Apple's Journal App

[twdawson]

I have used this for the last couple of weeks and found it very limited, so as of now it is just a notes app and a limited one at that.

by the time it has features that it should have had on release I will have moved on to another app.

i am currently testing Diarium and it’s doing what I need out of a journal app and unlike Day One it’s not a subscription service.

 

[jpdunn13]

And I think you’ll get some or all of these in future releases. For now, I’m happy that it is available (or will be very shortly).

Also needs to expand to the iPad and Mac.

Ah yes. I knew I left something off my list.

 

[Bazza1]

First thing I deleted after update.

As a true Journal, stream-of-consciousness and mental retention best done with handwriting over thumb-pecking - and this doesn't transcribe handwritten notes.
Seems to be locked into yet another Apple proprietary product.

An oversexed Notes app.

 

[gwhizkids]

First thing I deleted after update.

As a true Journal, stream-of-consciousness and mental retention best done with handwriting over thumb-pecking - and this doesn't transcribe handwritten notes.
Seems to be locked into yet another Apple proprietary product.

An oversexed Notes app.

Thanks for your input. Very helpful!

 

[Dizbuster]

I’m optimistic about the Journal App. Remember what Day One’s 1st iteration looked like before they rewrote it. Pretty similar to what the Journal App is now. It definitely needs some bells and whistles but by comparison Day One, imo, became unnecessary complex.

 

[janeauburn]

I have used this for the last couple of weeks and found it very limited, so as of now it is just a notes app and a limited one at that.

Agree. No export feature means I will not waste my time on it.

 

[janeauburn]

How can Apple expect anyone to commit any amount of time or trust to an app that can't import or export?

This. +100

 

[gwhizkids]

This. +100

You sound very angry about this app. Just don’t use it if it doesn’t meet your needs. But that doesn’t mean it’s not acceptable for many others without your desired features.

 

[Abazigal]

A pretty nice overview of the journal app.

Apple’s Journal App: Journaling for All?

I’ve been keeping a journal in Day One since at least 2015, and I’ve got to say, the practice has become very engrained in my otherwise chaotic daily routine. Whenever I get asked about journaling, I always say that it’s a habit that can take any form you like. It can take place in a

www.macstories.net

 

[msackey]

I think I've finally found a use for this instantiation of Journal, and that's to provide comments related to my daily runs. For a long time, I've wanted the ability to make remarks that are attached to my workout records but Apple doesn't provide a way to do this. With Journal, you can now easily write remarks that are at least linked to a picture of your workout (e.g., map of the run) and the date/time and some metrics related to the running. This doesn't make it directly link back to the actual workout record, but it is something.

Other than that, I don't think I've found a good use for Journal since it is only available on the iPhone.

 

[msackey]

A pretty nice overview of the journal app.

Apple’s Journal App: Journaling for All?

I’ve been keeping a journal in Day One since at least 2015, and I’ve got to say, the practice has become very engrained in my otherwise chaotic daily routine. Whenever I get asked about journaling, I always say that it’s a habit that can take any form you like. It can take place in a

www.macstories.net

I'm looking at the images associated with the article. I don't know if those are ones provided by Apple as a way to introduce Journal to the public, or if those are the author's. Regardless, in looking at the brevity of those entries, I can see this is not the kind of journaling I do. I am not interesting in just an easy record of my day like what I did, or that "This new Peter Gabriel album is out and it's 🔥". When I see entries like that, I'm like, who cares? Not me? Especially not me if I'm the one writing that kind of entry! (Almost want to say, kill me if I'm writing that kind of entry regularly!)

About the only time I ever journal like that -- basically a layout or timeline of activities or pithy (truly laconic as in lazy) evaluations -- is when I'm on holiday travelling. I am interested to capture the progression of time and places I visit even if they are not necessarily very thought provoking. But other than that, the bulk of my journaling is a lot about internal reflection or my observations with deep thoughts. This is the kind of journaling that does not visually look impressive because there are no emoticons, no pictures necessarily, and it's not graphic design heavy (the demonstration of Journal is very graphic design heavily; looks visually impressive but when you start really paying attention to the entries you're like "why would I journal like that?" LOL ).

