I really love this app, although there are several adjustments I would love to see made that would create the most lovely experience. The app provides a convenient space to jot down thoughts, along with an ability to keep it private. The only thing is I don’t see many differences between this app and the “Notes” app. Granted there are suggestions for journal prompts, that are unavailable on the “notes” app, I wish there was more room for customization. Here are some ideas:
1) Create an option for separate journals on the app. This allows for more organization as opposed to miscellaneous journal entries. For instance on my app I like to write about several subjects including my mental, physical, and relational health, and I find it overwhelming and difficult to find a specific prompt when I want to reflect. It would be nice to be able to see the actual “journal cover” along with its title. By clicking on the journal it would redirect you to another page similar to the current layout of the app. Inspiration for the seller are journals comes from the app “good notes”
2) more fonts and layout options. I would love to have the option to change font, size, and color in my journal. It allows for more opportunity for creativity
3) option to add images wherever in the journal as opposed to only on the cover.
4) and lastly the option to collaborate with contacts. A shared journal
Only thing I would add is to add it to the iPad. Maybe I’d like to write in my journal. Or use my keyboard. I don’t see this is just an iPhone thing. It should encompass the entire eco system. The ability to record a thought on your Apple Watch, or with the new a.i. set up maybe the ability to have a full blown conversation with Siri and then it’s put into the journal. There is a lot more things that can be done to this app. I hate that apple is always late and just attempts to perfect the bare minimum. Strive for more. And just do more updates if needed. I also want to say as a shareholder. Tim and the board needs to get it together. Maybe try doing polls with shareholders On future ideas. The leaps Steve Jobs made compared to what Tim is doing is down right disgusting and disrespectful to jobs. Tim made the company extremely profitable but the lack of innovation is crazy. Seeing how Steve loved movies and children there is no reason why there isn’t a entire department dedicated to education and changing how children learn. Or the way we watch tv and movies. Why don’t we have an actual tv instead of a Roku box. Apple should’ve literally saturated and took over the market like Samsung and the fact that they didn’t is honestly insane. I’m sure jobs wouldn’t be happy. Cheering over 3 trillion dollars. Literally could’ve been a 10 trillion dollar company. Get it together.
Hoping iOS 18 has some updates to this. I prefer Apple-developed apps for any I’m giving permissions to (photos/video, etc.). I understand the reasoning for keeping this simple but it seems like a somehow watered-down version of the Notes app.
No customization for italics/bold/underlining. No way to have multiple journals or even ways to assign categories or tags to entries (e.g., I wanted a way to maintain both a journal for personal life and one for work and there’s really no way to differentiate entries). Would like being able to tag or filter, or view in a calendar type interface. And more importantly this is only on phones (it doesn’t support iPad or Mac), which means no ecosystem connection to other Apple devices and no handwriting function (for iPad).
Overall I think this really has potential but as of today falls far short of other more established apps on the market. Granted, this one is free and basic, so may work for some but I’m not sold on it yet.
I found this app one random morning while the sun had yet to come up. I’ve been randomly using it for basic things like dream journaling, checking in with feelings, and some random ideas here and there. Pros: I love that I can add pictures. Write long entries. No pop up adds. Private suggestions to write about. Reflection questions to think about and write. And copy and paste to words with not so much of an issue. Cons: There’s no fonts to chose from. The list of entries goes from latest to earliest and only gives you options to pick up from “all entries” or “pictures” only. This app is not available on IPad.
Suggestion to developer: More fonts. Create Folders for entries. Make it available for IPad.
Overall for a free app, it’s basic and smooth and it’s yet to crash on me and I write volumes. It is totally worth the hype for creating entries without the complication of other apps, just simple and basic font with the ability to add a picture if that’s what anybody else wants. If it were available on IPad this would be my go to app for doing basic planning, ideas, journaling and dream journaling.
So here’s what I think this app could use to revamp it into something incredible. One- it’s a journaling app, where are the; Fonts, ability to play around with drawing, italics, bolds, letter spacing etc. Two- it’s annoying that you can’t organize each “tab” as you’d like to. What if I wanna rearrange the order- have current writings I’m working on at the top while moving some to the bottom (it’s overwhelming having to scroll all the way up and down). Three- It would be cool to place them into Folders, keeping them tidy and under specific Titles of your choosing. Four- it would be great to organize and edit the photos you add TO YOUR LIKING. Last but not least Five- it seems Apple doesn’t wanna get into the whole colored font thing, but it could be a real eye appeal to be able to do so, it would pair nicely with the whole font optional combo. Matter of fact here’s number Six because this one’s a MUST- it’s incredibly annoying that every time I click to edit it automatically scrolls straight to the bottom (who said I wanted that lol)? Just open up just as the notes and pages app does. Anyway hope Apple takes my great advice and incorporates it into this app, it’ll make for brilliant capabilities.
