My private journaling habit came to a screeching stop. Months ago, I had begun switching to Apple Notes (again) and faced a daunting migration from the Day One journal. Then I rethought everything. Now I’ve been trying the Apple Journal app for the first time (finally).
Journal Upgraded
I tried version one for a few days on iOS 17 and got a good taste of its bare-bones functionality, which showcased the moment suggestion feature (more on that in a future post). But now that I’m using the new version on iOS 18, it’s suddenly about as full-featured as I’d ever want. It adds cool things like a Streaks widget, a Prompt widget, Search, Text Formatting, Moods, and a Calendar view.
The Moods feature is particularly interesting. It not only records how you’re feeling but also includes certain emotive words to help pinpoint why. On top of that, it also records your mood to the Apple Health app (in State of Mind) for overall mental health tracking. Nice.
I also really like the general format of entries in Journal. They’re like social microposts in a scrolling list. Each one is boxed in its own text field. The format encourages multiple short or concise entries a day, if you like. Instead of what I used to do in other apps, recording one long monolithic entry per day, each one in Journal can focus on a certain event, moment, feeling, or thought you had. And besides scrolling one long list of entries, you can view entries per day.
Given that entries are tailored to small “posts,” it makes sense that Journal is only on iPhone and not on the Mac or iPad. Adding a new entry on the phone is like texting or sharing to social media. You can pull out your phone in a moment, add a quick blurb of text, and boom — a new journal entry is made, quick and easy. It makes journaling very accessible.
The upgrades to Journal are great; they made it hard for me to resist switching to it full-time. And there’s One More Thing that turns what previously was a deal-breaker into a deal-maker.
Journal Mirroring
The coolest new thing (thanks to LJPUK for sharing) is that despite Apple Journal only being available as an iPhone app, you can now journal with it on the Mac after all! How? iPhone Mirroring!
With iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, you can mirror your whole iPhone and control it directly on your Mac. Just launch Journal and type away. It’s not as nice as a native Mac app of course, but it’s better than nothing, and it eliminates what was once a deal-breaker — the lack of Journal on either Mac or iPad.
So now I sometimes launch Journal on my MacBook Air via Mirroring and type with a full physical keyboard — hooray! It works well.
Maybe someday Apple will make Journal work on the Mac or iPad natively. Until then, I’m glad to have full access to the app on my Mac via Mirroring. It’s a good combo really: record life’s activities in the background just by using your iPhone normally, and at the end of the day, mirror Journal on the Mac, use suggested moments or reflections, then type your entry (there’s a handy reminder feature too).
Summary
I’ve tried many digital journals over the years (and even tried handwritten journaling on physical paper). I often returned to Notes on my Mac, iPad, and iPhone since I prefer Apple’s default apps. But now Apple Journal looks to be the definitive way (my best option) to record life’s moments, thoughts, and feelings.
As for my public journaling — Jason Journals. Of course.
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