 

[gwhizkids]

I'm looking at the images associated with the article. I don't know if those are ones provided by Apple as a way to introduce Journal to the public, or if those are the author's. Regardless, in looking at the brevity of those entries, I can see this is not the kind of journaling I do. I am not interesting in just an easy record of my day like what I did, or that "This new Peter Gabriel album is out and it's ". When I see entries like that, I'm like, who cares? Not me? Especially not me if I'm the one writing that kind of entry! (Almost want to say, kill me if I'm writing that kind of entry regularly!)

About the only time I ever journal like that -- basically a layout or timeline of activities or pithy (truly laconic as in lazy) evaluations -- is when I'm on holiday travelling. I am interested to capture the progression of time and places I visit even if they are not necessarily very thought provoking. But other than that, the bulk of my journaling is a lot about internal reflection or my observations with deep thoughts. This is the kind of journaling that does not visually look impressive because there are no emoticons, no pictures necessarily, and it's not graphic design heavy (the demonstration of Journal is very graphic design heavily; looks visually impressive but when you start really paying attention to the entries you're like "why would I journal like that?" LOL ).

All well and good…for you.

But why denigrate the app for how other people might use it? Use of terms like “laconic” “pithy” and “lazy” is quite disparaging.

I’m glad you have the deep thoughts and personal reflections to commit to “paper”. For a lot of other people, this will be just fine as a way to capture random thoughts, memories, etc….

 

[msackey]

All well and good…for you.

But why denigrate the app for how other people might use it? Use of terms like “laconic” “pithy” and “lazy” is quite disparaging.

I’m glad you have the deep thoughts and personal reflections to commit to “paper”. For a lot of other people, this will be just fine as a way to capture random thoughts, memories, etc….

I think you misread. The harsh review was not on the app. It's on the demonstration used for the app.

 

[Guacamole]

I deleted it, I don't see the point of this app.. I will never use it

 

[wicked271]

My wish list for Journal:

• Import
• Export
• Search
  • by date
  • by keywords
• Print
  • entry
  • date range

Having tags or categories would also be great. I still use DayOne sometimes (grandfathered version). I want to subscribe but just too expensive for a rarely used app and don't really want to use their server. Been waiting for the Journal app since I heard about it and so far its very basic and hoping they will add more features soon!

 

[H_D]

Okay, so I have used this a couple of days. I like how it tries to integrate with other parts of the OS and the user experience, inviting you to use different techniques (voice/writing etc) and triggers for memories. It’s nicely done and hopefully many people can find inspiration in it. For a dedicated diary with longer content, tags, photos and more markdown structure, Day One feels far superior so far, especially with features like On This Day, a calendar, search functionality etc. on the other end of the spectrum, Stoic feels like a more polished version of the prompt-based diary, with cleaner design, much more and more personal promptings, some analytics, quotes and most importantly a certain degree of a psychological / philosophical approach that feeds into its functionality as a journal and makes it work much better - and which Apple probably won’t offer in this direct and open manner. Much like Freeform lacks certain important features of Miro (e.g. Frames and presentation), this is a very nice addition the the ecosystem, fitting especially the health-approach around Fitness+, Mindfulness, the new moodtracking. All of that is a tad intrusive for a computer operating system, but also helps to make it,well, a PERSONAL computer, which in my mind was always the goal.

 

[gwhizkids]

Having tags or categories would also be great. I still use DayOne sometimes (grandfathered version). I want to subscribe but just too expensive for a rarely used app and don't really want to use their server. Been waiting for the Journal app since I heard about it and so far its very basic and hoping they will add more features soon!

Those are good suggestions. Can you let Apple know at https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/ ?

