iOS 17.2: How to Use Apple's New Journal App

[victorvictoria]

It's a good idea in principle. Personal reflection is key to a rewarding life. Over a period of years, behavioral and thought patterns emerge, both postitive and not. Having a record allows for recognition of those patterns and affords the opportunity to reinforce, modify or end them.

It's the execution that's flawed. If it only works on iOS, typing has to be done on an iPhone or iPad screen, which is limiting and slow. Not to mention, bad for the thumbs! If it works with voice recognition, that creates a new set of issues. We speak in the moment, for the most part without the benefit of verifiable or even reliable memory. When words are written, we have the opportunity to think about them before we write them, to refer and compare them to our past experiences and how we processed them at the time, all laid out for us from contemporaneous notes taken at the time they occurred. Only then do we proceed with what has happened since those previous notes. For anything more than a Cliff's Notes condensed version of events and experiences and our reactions to them, a physical keyboard, or better yet, a pen and notebook, are more important than portability.

 

[timeislove]

If ios already has an encrypted disk what benefit do you have by encrypting the journal file?

For the standard protection, note is not end to end encryption. For advanced protection, almost all data sync to iCloud got end to end encrypted.

So, journal app got the extra protection like your synced password under standard mode.

 

[timeislove]

Yes, less capable than note app. No sharing nor exporting.

The prompts and suggestions are kind of jokes!

 

[dustin_]

bare bones intern project

 

[alaris83]

Under Privacy and Security, this setting is called "Journaling Suggestions", in English. I see that mine are all activated

My options don't stay activated... how weird!

 

[YonTom]

If it is not also on macOS, then I wouldn't bother with it at all.

Exactly. Also, not being able to keep more than one journal? No thanks. I’m sticking to DayOne for now.

 

[bag99001]

it’s a 1.0 project, folks. I’m sure they will eventually add more features and formatting options, as well as iPad and MacOS support. I agree it’s not as full featured or useful as dayone or similar apps but I personally think it’s a decent start.

 

[crsh1976]

So it's essentially Apple Notes with a slightly different UI

Or any other notes app that mixes text and media - except this is tuned to "type how you feel right now" prompts.

Not necessarily bad, just not for everybody.

 

[snak-atak]

I really want to like the journaling app, but I'm not there yet. Maybe in a couple versions down the road. It's too busy, offers too many suggestions. I'd rather start with a completely blank slate and choose what I want to include rather than having everything suggested to me. When I open the app, it doesn't look like a traditional journaling app so I don't feel like journaling in it.

For the record, I am a DayOne subscriber and a faithful journaler. I love it and have thousands of entries in it, and so will continue to pay the annual subscription... for now. I am concerned that Apple might put DayOne under and then all my entries will be lost, or I will have to relegate to saving it to a PDF before switching over. Hopefully before then, Apple will purchase DayOne and integrate it somehow as a gesture of goodwill to all those faithful journalers out there. I don't know how my saved video clips or locations will transfer over. Will cross that bridge when I get there.

I feel that Apple missed the mark on this app. Rather than trying to integrate all of Apple's ecosystem (health, music, memories, etc) into the app, they should have focused on integrating into iPad w/ Apple Pencil, and the Mac w/ traditional keyboard. Handwriting is the one thing I miss most. When I read my dad's journals, it's his handwriting that reminds me most of him. Something about having a limited amount of space on a page and his handwriting that really gets to the heart of journaling, at least for me. And when I want to really document my deepest thoughts quickly and without interruption, I'd prefer a keyboard.

Now that I'm done, I can post this into my DayOne entry for today.

 

[Kissmo1980]

No need to blame Apple for not releasing it to iPad.

The journal app is just not ready for real use case!

May it be mature later, e.g. capable of sharing/exporting/printing and writing journals of some days back

Blaming? No.

If I were blaming I would have said: A billion dollar company with such strong development cannot release and iPad version and Mac version for its own devices.


There's nothing to blame here. It's not like I am forced to use it or I paid for it.


What I am saying is that it would have made more sense to start development for Mac and iPad, and then bring it to the phone.
But yeah, I know... iPhone is the cash cow for Apple.

 

[ForkHandles]

This app is barely a days work to program. It has zero real functionality, you can’t even format fonts.

Honestly, use Notes it’s an improvement.

I’m used to Apple’s new apps to be light of some functions but this has none!!

They should be embarrassed.

At least Day One don’t have to worry

 

[Apple_Robert]

I really want to like the journaling app, but I'm not there yet. Maybe in a couple versions down the road. It's too busy, offers too many suggestions. I'd rather start with a completely blank slate and choose what I want to include rather than having everything suggested to me. When I open the app, it doesn't look like a traditional journaling app so I don't feel like journaling in it.

For the record, I am a DayOne subscriber and a faithful journaler. I love it and have thousands of entries in it, and so will continue to pay the annual subscription... for now. I am concerned that Apple might put DayOne under and then all my entries will be lost, or I will have to relegate to saving it to a PDF before switching over. Hopefully before then, Apple will purchase DayOne and integrate it somehow as a gesture of goodwill to all those faithful journalers out there. I don't know how my saved video clips or locations will transfer over. Will cross that bridge when I get there.

