Apple's Journal app explored: Dear Diary

Apple’s Journal app explored: Dear Diary،

After nearly six months of teasing, Apple is finally close to releasing its highly anticipated Journal app for iPhone. Revealed during the iOS 17 keynote at WWDC’23, the logging app has finally arrived as part of the iOS 17.2 beta at the end of October 2023. Yes, Apple has just released iOS 17.1 to millions of eligible iPhones (including the iPhone 15 line), but iOS 17.2 was also made available to beta testers.

That said, the Journal app is not yet available to the general public as it comes bundled with the iOS 17.2 beta. Take the rhythm of iOS 17 updates, the official iOS 17.2 should probably arrive before the end of November. It’s not every day that we get a new internal Apple app, so it’s natural to be intrigued by the latest software.

But what is it and what is it for?

Apple Journal: your personal journal

Apple Journal is nothing but a digital journal that allows you to write down your thoughts, observations and experiences, as well as include media and much more. Admittedly, the very concept of a “journal” may seem outdated to you, as it seems difficult to fit it into our busy daily schedules. The app itself successfully bridges the gap between “old” and “new”, making it easy and convenient to reflect on your daily experiences and note down all the memorable events each day.

Thanks to the app’s personalized suggestions, it can intelligently suggest ways to enrich your daily entries. For example, the app might suggest you think about recent activities, media, contacts, photos, and important places. Even more interesting, Journal can prioritize suggestions that involve a larger group of people or moments you share with one of your contacts.

However, probably because the app is still in beta, these suggestions don’t seem to work very well for me. Most of the time, they didn’t show up and I only saw a preview of my recent photo suggestions once or twice a day, at best. I don’t know if this is the intended functionality, but it doesn’t look like it.

Otherwise, the app will provide you with three informal writing prompts that might reignite your desire to write every day, even if you don’t have anything important to include in your journal. You can generate new prompts with the press of a button if you don’t feel the existing prompts.

What can be included in a journal entry?

Besides text (duh), you can also insert photos, videos, audio recordings, and important locations, which appear as rich maps. You can customize the date of each entry, allowing you to reflect on past and current occurrences. The interface is extremely simple and straightforward, so it’s almost impossible to feel overwhelmed by the Journal app.

Apple Journal: Privacy and security

Any journaling suggestions the app may display are all private to you. Nothing is sent to Apple’s servers because the suggestions are all processed on the device. This should give you peace of mind that your sensitive personal data never leaves your device.

An additional layer of security is provided by an optional biometric Face ID, which allows you to lock the app and keep your extremely personal data hidden from prying eyes.

Apple Journal: Problems and how to fix them

Of course, the app is still in beta, so it’s normal to expect issues and bugs. One of the most common bugs, which several users and I seem to have encountered, is the lack of journaling suggestions when first starting Journal.

As usual, when you have a problem and you go online, chances are you’ll find a solution fairly quickly. A suggested solution to the problem is to access “Settings -> Log -> Logging Suggestions -> Suggestions Privacy Settings -> Clear History”, then relaunch the Journal app, which should repair one of the app’s basic functions. This didn’t do it for me, but it’s worth checking out if it would solve your problems.