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

[CarAnalogy]

I understand journal apps.
I use Day One.

What I don’t understand is who uses a journal app only on the phone?
I would use Apple Journal App only when I am sitting on the toilet.

I am not saying there shouldn’t be, but primary on actual keyboards…at least iPad…


Meh….. anyway….

Toilet, shower, driving (with voice dictation of course)...these are the places one has their deepest thoughts. And the iPhone is waterproof.

This is Apple's standard software tactic now, apparently. Same as Google. It's called Minimum Viable Product and it's the worst kind of MVP to consistently turn out.

Eventually they'll flesh it out, maybe. I'm not putting anything important in it for a least a few versions to make sure it's stable. It could be useful for a daily log of things that happened if not necessarily a diary of your deepest darkest secrets.

 

[aberdeenmeadows]

So, what a lot of the reviewers aren't telling you, is that within a lot of apps, when you go to "share", you can choose the journal app. This creates a log, so it's pretty clever actually.

Unfortunately, the real issue is... how do we sort through or search for entries. Right now, it's cute because we only have 1/2 dozen entries but when we begin to have hundreds, do we get a calendar view or can we filter and search?

 

[Atog]

Can you use it just as a better note app?

 

[aberdeenmeadows]

Can you use it just as a better note app?

Only if your notes are location and time based and that is important to you. If they aren't, continue to use Notes as it is way more powerful.

For me, I would prefer to use notes still to record information because it is easy to SEARCH and find. Journal doesn't seem to have an easy way of finding stuff (yet).

I also use the calendar to note when I see a movie or TV show, and then I choose "all day" because I don't care about the time I watched something. I just want to keep an ongoing history of the movies I see. So I use an emoticon 🎥 in front of my event, such as:

🎥Home Alone 3

Then, I can search in my calendar for 🎥

 

[CoMoMacUser]

Journal can transform every random experience and feeling into a giant eagle soaring to the moon at midnight!

 

[iamasmith]

I'm out of this, I wasn't sure how into the idea I was in the first place but if one could add entries from Mac, iPad, iPhone and possible watch and see how it panned out in Apple's way then maybe I would record some stuff. To me the utility for this kind of thing for every day devices is at present iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and then iPhone.

 

[starstreak]

is there a way to create a template to load for each day that I type in something? Like what I eat for dinner what I had for lunch, did I go anywhere etc. or buy something. Sometimes I forget things and having set up a template can help.

 

[GoodTimeNotALongTime]

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

That is probably the most inaccurate take on it that I have read so far.

 

[bag99001]

That is probably the most inaccurate take on it that I have read so far.

Exactly. People are so strangely critical of this. It would be nice to be more full-featured at start, but we all know this is how Apple tends to do their products - start out small and then grow feature set over time including across the ecosystem.

 

[NufSaid]

Ugggg.....wanted this on the ipad at least. Frustrating. I will stick with DayOne for now....this is better IF it was on a device with a full keyboard.

 

[814MB]

Zero interest. Deleted the app immediately after downloading 17.2.

 

[4tune8chance]

Apple introduced its long-awaited Journal app for iPhone in iOS 17.2. Here is everything you need to know about using Journal.

Apple in June 2023 announced it was bringing its own journaling app to iOS 17, and it is finally here as part of Apple's December software update, iOS 17.2.

Apple's Journal app lets you record your daily thoughts and activities, incorporating data like photos, music listened to, workouts, and more, plus it suggests topics to write about.

Creating Your First Journal Entry

The Journal app has a simple, straightforward interface. When you open it up, you're presented with a "+" button, and tapping on it lets you start a new entry. When you have added a few entries, the button at the top-right lets you filter them based on photos and activities.

The writing interface includes several buttons along the top of the keyboard that you can use to access the aforementioned "moments," as well as add photos, take pictures, add voice recordings, and add location tags, respectively. Before you can use them, you will be prompted to allow the app to access your pictures, camera, microphone, and location. Journal entries are automatically dated, and you can bookmark your favorite ones.