 

[Cunir]

it would be nice if it was tied into all the other apple apps a bit better.
if you have an event on your calendar, or a birthday, or anniversary, you should be able to add it to your journal and link it back to the calendar. same with the health stuff, and people in your contacts.
it doesn't suggest completed workouts or journey maps until a lot later in the day either, and seems to miss some of them out.
and it would be nice if you had the option of just having one entry per day, and appending everything onto the end of it with timestamps. at the moment if you use the share panel to write about a completed workout, or a song, or whatever, then it starts a completely new entry.
and why no iPad or mac version? that's just daft
you also need a way to restore deleted photos and entries
of course it will get a lot better as time goes on, but at the moment there's a lot of stuff missing

 

[gwhizkids]

it would be nice if it was tied into all the other apple apps a bit better.
if you have an event on your calendar, or a birthday, or anniversary, you should be able to add it to your journal and link it back to the calendar. same with the health stuff, and people in your contacts.
it doesn't suggest completed workouts or journey maps until a lot later in the day either, and seems to miss some of them out.
and it would be nice if you had the option of just having one entry per day, and appending everything onto the end of it with timestamps. at the moment if you use the share panel to write about a completed workout, or a song, or whatever, then it starts a completely new entry.
and why no iPad or mac version? that's just daft
you also need a way to restore deleted photos and entries
of course it will get a lot better as time goes on, but at the moment there's a lot of stuff missing

I think you captured it well in your final thoughts: it will get better over time. It may never be good enough for those who want more but that’s why apps like Day 1 will continue to thrive.

 

[msackey]

I’m a little surprised that Journal app doesn’t recognize activities in Book app. I’m almost done with an ebook that I’m reading in Books and going to Journal, I don’t see a prompt to respond to my reading activity. How odd.

Just like responding/reflecting on my physical workouts, I want to also use this to respond to readings. Seems like an oversight

 

[gwhizkids]

I’m a little surprised that Journal app doesn’t recognize activities in Book app. I’m almost done with an ebook that I’m reading in Books and going to Journal, I don’t see a prompt to respond to my reading activity. How odd.

Just like responding/reflecting on my physical workouts, I want to also use this to respond to readings. Seems like an oversight

Or it just hasn’t shipped yet. Sheesh. It’s a first gen product. I’m sure that will come.

 

[msackey]

Or it just hasn’t shipped yet. Sheesh. It’s a first gen product. I’m sure that will come.

Hopefully it’ll come. It just seems surprising since is quite rudimentary of a feature, just like being able to respond to measured health metrics. Those are the basic promises of Journal app, as advertised by Apple.

Anyhow, I just wrote an entry in the Journal app and pasted in all my ebook highlights and now it’s having trouble opening. Lol. May have lost all my previous entries.

Update: Ok, I had to delete all my Journal app data from iCloud in order to get unstuck. SMH

 

[Bazza1]

Or it just hasn’t shipped yet. Sheesh. It’s a first gen product. I’m sure that will come.

Reading this and your comments above, it would seem you are one of those Apple apologists that traditionally have been rife within the Apple Communities support forums. Those Macoyltes who would rather denigrate a another user's view, mental acuity or personal experience with a piece of Apple product, rather than admit the product is half-baked / pointless / broken.

While I expect Apple appreciates your enthusiasm - goodness knows its used such behaviour in the past to ignore issues until it finally becomes so mainstream as to require a fix (sorry...'update') - they undoubtedly have legions of employees in the donut (and yeah, some Media outlets) dedicated to defending their unfortunate choices.

Just accept that some users don't see the purpose of the product. And / or it may have been released prematurely.

 

[msackey]

So I’ve been using Journal for a short while. I thought that the app is supposed to be able to make entry recommendations about whom I’ve called or texted. I’m not receiving any recommended entries like that. The only ones I receive are:
- recorded physical activity (eg, runs)
- podcasts listened to on Podcast apps
- photographs (sometimes, but these are only ones recognized as Memories, not ones that I have just taken the Day of)

I have a group chat on iMessage and I never see Journal make a recommendation to reflect on the recent communication.

Is that expected behavior?

 

[Apple_Robert]

So I’ve been using Journal for a short while. I thought that the app is supposed to be able to make entry recommendations about whom I’ve called or texted. I’m not receiving any recommended entries like that. The only ones I receive are:
- recorded physical activity (eg, runs)
- podcasts listened to on Podcast apps
- photographs (sometimes, but these are only ones recognized as Memories, not ones that I have just taken the Day of)

I have a group chat on iMessage and I never see Journal make a recommendation to reflect on the recent communication.

Is that expected behavior?

My app was slow to start with personal recommendations. I just got one for when I was out for lunch. I have yet to get one pertaining to health.