Truly Simple Symptom Log vs Pebble

Truly Simple Symptom Log is built around a single conviction: health tracking should take seconds, not minutes. Most symptom trackers are overbuilt and cluttered with complicated graphs, gamification, mandatory onboarding, and subscriptions that make the act of recording how you feel a chore. This app strips all of that away. It features a calm, minimal, one-screen logging interface that feels closer to a personal journal than a medical tool. It’s perfect for people with chronic conditions, people exploring cause-and-effect with their health, or anyone who just wants a friction-free way to log their mood and symptoms and then move on with their day. There's an in-app purchase that allows you to lock the app and export your data, but all core features are available in the free version and can be used for free as long as you like. Features: • One-screen logging: Record your mood, symptoms, potential causes, and notes on a single page. No tabs or multi-step wizards. • Heatmap calendar: A color-coded monthly data view gives you an instant visual summary of how you've been feeling over time, so patterns become obvious at a glance. • Accessible by design: Enlarged, comfortable touch targets prevent mis-taps when you're not feeling well. Fully optimized for VoiceOver screen readers and scalable dynamic text for low vision. • iCloud Sync: Logs sync silently and automatically across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Status indicators let you know your data is secure at a glance. • Free core features: All core logging is completely free. A single one-time, lifetime purchase unlocks optional data exports and a biometric privacy lock.

Pebble is a hand-drawn symptom diary that takes thirty seconds a day. No cloud, no accounts, no streaks. Just enough to walk into your next appointment prepared. Three sliders for energy, pain, and mood. Tap a few symptoms. Close the app. That's the whole daily log. Then once a month — or before your next doctor's visit — Pebble prints a one-page brief. A short, plain-language summary your doctor can actually read. Not a 12-page spreadsheet. Not a scrollable chart dump. One page, sixty seconds. — Made for foggy days — Pebble is built for chronic illness, ADHD, and AuDHD. For people with fibromyalgia, POTS, EDS, migraine, IBS, endometriosis, long COVID, PMDD, ME/CFS — and anyone whose health doesn't fit neatly into "feeling well" or "feeling sick" boxes. If your brain can't track ten things at once. If filling out another form is the last thing you have energy for. If you've ever forgotten half your symptoms by the time you got to your appointment — this is for you. — What you log — • Mood, energy, and pain on simple sliders • Where the pain is — a small body diagram (front + back) you can tap to mark the spots • Your own symptoms, from a customizable list (no 2,000-symptom menus) • Medications — taken or skipped, no guilt either way • Cycle, if you track one • Flare-ups, on the days they happen • Short voice notes, transcribed on your phone • Sleep, steps, and resting heart rate from Apple Health (optional) — The doctor brief — The hero feature. Pebble reads your last 7, 14, or 30 days and writes: "Energy dropped sharply on Tuesday and stayed below baseline through Thursday. Pain peaked at 8/10 on Wednesday morning, correlated with poor sleep the night before. Brain fog was reported 4 of the last 7 days." A paragraph your doctor reads in sixty seconds. Print it. Email it. Screenshot it to your patient portal. Walk in prepared. — Nothing leaves your phone — Pebble has no accounts. No cloud sync. No analytics. No third-party trackers. Your symptom data is encrypted on your phone and never leaves it. Not by Pebble, not by anyone. Even your daily logs stay local. The only network calls Pebble ever makes: weather lookup, opt-in, city-level only, never precise GPS; and receipt validation for Premium purchases. That's the entire list. — No streaks, no guilt — Pebble has no streak counter. No "you missed yesterday" notifications. No gamification. Vacation mode for flare weeks lets you skip without losing anything. Streaks were the wrong shape for chronic illness from day one. — Premium — $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Unlocks unlimited briefs, intraday mood capture (Moments), a private backup file you control, and your voice notes folded into the brief. The free tier is fully usable forever — log every day, get one brief a week. — Who built this — I made Pebble for my wife. She came home from doctor visits frustrated they didn't believe how bad it was, and the other apps were too much. Pebble is the artifact she wished she had: small, calm, defensible. Insights provided by Pebble do not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor. Questions or feedback: pebble.symptom.app@gmail.com END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/