By default, the Journal app will suggest recent and recommended "moments" from your week that include photos, workouts, or places you visited, and you can use these as writing prompts or you can tap New Entry and start writing. (To write new entries without viewing suggestions first toggle on the switch in Settings ➝ Journal ➝ Skip Journaling Suggestions.)

Using Journaling Reflections

If you have a serious case of writer's block, the Journal app can offer you entry prompts in the form of "reflections." When starting a new entry, these reflections appear in between your recommended and recent "moments," are designed to inspire and guide you, providing ideas and topics to explore in each entry.

The reflections can vary from thought-provoking questions to creative writing cues, and if the one you're offered doesn't get your gears turning, you can generate a new one by tapping the two arrows that form a circle.

Setting a Journaling Schedule

Staying consistent with journaling can be difficult, but your iPhone can make it a lot easier with the new Journal app's scheduling feature. Here's how to set it up.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap Journal.
3. Tap Journaling Schedule, then toggle on the switch next to Schedule.
4. Choose the days of the week that you want to be reminded to write, and select a time of day to receive the prompt.

The scheduling option isn't just a reminder – it's about building a habit. So whether it's a gentle reminder notification that you need in the morning or a prompt before bed, you can adapt the feature to your personal routine.

Lock Your Journal

Privacy and security are paramount when it comes to personal journaling. That's why Apple's Journal app introduces enhanced security features, including encryption and password protection, to safeguard your journal from unauthorized access.

To lock your journal using your device's passcode, Face ID, or Touch ID, follow these steps.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap Journal.
3. Tap Lock Journal and enter your passcode when prompted.
4. Toggle on the switch next to Lock.
5. Tap Require Passcode, then select from the options: Immediately, After 1 minute, After 5 minutes, After 15 minutes.

That's all there is to it. Your journal is now inaccessible without entering your device passcode, or using Face ID or Touch ID, providing you with peace of mind every time you record sensitive or personal information.

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

Ok….. So a year from now what are you supposed to do with all the data you have populated it with?

 

[msackey]

Ugggg.....wanted this on the ipad at least. Frustrating. I will stick with DayOne for now....this is better IF it was on a device with a full keyboard.

You know, I kinda expected that iCloud.com would have a Journal app too. That way, at least we can use a full keyboard on another device to finish writing up long entries.

 

[timeislove]

Hmmm … while Siri s intelligence is limited, the journal app do not need AI graded or ChatGPT level intelligence to be capable.

When writing a journal of a custom date, the app should prompt for the photos around the selected dates instead of popping up the generic photo picker. If not possible to keep/track users previous locations, the location info could be extracted from of the photos of the selected dates.

Google Map, when promoting users for entering a review for a location, did the same trick years ago! It even works out trace of my travelled locations so that the Google photo could estimate the locations of the photos I took with my DSLR which does not support location info.

Apple could also make the Journal app more useful for supporting to share (note or page) and export, anyhow the users would like to keep a record of the journals. These are the general features (share sheet) of IOS. Dunno why Apple did not support it at the first place!

The prompts and suggestions are more gimmicks than useful!

 

[timeislove]

If you like journaling, more power to you. My guess is that if you journal, you already have a favorite app, have tons of data in it, and won't be impressed by this one. Journal, like Freeform, is an application that nobody was asking for, few will use, and that was released when users were actually requesting features and apps that would have made a big difference for a lot more people. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• A real password application
• Splitting out apps like, safari, mail, etc. so fixes can be applied without an os upgrade.
• End to end encryption for contacts
• Improvements to HomeKit
• Better Siri

There are many more things they could have worked on that would have been more beneficial to more users.

it would be nice to have little handy app in stock rather than 3rd party app, e.g. the scan doc capabilities of ios, which i think is the value that i paid the premium price for iphone than others.

however, the journal app is too primitive to be a first release, and too careless not to incorporate some of the standard features of ios that would make the app more useful, e.g. incorporating the capabilities to share, export and print (from share sheet), and prompts for the photos of the selected dates when writing journals of custom dates (now, the app only pops up the generic photo picker!).

on the other hand, i like freeform. while freeform is quite basic, it fills the gap for ios long omitted a vector image app.

for writing journals, we already have the mighty note app.. why not add automated date/time and photo suggestions for note app than creating a separate new journal. the prompts and suggestions of journal app are plain useless!

