A new report says that one of the new features being introduced as part of iOS 17 is an Apple journaling app, along the lines of the popular Day One app (shown above).
The new app will be one of the stock apps pre-installed on all new iPhones, and will reportedly be able to automatically track your location and read data from other Apple apps …
What is journaling?
Journaling is the practice of daily writing about your thoughts, feelings, decisions, and more.
Some people write free-form, simply writing whatever comes to mind without censorship or structure. Others find it helpful to answer specific questions, or respond to prompts. Examples might include:
- What are you struggling with?
- What are you grateful for?
- What’s something you’d like to achieve today?
- What’s a short-term goal you have?
- What’s a long-term goal you have?
- What action(s) can you take today to work toward these goals?
Benefits of journaling
Medical site WebMD says studies show that journaling can help in many ways:
- Reduce anxiety
- Reduce unhelpful obsessive thought cycles (aka brooding)
- Increase self-awareness
- Better regulate emotions
- Help people to see when they need to reach out for support
Studies have even shown positive impacts on physical health.
A study on 49 adults in New Zealand found that those who wrote for 20 minutes about their feelings on upsetting events healed faster after a biopsy than those who wrote about daily activities. Similarly, college students who wrote about stressful events were less likely to get sick compared to those who wrote about neutral topics like their room.
Apple journaling app
The WSJ cites internal Apple documents describing a journaling app code-named Jurassic.
Apple is planning an iPhone app to let users compile their daily activities as part of its efforts in the market for mental and physical health technology, according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The software will compete in a category of so-called journaling apps, such as Day One, which lets users track and record their activities and thoughts. The new Apple product underscores the company’s growing interest in mental health.
Top comment by JimRobrot
I hope it is both iOS and macOS and synchronized via iCloud. I would be much more inclined to do my entires on my laptop.
The app is said to capture data from other Apple apps, but to do so in a privacy-respecting way.
The app is expected to offer “All Day People Discovery” to detect a user’s physical proximity to other people, and Apple will seek to distinguish between friends outside work and colleagues […]
In the documents, Apple said privacy and security will be central to the software’s design. The analysis of the user’s day will take place on-device, according to the documents. On-device data are generally not transmitted or shared.
Apple of course already has several apps intended to boost both physical and mental wellbeing: Health, Activity, and Mindfulness.
Day One app founder says it is being Sherlocked
Paul Mayne, founder of the Day One app, says that his app is being Sherlocked – the name given to Apple taking the functionality of popular third-party apps and including it either in the operating system, or one of its own stock apps.
“It’s always the worst thing to have to hear that you’re about to be sherlocked,” said Mayne […] when the Journal informed him of the company’s plans.
Mayne said that after Apple gave the app a design award back in 2014, it subsequently provided a lot of visibility and support to Day One. However, he says, that ended in 2020, and he suspected then that the iPhone maker was building its own app.
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