Tech Tip — Apple Journal
Journaling is gaining in popularity, and the ability to do so quickly and easily has become more important to many people. Journaling finds itself on both ends of the spectrum, people who swear by it and have been doing it for years, and those who don’t really understand the value. Of course, there is everything in between as well. The biggest group may fall into, “I would like to, or understand the value, but don’t have the time or know how to do it.” Apple’s journaling application seems to be targeting that group of people. They have developed an app that is easy to use, accessible for anyone with an iPhone, and even helps you with what to include in your daily collection.
Apple introduced the new Journal app last summer at their WWDC conference in June. They noted it would launch in fall of 2023, which it did. I have been dabbling in it since then and find it to be an easy to use, introductory way to get into journaling, or simply capturing thoughts or activities from the day.
Getting Started
The Journal app is seriously as simple as downloading it, if you don’t already have it, and starting to use it. Journal was part of the iOS 17.2 release, and may have been directly added to one of your Home Screens. To begin, open the app and hit the ‘+’ sign, then tap ‘new entry’. That is really all there is to it. You’ll have the option to add a ‘New Entry’, or you’ll see some recommended content on the front page.
At the bottom of the writing section, you’ll see some quick options. You can select the ‘recommend’ symbol, and it will provide plenty of options from recent activities, pictures, travel, and more. (This is the same list you would see even before selecting ‘New Entry’.) As you scroll through the ‘recommend’ list, you’ll also get some helpful writing prompts to encourage you to journal about different topics. There are always several to choose from.
You can also select ‘recent’, which pulls up activities or pictures that your phone has captured in the last few days. I think this is a very helpful journaling tool as well. Specifically, I like this for tracking workouts and exercise to use for tracking health goals and activities. You could dedicate a daily entry to your personal training habits to help build a routine around your exercise activities.
Other Entry Options
Other options you have along the option bar are to select photos from your photo library. You can also take a picture and add it directly to your journal entry. That could be very helpful if you’re on a tour or completing a photo walk. You can take pictures and make notes at the same time. You can also decide to add a voice memo from this menu. As I mentioned above, I do not like typing anything too long on my phone, so this is another great way to capture the moment as easily as possible. This works just like the Voice Memos application and simply captures your spoken voice. (Dictation comes from regular text entry and selecting the ‘dictation’ icon from the on-screen keyboard.)
Finally, the last option is to capture your location. This will place a pin on a map based on where you currently are, and allow you to make your notes with that. Similar to the photo walk I mentioned above, you could do this throughout a walking tour or if you were visiting a new city where you wanted to capture key locations. Add that with your pictures, and you could have a very neat journal of your visit.
Apple Journal Limitations
The biggest drawback of Apple Journal is its limitation to iPhone only. This feels like a big miss. It can be difficult to type on the iPhone, especially lengthy entries. But I think Apple is trying to make this as simple as possible and keep it on the device everyone has with them at all times. And, if you would rather not type on the small iPhone screen, dictate it. It may be a great way to get used to using dictation on your phone, which is better than it's ever been.
Other limitations are not as evident immediately, but likely will appear over time. To keep its simplicity, there is no calendar and no search functionality in this app. It is purely designed to capture quick journal entries, use the available information the phone has on it and allow you to capture your thoughts. There is a lot to like about that, it gets out of your way. However, for those times you want to go back and find an entry, it could be difficulty to navigate months or years of entries.
I would assume as Apple builds this application out, some of those features will find their way in, and will solve those problems. I think Apple wanted to get this out and let people begin to use it, knowing they can build more of those features in later, and it will work across the app. Finally, I also expect within a couple of years we will get cross-platform access and synching via Apple’s iCloud system. Time will tell.
Using Journal Prompts In Other Apps
One of the neat things Apple did with the app was to create an API (connection to allow other apps to talk to it) so that its prompts both for writing and the system information can be used in different applications. Day One is a perfect example. Day One is probably still the best all around journaling application you can get for your phone and works across all devices and ecosystems. They have a Mac version, and Android apps to use regardless of which mobile camp you fall into.
Overall, this is a simple, easy to use application that is a great starter for journaling. If you have always wanted to start a journal, but needed ideas on how to get started, this may be a way to go. For hard core journaling fans, this is likely not the right choice for you, as you likely already have something else you’re using (digitally or analogue). For existing journal users, that want a different way to capture activities throughout their day or week, this could be a nice complimentary application for that. I think this definitely has a place for doing a daily photo journal, or the occasional photo walks that allow you to bring in pictures from your camera roll and make comments on your experience. I love that there is another option, which will only get better with time, that gives users options on how to capture their experiences in one place. Happy journaling.
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