HearTime vs Private Diary & Lock
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HearTime
This app provides spoken timers for workouts and daily tasks, allowing users to maintain pace without looking at their screen. It offers features like automatic counting with compatible headphones, customizable routines, and Siri integration for hands-free control.
- Spoken stopwatch and countdown timers
- Automatic jump rope and squat counting
- Multi-step routines with rest periods
- Nine offline synthetic voices
- Siri and App Shortcuts integration
- Lock Screen status with Live Activities
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Your workout. Timed by voice. HearTime is an interval workout timer with spoken cues. Set up your warm-up, exercise, rest and cooldown, then follow each step without repeatedly checking your phone. Use it for HIIT, Tabata, circuit training, bodyweight workouts at home and stretching—or a few minutes of movement at the office. Train at your own pace • Set count-up and countdown timers, preparation time and rests. • Combine steps into routines with repeating rounds and rests between groups. • Save your favorite presets and routines, ready to start again next time. Listen and focus on your workout • Choose announcement intervals, voices and speech speed, with optional beats. • Built-in voices play offline after installation. • Hear spoken cues in the background and control timing with Siri and Shortcuts. • Check your timer on the Lock Screen with Live Activities. See what you have practiced • Review daily sessions in the practice calendar, with weekly and monthly summaries. • Enable Apple Health recording to save completed workouts or breathing exercises in the Health app. More ways to practice • Add a reference video link to a routine. After switching to another app, check progress with the Picture in Picture floating timer. • Count jumps and squats automatically with compatible AirPods that support head tracking. • Follow spoken numbers for breathing practice, or add breathing exercises to a multi-step routine. Basic timing is free. Some advanced features require HearTime Pro, a one-time purchase with no subscription. No account required. No ads. Your presets, routines, practice records and settings are stored on your device by default. Optional anonymous usage analytics can be turned off in Settings.
Private Diary & Lock
This app provides a private digital journal experience where all entries are stored locally on your device. It offers daily prompts, voice-to-text input, photo attachments, and robust search capabilities. An optional upgrade unlocks advanced features like biometric lock, AI tidying, and PDF export.
- Daily writing prompts
- Voice-to-text input
- Photo and location attachments
- Local storage and iCloud backup
- Searchable journal entries
- Optional AI writing assistance
- PDF export
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Your personal diary, and nobody else’s. No account, no ads, and nothing leaves your phone unless you ask. Write about your day, add a photo, track your mood, and keep it all. PRIVATE, NOT MERELY ENCRYPTED • No account. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to sign in to. • No analytics, no trackers, no advertising inside the app. • Most diaries keep your writing on a server. This one has no server to keep it on. • A diary with a lock: Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode, with Scriptum Complete. WRITE IT YOUR WAY • A line or a thousand words, whatever the day needs. • Make it a photo diary: add a picture to remember the day by. • A simple mood tracker: tap one of five faces for how the day felt. • Note where you were, when that is part of it. • Missed a day? Open the calendar and write it whenever you like. • Light or dark paper, to suit the hour. • Stuck for words? A prompt is there if you want one. • A gentle reminder at the time you choose, which eases off instead of nagging when you have been away. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN • The widget shows the date and whether you have written today. • It never shows a word you wrote. That stays inside. FIND IT AGAIN YEARS LATER • Search everything you have ever written. • Every photo in your diary in one place, month by month, and every voice note too. • A calendar of the days you wrote, and the days you did not. • Open any date and read it exactly as you left it. AND STILL IMPOSSIBLE TO LOSE • A copy of your diary is kept in your own iCloud, so deleting the app does not take it with it. • Nothing is sent to us. The copy sits in your iCloud Drive, where you can see it. • Or save the whole diary, words and photographs, as one file only you hold. • Coming from Day One or Daylio? Bring your entries with you. ON IPHONE AND IPAD • On iPad your diary is laid out as a single sheet of paper, with room to write. • Each device keeps its own diary, and you can bring your iPhone’s pages across. SCRIPTUM COMPLETE An optional upgrade, for when the free diary is not enough. Try it free for a week. • Lock your diary behind Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode. • Speak instead of typing, and have a rambling entry tidied into something you will want to reread. • Keep voice notes on a page, and hear the day again in your own voice. • Up to ten photos on a page, arranged for you. • Every sticker pack, and ink to sketch over the paper. • Colour the whole app to suit you. • Turn your diary into a printable book, typeset page by page. Scriptum Complete is a monthly or yearly subscription. The yearly plan starts with a free week for new subscribers. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when the free week ends, or at purchase without one. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and can be managed or cancelled in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://annrstudio.com/scriptum/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://annrstudio.com/scriptum/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Private Diary & Lock at 3 against HearTime's 1. Private Diary & Lock also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. HearTime sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Private Diary & Lock sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for HearTime against 5.0 for Private Diary & Lock. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
HearTime ships an update every 4 days, Private Diary & Lock every 5 days. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.
| Parameter | HearTime | Private Diary & Lock |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 63 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 平 丁 | ANNR Studio |
Customer experience
HearTime
Private Diary & Lock
In-app purchases
HearTime
- 7-day TrialFree
- HearTime Pro Lifetime$14.99
Private Diary & Lock
- Monthly$2.991 Month
- Yearly7 Days trial$22.991 Year
- Lifetime$34.99
Questions
Is HearTime free?
Is Private Diary & Lock free?
Which has better reviews, HearTime or Private Diary & Lock?
Do HearTime or Private Diary & Lock have ads?
Which is updated more often, HearTime or Private Diary & Lock?
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