Microsoft's new note-taking Android app works on the lockscreen

The new Microsoft is not afraid to try new things, as proven by the increasing number of experimental apps published by the team of developers at Microsoft Garage. Many of them were released on rival platforms first, and not on Windows or Windows Phone, and that is again the case with Parchi.

Parchi is an interesting new note-taking app that has made its debut on Android. What makes it noteworthy is the fact that it is designed to work on the lockscreen, unlike other offerings in this category -- like Microsoft's own OneNote or Evernote.

Parchi is optimized for users who want or need to quickly jot down notes, without having to unlock their device to open a fully-featured note-taking app. As such, it is optimized for short-form content, that may not necessarily require custom formatting and the like.

"Parchi (pur-chih) is a Hindi word that refers to small pieces of paper for taking quick/short notes", says Microsoft. But don't imagine that Parchi is a bare-bones note-taking app. There are some pretty cool things available from the start, like support for tags, reminders, colored notes, search, backups and more.

But for more demanding users Parchi won't be able to replace an app like Evernote or OneNote. However, those who have tried it so far seem to love it, as, since being published on Google Play, Parchi has managed to attract lots of five-star and four-star ratings, managing an average of 4.4 stars, which isn't bad at all for a first iteration.

Sadly, I am unable to test it, as Parchi is currently listed as incompatible with both my Google Nexus 7 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and my OnePlus 2 running Android 5.1 Lollipop. Both operating systems are listed as supported, so there are perhaps some regional restrictions in place. I've asked Microsoft Garage via Twitter to explain this, and I'll update the article as soon as I receive an answer.