{"id":41441,"date":"2023-12-12T14:45:38","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T19:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=41441"},"modified":"2024-09-02T15:56:13","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T19:56:13","slug":"apple-launches-journal-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/12\/apple-launches-journal-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Launches Journal App"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Journal, a new iPhone app available today, helps users reflect and practice gratitude through journaling, which has been shown to improve wellbeing. With Journal, users can capture and write about everyday moments and special events in their lives, and include photos, videos, audio recordings, locations, and more to create rich memories. On-device machine learning provides private, personalized suggestions to inspire journal entries, and customizable notifications help users develop their writing habits. With the new Journaling Suggestions API, third-party journaling apps can also suggest moments for users to write about. Journal and the Journaling Suggestions API are available with the release of iOS 17.2.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Stephen Hackett<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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There’s no iPad or Mac version yet, which some may find frustrating. However, given all the suggested content stuff that the app is doing, Apple may not be ready to ship it on more than one device.<\/p>\n

The version that is out now for the iPhone is very basic, without any import or export functionality[…]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I don’t think any app should ship without export functionality.<\/p>\n\n

Dan Moren<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Though Apple may have great hopes for its new Journal app, I think it unlikely that it will transform the average person into an avid journal-keeper if they aren’t already. And, frankly, if they already are, I’m not sure Apple’s Journal app is going to sway those folks from their current journal of choice.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

But to set itself apart, Apple is applying the secret sauce—the fact that it is the platform owner and can leverage data that no third-party developer would ever have access to.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

As I looked back over the entries that I’d made, I came to the conclusion that Apple has kind of done this feature already—and arguably better—in the Photos app. Journaling Suggestions seem to use the same algorithm that Photo’s Memories do, looking at pictures and videos taken within a certain time period or at a certain location, and grouping them together with a theme. (And, indeed, Memories are even surfaced within the app’s suggestions at times.) But Photos does this automatically<\/em>, presenting memories as a fait accompli for you to revisit, rather than waiting for users to actively go in and manually create them.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

In the end, Journal feels a bit like Apple applied its trademark fixation on privacy to social networking: it’s a social network of one person, for one person.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

I will continue to use BBEdit.<\/p>\n\n

Ryan Jones<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Sadly, @FlightyApp will not add your travel to Apple Journal.<\/p>

The API is only for reading suggestions from Journal. 😔<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n