28 April 2026Mind mapping app

The mind map I kept wishing existed

Mind maps were great for thinking, but the next step never became real work. This mind mapping app was built to connect the two, with a keyboard that keeps up.

What you can do with the mind map

Mindmaps. Start from one idea in the middle and branch out. The layout arranges itself as you add.
Keyboard shortcuts for everything. Tab adds a child, Enter adds a sibling, Space or F2 edits, and the arrow keys move around the map. Undo and redo go 50 steps back.
Mouse and touch. Pan, zoom and pinch. Drag a node onto another to move it there. Long-press or double-tap on a phone or tablet.
Fold a branch away. A collapsed branch shows how many ideas are tucked inside. ⌘⇧C and ⌘⇧E collapse or expand everything.
Put a node anywhere. Alt-drag to place it freely, and reset it back into the layout later.
Make it yours. Bold, italic, strikethrough, eight colours and a link on any node. Two colour themes, each in light and dark.
Version history. Snapshots you can look back through and restore.
Bring your maps with you. Import mind maps from other mind map apps and export them again, in the common file formats including OPML. Export a picture of the whole map as PNG.

Why I wanted a mind mapping app that leads to real work

Mind mapping was where I could let a complicated thought spread out and see how its pieces related. I'd used mind map apps on the web, the iPad, the Mac and Windows, and kept meeting the same gap: I could think on the map, but the useful next step never became a proper task anywhere. I wanted the freedom to explore first, and a way to connect it to real work when I was ready.

Rachit, founder of Xale

The ideas behind mind mapping

See the whole thing on one page

When every part of a problem is visible at once, you can see how the parts lean on each other, and which part matters most.

Worth reading: Tony Buzan and Barry Buzan, The Mind Map Book (1993). The book that popularised mind maps: one central idea, with everything related branching out from it, so the page looks the way the thinking connects.
In this release: branches arrange themselves around the central idea. Fold what you're not working on, and fit the whole map to the screen with ⌘0.

Let it branch before it has to behave

A thought gets clearer by being spread out and moved around, well before it's ready to become a plan. That's what brainstorming on a map is for.

Worth reading: Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From (2010). Good ideas rarely arrive whole. They grow slowly from fragments that finally meet, so they need a place where half-ideas can sit side by side.
In this release: add ideas as fast as you can type them, then drag a branch somewhere else when it turns out to belong there.

Your maps should travel

Thinking you've already done shouldn't be stuck in one app.

The usual way: maps made in one mind map app stay stuck there, whether it's on the web, the iPad, the Mac or Windows.
In this release: import and export in the common mind map file formats, including OPML.