Bear + Notion Split View on iPad: The Complete Guide

You can use Bear and Notion together in Split View on iPad by opening one app, swiping up to the Dock, and dragging the second app to the left or right edge of the screen until it snaps into place.

Once you have them side by side, though, you'll probably want a faster way back to that layout — and that's where this guide comes in.

Why Bear and Notion work well together

Bear and Notion serve different purposes, which is exactly why they pair well. Bear is a focused writing environment: clean, distraction-free, with great Markdown support and fast search. Notion is a structured workspace for databases, project wikis, and team documentation. Keeping both open at once removes the constant app-switching that breaks your thinking.

Here are three workflows where this combination earns its place:

• Draft, then publish. Write a first draft in Bear — no templates, no clutter — then move the polished text directly into a Notion page or database without leaving your screen. You can copy, paste, and format in one view without losing your place in either app.
• Research and note-taking. Open your Notion project wiki on one side for reference while capturing raw notes, quotes, or observations in Bear on the other. Bear stays as your scratchpad; Notion holds the structured output.
• Meeting prep. Pull up a Notion meeting agenda or project brief on one side and use Bear for live note-taking on the other. After the meeting, you decide what's worth moving into Notion permanently.

None of these workflows are complicated, but they all depend on getting both apps open quickly. Manually dragging apps from the Dock every time adds friction that quietly discourages you from using the setup at all.

How to set it up with Splicon

If you haven't already, Download Splicon free from the App Store — it's the fastest way to turn any two-app Split View combination into a single Home Screen shortcut with a custom icon.

1. Open Splicon and search for Bear and Notion. Use the app's search to find each one and select them as your pair. Splicon pulls the real app icons automatically.
2. Choose a split style and generate the icon. Pick how you want the two icons arranged — side by side is the most intuitive for a Split View pair — then generate the combined icon and save it to your Photos library.
3. Open the Shortcuts app and build your shortcut. Add an "Open App" action, set it to open Notion (or Bear) in Split View alongside the other app. When prompted to choose an icon for the shortcut, select the image you just saved from Splicon.
4. Add the shortcut to your Home Screen. Tap the shortcut's settings, choose "Add to Home Screen," and place it wherever makes sense. From now on, one tap opens both apps in Split View exactly as configured.

A setup worth keeping

The Bear-plus-Notion combination works because the two apps don't overlap — one is for thinking out loud, the other is for organizing what matters. Split View lets you keep both modes active at the same time instead of treating them as separate contexts you have to manually bridge.

Setting up the shortcut through Splicon takes about two minutes. After that, the layout is always one tap away, which means you'll actually use it.