Apple's new journaling app was quite exciting when I first heard about it. As someone who has tried various journaling tools over the years (Day One, Notion, Obsidian..etc)— I was eager to see how Apple’s offering would compare. I currently use Notion and wanted to know if the Apple's journaling app might make me want to switch. After using it for a week, here's a detailed review of the app, highlighting its strengths, areas for improvement, and my personal experiences.

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Apple Journal app: First few days & impressions

Having been used to journaling on Notion, it wasn't hard for me to get started on the first day. The main feature that made the Apple Journal app different from Notion was it's ability to pull in different activities from your phone as inspiration and prompts for your journal entries. Is this feature important enough for me to switch from Notion? More on this later.

When first opening the Apple Journal app, I was impressed by the clean and intuitive design. The home screen displays recent entries and a “New Entry” button, making it easy to start journaling right away. The interface is minimalistic yet elegant, embodying Apple’s signature aesthetic. The use of simple icons and clear labels ensured that even those new to journaling will find the app easy to navigate.

Activity integrations helpful but concerning

One of the standout features of the Journal app is its integration with the broader iOS ecosystem. The app can pull in recent photos, music, and activities from other Apple apps via iCloud, and this made it quite seamless for me to start writing about a moment I had already captured. For instance, during a recent day trip to the beach, I was able to seamlessly integrate my photos and videos of the trip into a journal entry. Actually it made writing about my day much easier because I was able to easily reference and reflect on the various moments in the photos and videos.

This integration extends to the use of smart prompts and reminders. The app suggests topics based on recent activities, which can be a great help on days when I’m struggling with writer’s block. One prompt suggested reflecting on a recent workout session, which led to a meaningful entry about personal growth and discipline.

You may have guessed that the biggest concern with all these integrations is privacy. Though apple notes that entries are securely encrypted and has Face ID or Touch ID for locking your content—just the fact that apple now owns all this data including my deep inner-most thoughts was a bit nerve-wracking. They do offer controls to turn on/off some of these features but just the fact that Apple is exposing my data in different places gives me some hesitation.

Use Cases and Personal Experiences

During my 7 day use of the app, I found that I used the activity integration features for 1-2 days mainly to just try it. Though I do take a good number of photos (mainly of my son) and listen to Apple Music, travel ..etc. I found that adding the media to my journal entries didn't always match with what was on my mind that I wanted to write about. Here are a few more use cases I found ot be helpful:

1. Daily Reflections and reminders: I’ve been using the app to jot down daily reflections. The simplicity of the interface encouraged me to write regularly, capturing fleeting thoughts and emotions easily. And the reminder feature worked as expected with ability to set times and days of week to remind you to write in your entry. I wish it the notifications were more personalized though as I found myself ignoring it over the course of the week.
2. Travel Journals: On a recent trip to the mountains, I used the app to document my journey. Adding photos and locations made the entries more vivid, and the smart prompts helped me reflect on my experiences in a structured way.
3. Wellness and Mental Health Tracking: Though the Journal app integrates with Apple Health, I didn't find it that useful as writing about my steps or heartrate felt too technical. I did appreciate seeing the data surface on the app. I wish though it had better features for mood tracking and more detailed prompts for writing about my mental states and mindset. Maybe a chatGPT integration with the rumored OpenAI and Apple partnership could make this much better.

Limitations and Areas for Improvement

While the Journal app offers many benefits, there are some notable limitations:

1. Platform Restriction: Currently, the app is only available on iPhone, which is a significant drawback for users who prefer journaling on an iPad or Mac. This limitation reduces the app’s versatility and accessibility.
2. Basic Features: Compared to more advanced note taking and journaling apps like Day One and Notion, Apple’s Journal app lacks advanced features such as tagging, searching, and text formatting. These limitations made me feel like just using the Apple Notes app instead.
3. Photo Limitation: Users can only add up to 13 photos per entry, which felt weird and an unnecessary limit.
4. No Cross-Platform Support: The inability to access entries on non-Apple devices AND not web accessible on desktop was a significant limitation. I tend to write more on my laptop and although I could run the mobile app on my Macbook I just would rather have a desktop app or web friendly version that makes it easy for me to type.
5. No text formatting: The app does not support manual insertion of links or advanced text formatting, which was a big negative.

Will I switch to the journal app from Notion?

Apple’s Journal app is a promising tool that excels in making journaling accessible by integrating seamlessly with your iOS activities. Its simple design and smart features make it a great choice for casual journaling. However, I found the interface and lack of customizations with text formatting, limited cross-platform support and lack of tagging to not outweigh the activity integration features of the app. I will likely not switch my journaling from Notion to Apple Journal app for these reasons.

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