I’m actually really happy that Apple released this as part of their standard apps. Over the years, I’ve dabbled in journaling but more recently wanted to take a more serious approach so I’ve been playing with different apps. I have sometimes gone back to read and reflect on old entries when I might have been going through some thing or want to remember a good time, ect. What I find is missing from this app is the ability to tag the journal entries or group or sort them a certain way to really find what you’re looking for and keep all of your journal entries organized. hopefully this is a feature. They have coming down the road since this app is still so new. One other thing I noticed is the app is currently only on iPhone. I could not find it on my Mac or iPads which is unfortunate because I’d really like the cross platform capability.
I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. It has been very overwhelming but I found that journaling has been helpful. I started by just doing a daily journal in my calendar. They I realized I could just use the voice memo app. But then I found this journal app. I has been so wonderful! I can type or do an audio recording. I personally have found the audio recordings to be easier as I just do a free thought kind of idea. But the other cool things is being able to add pictures to that entry. Only thing I don’t like is there is a cap on data space for each entry. So if you put a lot of pics or audio recordings in, it will stop you at a certain time because the cap has been met. That is my only complaint. Other than that, this app has helped me immensely going through treatments because chemo brain is real and I want to be able to remember things that I am going through.
I've been a professional writer all my life (novels and screenplays) but I've never been able to get into journaling, nor particularly wanted to. But I live by my iPhone (if it could be implanted in my head, I'd be happy) and Apple's own native Journal app is a thing of simplicity and pleasure.
You can very easily capture any thought or memory or reflection you like, including adding photographs and even music tracks. If, like me, you're a news junkie (I used to be a journalist), you can very simply post stories from your favorite online news sources and you don't even need to comment - you can just have them there as a record of our times.
There's a bookmark you can add to more personal posts, to make them easier to find, and while I'd like new ways of navigating all the posts you've written to be added in the future, this app is beautiful in its simplicity. Its true value won’t become apparent until later, when you have years' worth of recollections to look through, but the act of journaling is therapeutic and it's like a more private form of social media: you can vent, but only you see it! I would highly recommend trying this.
5 stars because I love the app. I don’t want to give it any less because it’s knew and I see the potential. There needs to be some type of search option. I see a lot of people saying to make it like a blog type journal but please don’t, there’s apps for that already everybody. Love the minimalism vibe to the app but I don’t love that if I want to find something my only real options are searching by hitting “picture” which almost all of my journals have pictures. I like that it will prompt me to write about stuff and use my location to give me those prompts though. I wish that we could add titles though. The only ones with titles are the preset prompts and if I want one with a title I have to take one of those and completely change it (change location, photos, title). The only way I get titles is from a trip to the grocery store which I then change to a different journal. I use this app almost daily as I am young and go do fun stuff that I want to remember when I’m old. My memory is already pretty rough so having a journal for it is really a big help. Just think there’s a couple improvements to make but don’t go crazy and change the whole app please! Keep it as close as you can to this so I don’t have to find a new app and transfer everything.
This app was glitchy to begin with; not responding to keyboard input, cut/paste not working, deleting entire paragraphs when I only needed to delete a word…
Now for the past 4 days it won’t even open. Rather, it does open but is frozen on a blank screen. I can’t see previous entries, can’t add a new one, nothing. Months of writing just gone. I’ve read the user forums, tried the advice on tech forums and support sites, uninstalled/reinstalled the app, restarted the phone, allowed all the notifications, disallowed all the notifications, toggled features on and off and nothing has worked.
This app is a microcosm of how the entire Apple “ecosystem” has devolved into total garbage. Apps that don’t function properly, devices more focused on appearance and superficial improvements than functionality, accessories that fail after only months of use…and overall, a company more focused on creating a “lifestyle” than making things that actually work. I don’t have the vocabulary to express how utterly awful Apple has become. If I wasn’t so irretrievably entrenched in it I’d jump ship to another platform. Apple, you are just a terrible, terrible company. Here’s a tip: I don’t need a phone made of titanium or moon dust or whatever, I don’t need 14 different voices for Siri. I don’t need Apple making TV shows. I just need devices and apps that work. Period.
Ellianawynab
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