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Apple has finally unveiled its own Journal in iOS 17.2 Developer Beta 1, showing us what the memorabilic record application looks like.
The Cupertino giant announced the app at WWDC in June, explaining that it will be a dedicated journal place for users. Currently, iOS users are still relying on third-party journaling applications to chronicle their day-to-day experiences and activities. Others make do with the basic features of the Notes app, which may not be entirely equipped to assist users in crafting comprehensive entries. Recognizing this, Apple has decided to create the Journal app.
Although the app’s concept may seem simple, Apple has distinguished Journal from its competitors through a unique feature. According to Apple, the app will utilize on-device machine learning to provide insightful prompts for journal entries. By analyzing various data points stored on your device, such as music preferences and geographic locations, Journal can intelligently suggest interesting topics for your journaling activities. For example, if you use your iPhone during a travel adventure, the Journal might suggest incorporating this experience into your journal entry. However, it’s important to note that users have full control over these suggestions and can choose which contextual cues to include in their journals.
Moreover, despite the Journal using device data to generate prompts, the data remains strictly on your device and does not leave its confines. As mentioned earlier, all suggestions are generated through on-device processing. Additionally, the data in Journal is protected with end-to-end encryption, and users can enhance the app’s security with a locking feature.
Furthermore, the Journal will include a notification feature to remind users of their daily journaling sessions. Users can also customize this functionality by setting their own notification schedules.
On the other hand, alongside the Journal app, Apple is bringing the Journaling Suggestions API for app developers, allowing them to use the same journaling suggestions in their third-party journal applications. As per Apple:
Journaling Suggestions provides a visual picker interface for iPhone apps. The picker displays personal Moments that occur in someone’s life, such as their workouts and exercise, places they visit, a trip they take, a person they connect with, their photo memory highlights, Photos in their library, a song or podcast they listen to.
Only suggestions explicitly added by the user will be shared with an app. If your app donates activities or interactions to SiriKit or CallKit or if someone authorizes your app to save data to HealthKit, some data might show up as part of Journaling Suggestions.
