋯ → Share links sends every link in a collection to another app, such as Messages or email.

Archive and Trash

Both are in the home screen's ⋯ menu.

  • Archive holds collections you've set aside. Restore brings one back. Tap Reorder to rearrange the Archive, or tap an archived collection to look inside it without restoring it. You can't edit it there, but Reorder rearranges its pages and the collections archived with it.
  • Trash holds deleted collections and folders for 30 days, with a countdown. Restore brings one back; Delete forever removes it now; Empty Trash clears everything. Tap a deleted collection to look inside it first; Reorder works there too.

Updates and offline use

The app updates itself: close it completely and open it again to get the newest version. If you're offline, it still opens and shows your collections, and anything you change syncs once you're back online.