I feel that Apple missed the mark on this app. Rather than trying to integrate all of Apple's ecosystem (health, music, memories, etc) into the app, they should have focused on integrating into iPad w/ Apple Pencil, and the Mac w/ traditional keyboard. Handwriting is the one thing I miss most. When I read my dad's journals, it's his handwriting that reminds me most of him. Something about having a limited amount of space on a page and his handwriting that really gets to the heart of journaling, at least for me. And when I want to really document my deepest thoughts quickly and without interruption, I'd prefer a keyboard.

Now that I'm done, I can post this into my DayOne entry for today.

You can turn off all suggestions and start with a blank entry.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

When I activate this option and close the card, and go back to that option it always deactivates by itself... does it happen to anyone else?

I think it's called Writing tips under Privacy and security.

Yes, happens to me too.

It won't let me set a schedule for notifications for Journal, and prompts me to activate notifications for Journal in Settings even though I already toggled it on. And it will only let me set the notification for the current time.

Several of the prompts are also in English even though my iPhone is not set to English.

Definitely has some bugs right now.

But other than that, I really like the app.

I use Notes a lot. And this is quite different and much better for keeping a diary (of sorts).

Certainly hoping this comes to Mac too though.

 

[gmanist1000]

I thought this was going to be like Google Timeline

 

[jcshas]

I’ve been using the Journal app for the past couple of weeks and surprisingly it’s very therapeutic.

 

[BrownyQ]

While I'm glad they finally have their own journaling app, until it comes to macOS, I won't be using it.

Sitting at my desk with a keyboard under my fingers is how I best like to get my thoughts out. Not hacking away on a tiny phone screen.

I only hope it comes to the next version of macOS in 2024. I like using Day One, but I'm not so attached to it I wouldn't just move my journal entries over to Apple's take.

Don't even need any additional fancy features; I just type.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I am using it. While it is barebones, I believe Apple will slowly add features to it, along with offering an iPad and Mac app.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Yes, less capable than note app. No sharing nor exporting.

The prompts and suggestions are kind of jokes!

It's a little weird and way too simple to be useful.

Something tells me the suggestions will make use of iPhone 16 (and newer) AI Siri and only really make sense at that point.

Anyone on pre-AI Siri will be stuck with this barebones Journal experience.

And then the next logical step is for Apple to turn it into some sort of "AI therapy" thing, where Siri will watch what you journal and do, and then come up with suggestions for activities to help balance your mood, like certain meditations, physical exercises, music to listen to, etc.

They might even turn it into another subscription service, make it a part of Apple One.

*they won't ever use the word "AI" though

 

[msackey]

My options don't stay activated... how weird!

Try deleting the Journal app. Then, go to App store and then search it by name and re-downloading.

 

[decypher44]

Handwritten journaling is still the best way to go.

 

[madmax14304]

People keep referring to this app as a notes clone. I wish. You can bold text, add italics, monospaced text and add tags in Notes. I don’t know why they didn’t migrate all that for this first release. I’m looking forward to future feature additions though. I remember when Notes first came out and it was so limited. A few years later, many people deleted their Evernote accounts in a migration to Notes. DayOne doesn’t have anything to worry about for the next few years at least.

 

[msackey]

Exactly. Also, not being able to keep more than one journal? No thanks. I’m sticking to DayOne for now.

Yeah, I'm about to abandon Journal app. The fact that it isn't available across devices is the biggest problem for me.

I understand that the app needs access to various metrics in order to give suggestions. But how about this: the iPhone app is the one to provide suggestions, if needed. On the Mac and iPad, you can still access and create journal entries but won't be able to get those devices to make suggestions. That would be fine! At the very least, the journal entries needs to be editable and accessed on different devices. I cannot see myself swipe or tap typing any meaningful entry. It'll be full of mistakes that lead to text that misleads. Horrible.

 

[Eldaerenth Faexidor]

I really love the journal app. I do hope it’s gets pimped a bit more in the near future. Lots of writing essentials are missing, as was kinda expected to be the case with Apple nowadays introducing half baked apps. Lol. Nevertheless, I use it everyday. I like the layout. It’s simple and peaceful. Thank you Apple. A journal a day keeps the doctor away. Which in my case is a bit of a b#tch since my primary care physician is hot as hell.

 

[msackey]

Sitting at my desk with a keyboard under my fingers is how I best like to get my thoughts out. Not hacking away on a tiny phone screen.

Oooof! It's a terrible experience swiping or tapping away to type words. HORRIBLE! I definitely need a keyboard to make any meaningful journal entries. I can begin the journal entry on the iPhone like jotting down immediate ideas and thoughts I want to expand on. But beyond that, I cannot swipe or tap away...horrible experience. *barf*

 

[decypher44]

There is no sub. It is free on iPhone.

I read their comment differently. To me, it sounded like they were asking can a person sell subs to others to read their journals. I think I’m so used to people making money from exposing their daily lives.