 

[timeislove]

Only if your notes are location and time based and that is important to you. If they aren't, continue to use Notes as it is way more powerful.

For me, I would prefer to use notes still to record information because it is easy to SEARCH and find. Journal doesn't seem to have an easy way of finding stuff (yet).

I also use the calendar to note when I see a movie or TV show, and then I choose "all day" because I don't care about the time I watched something. I just want to keep an ongoing history of the movies I see. So I use an emoticon 🎥 in front of my event, such as:

🎥Home Alone 3

Then, I can search in my calendar for 🎥

same here. i prefer note app with automated date/time and photo suggestions support for writing journals!

 

[timeislove]

So, what a lot of the reviewers aren't telling you, is that within a lot of apps, when you go to "share", you can choose the journal app. This creates a log, so it's pretty clever actually.

Unfortunately, the real issue is... how do we sort through or search for entries. Right now, it's cute because we only have 1/2 dozen entries but when we begin to have hundreds, do we get a calendar view or can we filter and search?

the worst of all is the journal app currently does not support share sheet, hence no way to make a record of journals (share to page/export to pdf, etc.).

as you said, when the size of journals is getting bigger, there have to be some way out to export/achieve some of the journals.

 

[timeislove]

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.

Hmmm … for the current implementation of journal app, it is not much differentiated from the note app.

Apple could do a much better job when they debuted the journal app, like incorporating the usual support for share sheet (share to note/page, export/print), search and tag, etc.

A few yrs to evolve an app is way too long. I rather like the journal function merged to note app! Adding auto date/time and photo suggestions is already pretty good!

 

[kingfish78]

Only on iPhone at the moment.

Seems like this would be a bigger player on iPad than iPhone. It would be great to complete these journal entries using my larger iPad and Apple Pencil than typing it into a phone. If people are syncing their iPads with iCloud, all of the photos and weekly "memories" could sync and be available on either device.

 

[svish]

Will try this out once I update my 15 Pro Max

 

[timeislove]

You know, I kinda expected that iCloud.com would have a Journal app too. That way, at least we can use a full keyboard on another device to finish writing up long entries.

journal by default enforced end to end encryption. it is not possible access journal data on icloud.com.

 

[xxFoxtail]

I hope we don't have to wait for the next major OS releases next Fall to get this app on the Mac, iPad and maybe even the Watch. I'd also assume Vision Pro isn't shipping with it.

You know, I kinda expected that iCloud.com would have a Journal app too. That way, at least we can use a full keyboard on another device to finish writing up long entries.

Another reason I'd love to be able to control my iPhone from other devices. The tech is already basically there, I can control my Watch from my iPhone, Universal control between the Mac and iPad, why can't I control my iPhone from my Mac?

 

[GoodTimeNotALongTime]

Google Map, when promoting users for entering a review for a location, did the same trick years ago! It even works out trace of my travelled locations so that the Google photo could estimate the locations of the photos I took with my DSLR which does not support location info.

Oh my goodness. Why do you think Google is doing this? Their entire business model is based on tracking information about you and using it for their benefit and their partners.

 

[Steve121178]

Don't really need it. Binned.

Not sure why Apple felt they needed to install an App on my device that I didn't ask for either.

 

[Ghost31]

The basic notes app is superior. You can make folders, search, include pictures and media and even drag and drop. You can’t do ANY of that with the journal app. I’m actually shocked at how limited it is. Like I can’t even drag and drop? That’s so basic. Can’t share?

Tried it. Made a post in both the journal app and then the regular Apple notes app. The journal app would only let me add a suggested link to Apple Music that they wanted. Apple notes? I could drag and drop whatever I’m listening to, add some pictures, change sizes, add a map to where I am. Add hashtags. Make multiple folders. My entry in journal was so plain whereas my entry in notes was detailed and I could even draw and type with my iPad

The journal app just lets you…type. That’s pretty much it. Really disappointing. Hopefully it gets better over time.