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WSJ: Apple to Release iPhone Journaling App for Logging Daily Activities

Populus said:
Yep, I do the same. I’m sure there are apps out there that do it very well, but I’m also sure that they have switched to the subscription model, so I’m happy that Apple provides this type of functionalities without having to add yet another sub to my bill.
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Yeah, sadly that seems to be the new normal. It's like paying your water/gas/electricity/garbage bill every month. Not going to do that.
 
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Millenials and GenZ have the highest mental health incidence in the history of mankind. Particularly women. This is potentially a standard app (like music or memos or a browser) going forward the need is so great.
 
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SamboSoul said:
As a long-time Day One user, I would be very keen to see something developed by Apple; although I am concerned about them having access to text messages and phone calls? 🤨
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This could decimate Day One though (I've also been using them for years). Let's see if this actually happens. Be stunned if they have the functionality that Day One now have which has taken years to build in.
 
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Mac Fly (film) said:
The irony being most people would do much better mentally if they put away their phone.
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This is data driven true. Teen gen z girls suffer significant mental distress and decay of mental well being when start using phones and social media on phones regularly.
 
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Kazgarth said:
Genius

I already started jounaling my workout/diet daily, but its a mess with a regular note app.
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Or just use an app like my fitness pal. I doubt notes or apple journaling will do diet/workout tracking like dedicated apps.
 
citysnaps said:
And that's what I love about Apple Notes.

And why transitioning from Evernote a decade ago was a HUGE breath of fresh air for me (even though Evernote had more stuff to twiddle).

Apple nailed it with Notes. It never gets in your way or slows you down. And that's why I'm optimistic with their upcoming journalling app.
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I hope Apple release an IPad version of the app. I use notes for basic journaling, Apple Pencil and iPad Pro makes it feel like writing on paper. I can search my journals for specific words easily, unlike paper journal.
 
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Love this idea. It could be used to stop mass shootings before they happen if the data is shared.
 
Here’s comment I posted to WSJ article this morning:

Sounds more like tracking/spying software to me. Journaling is a voluntary thing people opt to do to record personal life events etc. What this article describes is more of a constant tracking device. Once you enable it (assuming you can disable it) your phone tracks your personal movement etc. Too much “1984” Big Brother for me.

I’ve used “DayOne” and Apple’s app doesn’t seem to be anything like it. I’ve been a big Apple fan since the original Mac but this is a definite "no thanks” for me if it’s as your describe. On the other hand a real Apple ecosystem journaling app would be interesting.
 
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femike said:
Apple's app will have the ability to gather much more user data than third-party journaling apps, and will have access to text messages and phone calls, but privacy and security will be central to the software's design.
Apple, a corporation is getting more of your data. How is that different from Google or Microsoft? How is that privacy? And security? From Whom? From Apple. No. From US Gov. No. Is it good only when Apple collects the data?
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You assume that the user data is accessible to Apple but that’s not necessarily a given with their stronger focus on encryption. Google has a business model that’s designed to mine your data for profit- that’s not really a match when compared to Apple and the data they can access from their customers.
 
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This sounds like it could be great. I have started to take up journaling again recently with Day One. One aspect of these journaling apps that's important to me is easy data export in case I want to switch platforms in the future. I know Day One does this to JSON which is great. I'm a bit concerned that Apple may gatekeep the data to it's own platform but hopefully I'm wrong because the possible integrations with prompts relevant to phone/text and who you were around that day is interesting to me.
 
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jimbobb24 said:
Millenials and GenZ have the highest mental health incidence in the history of mankind. Particularly women. This is potentially a standard app (like music or memos or a browser) going forward the need is so great.
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The need is probably covered very well with existing apps but of course a free version from apple with its marketing machine backing it up will increase visibility and expose it to more users.
On the other hand, pen and paper have been around for a long time so ultimately a digital version isn’t needed but just an added bonus.
 
I am actually excited for this app. I used Daylio for a year or so, but it was cumbersome to put in everything manually, so I eventually dropped it.
Apple is the only company I somewhat trust with using all of that data...
 
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and 1989 others said:
'The app will analyze the users' behavior to determine what a typical day is like, including how much time is spent at home compared with elsewhere, and whether a certain day included something outside the norm'

And thus increasing anxiety about how much time you spend doing this and that, comparing your data to others data, planning how to overcome the new problems....

This won't fix mental health issues. It will compound them. The beauty of having an actual journal is that it does non of the stated 'benefits' of an app. It's you, the paper and the pen. Freedom to write what you like in quiet solitude. The journal cannot bring up a youtube video, send a text, receive a call, send a social media message while you are writing either.
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Yeah the last thing I need is an app tracking everything I do and making suggestions all in the name of ‘mental health’. Like you say it will increase anxiety more than anything else. Thankfully no one will be forced to use it.
 
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Very interesting idea. I can see how keeping track of all the elements and environmental variables around us could help us make connections about their impacts on our day.
 
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Yeah I use the Notes app for this and it works just ok. Long text can get laggy, bugs, and no clear way to back up. It's like Apple forgot how to make quality apps. This could be great or not so much.

But I would like something like Notes.app but open source and self hosted. Guess the problem is iOS apps that require you to pay 100 USD/year for even running your own apps on your own phone.
 
xxray said:
Wow, this sounds awesome, especially given that Apple is pretty much the only company that could do this while still respecting privacy. It sounds like it will be a lot more automatic which will help solve one of my biggest issues with regularly journaling: how much time it can take.
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For me it’s not even the time it takes. It’s that eventually I loose the motivation to put anything down after a while. Personally for something like this the more automated the better.
 
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