Apple has officially launched its Journal app with the release of iOS 17.2, the tech giant announced on Monday. The new app, which was first announced at WWDC in June, is designed to encourage users to reflect on everyday moments and log special events.
The app lets you capture these moments with text, photos, videos, audio recordings, locations and more. Journal also leverages AI to provide users with personalized suggestions for journal entries. For instance, the app may encourage you to write about new places that you have visited or songs that you have listened to. You can control the type of content that appears in the app’s Suggestions, Apple says.
Apple additionally announced that third-party journaling apps can now suggest moments for users to write about thanks to a new Journaling Suggestion API. In a press release, Apple noted that developers can use the new Journaling Suggestions API to add personalized journaling suggestions to their apps.
You can bring to the app different types of content, like a news article or podcast, in order to write about the topic. Journal also lets you browse past entries, bookmark them, or filter for things like images, places and more.
If you’re new to journaling and still trying to build out your journaling habit, you can turn on scheduled notifications to receive reminders about logging your everyday moments.
Apple says all Journal entries are end-to-end encrypted when stored in iCloud. If you want more protection, you can lock the Journal app with your device passcode, Face ID or Touch ID. Plus, Apple notes that journaling suggestions are created on device, and that users can choose which suggested moments are shared with the Journal app and added to their Journal entries.
“We are excited to bring the benefits of journaling to more people,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in the announcement. “Journal makes it easy to preserve rich and powerful memories, and practice gratitude by intelligently curating information that is personal to the user, right from their iPhone. And we’re making it possible for other journaling apps to offer the same personalized suggestions while maintaining the highest level of privacy,” he added.
iPhone users have long used certain apps for journaling, or even the Notes app, to log their daily experiences and memories. Now, the company has launched a dedicated space for users to do so.
Apple’s entry into the journaling space may upset app makers, who often accuse Apple of “sherlocking” popular app categories, which is a reference to the tech giant’s habit of lifting ideas from the wider app developer and partner community. It’s worth noting that Apple is currently under DoJ investigation for alleged anticompetitive behavior in the App Store and in other business practices.
Journal was released as part of a series of Apple software updates out today, which also included a redesigned Apple TV app, access to Health app data via Siri and support for recording Spatial Video on iPhone 15 Pro.
The refreshed Apple TV app sports a new sidebar for navigation and now serves as the home for buying and renting movies, as that functionality is deprecated from the iTunes Store app. A new “Home” section also features users’ subscribed channels and connected apps, along with other recommendations and collections, and even a “For You” feed.
Additional reporting: Sarah Perez
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