What is Journal for iPhone in iOS 17?

Apple has revealed iOS 17 at WWDC 2023 and while it might not be the most groundbreaking update ever, it has a few tricks up its sleeve. 

Alongside features like Live Voicemail and updated autocorrect functionality that should stop those annoying corrections, Apple revealed Journal, a new app for iPhone that helps you be present in the moment and savour those little moments throughout the day.

Here’s all you need to know about Journal, the new app coming to iPhone later this year as part of iOS 17.

What is Journal for iPhone? 

Journal is an app that, as the name suggests, aims to become your digital diary with all your memories, goals, affirmations and anything else you want to scribble about at the beginning or the end of the day.

The app, in its simplest form, allows you to add text, images, music and more to daily journal entries. This allows you to not only preserve specific events or memories in your life, but the ability to practise gratitude and daily affirmations, two ways to help maintain good mental health.

It’ll also provide a range of recommendations for journal entries based on what you’ve been up to, be it a recent trip to the beach with the family or something simple like a morning run. It’ll also list recent connections, map locations and more, making it easy to incorporate them into your journal entries.

The app will try to get the most out of your text entries by asking specific prompts about your day, be it questions about a trip you’ve been on recently or something else. This allows you to add more information and, thus, a more complete memory to read back on at a later time. 

If you’re anything like us and forget to journal, you’ve also got the option of setting app alerts either at the beginning or end of the day to help you document what is going on in your daily life. 

Of course, being an Apple service, privacy is important, and Apple claims that the Journal app – and its contents – are designed to be kept private. That includes features like on-device processing, end-to-end encryption and even the ability to password-protect the app from prying eyes. 

When will Journal for iPhone be available to download?

As confirmed by Apple at WWDC 2023, Journal will be available on iPhones with iOS 17 later this year – more than likely in September, if previous iOS releases are anything to go by. 

However, it seems that the Journal app might miss the initial iOS 17 rollout with the Journal page on the Apple website simply promising that it’ll arrive later this year.

It’s worth noting that the Freeform app for iPadOS 16 didn’t ship until December 2022, three months after the release of iPadOS 16, so we could be looking at a similar timeline here.

We’ll update this section if/when we hear anything concrete from Apple about the Journal app release date.

Are there any alternatives to Journal available to download now?

You probably won’t be that surprised to know that among the 1.6 million apps available on the App Store, there are plenty of journaling apps available. 

The functionality and price depend on the app in question, but if you simply can’t wait until later this year to try the Journal app yourself, you could always check out the likes of Day One Journal and Moodnotes, with the former being one of the most popular journaling apps around – until Journal comes out and steals its thunder, that is.