iOS 17.2 Beta Introduces Journal App

[gwhizkids]

I just copied text from Notes and pasted into Journal using the long press in Journal.

Same here.

Though I do have to note that working with text in the Journal app has been a bit wonky throughout the beta and now with the released version. The cursor location seems to jump around on its own. For example, several times yesterday I would highlight a word I wanted to replace and then when I started typing, the text actually appeared at the end of the next sentence.

 

[Cunir]

I like it and I've started using it, but if you just want one entry per day, like a normal diary, then you cant separate out all the text and photos. Be better if they added a timestamp when you edit an entry so what you wrote in the morning is separate from what you added later, with a separate block for maps and photos

 

[Eldaerenth Faexidor]

The long tap paste feature of iOS does not seem to be working in the new Journal app. Any idea if this is a feature or bug?

Omg I didn’t know about this feature. Thank you so much for your comment. You made my life a lot easier! ✌️

 

[jchap]

You nailed it with your last sentence. And those people were not likely to start using Day One and pay money for the privilege. I’m one of those people.

This is like so many other Apple apps, Notes and Reminders in particular. They are ok (and have gotten better), but you’re never going to move a dedicated Omnifocus or Obsidian user to Reminders or Notes. They have already moved past that level.

Will this cost Day One some future users? Perhaps. But it may also spur them to add additional features, making their product better in the process. And people who start out on Journal, may actually move up to Date One once they hit the “feature ceiling” in Journal.

I feel that Day One has gotten complacent in recent years in terms of functionality of the macOS app in particular. Their own sync mechanism is also starting to show some flaws. I've seen sync issues with Day One when starting a journal entry on one device and then switching to another device. Sometimes, the entry is incomplete or missing on the other device. That generally indicates a sync issue, but it isn't always automatically resolved quickly. A comparative (but different) app, NotePlan, which uses iCloudKit for synchronization generally seems more reliable, in my experience.

I wish the best to Day One, but since they were acquired by Automattic, it really seems like they are in maintenance mode and have not substantially done much with the app for years. For instance, the calendar/timeline sidebar still cannot be hidden completely for a true focus mode in macOS, even after so many years of requests. The journal entry text area in the Day One edit/view window also is inflexible above a certain width, and the developers have not added the option to allow users to set a text area width, after years of repeated requests.

I'm glad that Day One has provided a stable platform for journaling for these many years, and I'm thankful to them for that. I do pay for the Premium plan, even though I really don't use or need all its features. I think that Apple is giving us a new view with their app (currently iPhone only?) as to what can be done in terms of deep integration and prompting.

 

[DiscoDad1976]

I have searched, but I wonder if they expanded this app to iPad and MacOS for iPadOS18 etc..

It is a great app, but sometimes it's better to be able to take journal notes, and then refine on a Mac (like Day One).