Is Apple's iOS 17.2 Beta Journal App the New Day One?

With the latest beta of iOS 17.2, Apple unveiled its much-anticipated Journal app, which they had teased in prior announcements about iOS 17. This nifty app is designed to gather diverse data snippets from your day, courtesy of any apps that play nice with Journal. After that, it's all about crafting your journal entry, embedding data points like photos, locations, and more.

Now, I'm not here to review the Journal app. Instead, I'm sharing what I'm hoping this app will mean for users like me. The real charm of an Apple-made app is its deep-rooted integration with the iOS. Apps bundled with the OS have the golden ticket – access to private APIs. They're primed to mesh seamlessly with other apps on your device. It's a vibe we've seen with the Photos and Notes apps – the Journal app will likely have the same capability to harness information from other apps, enriching your journal entries.

Previously, I've played around with IFTTT, Automate, and the Shortcuts app to feed data into DayOne, my goal was to consolidate data I've shared online – be it on my personal website, Instagram, Twitter, or other platforms – into a unified daily snapshot. In this beta it looks like there are no Journal shortcut actions just yet, sad they didn’t start off with them.

I'm crossing my fingers that the Journal app will let me do exactly that – and more. It's about tracking my day-to-day, reflecting on my week, and having a dedicated space to pen down thoughts, just as you would in a traditional journal. I've been a fan of Day One, but if Apple can offer a similar experience deeply intertwined with the iOS ecosystem, then other offerings like Day One or Simplenote (props to WordPress's Automattic for these!) might take a backseat for me. It’s early days but with Journal, I could have all my desired data bundled into my Journal entries!

Other websites covering the Journal app on this first day in this beta and some highlights I found from them:

How to use the new Journal in iOS 17.2 and where it needs work - Apple Insider

There's no adding to Journal through Siri, for instance. At present, if you try any combination of phrases to do with adding a journal entry, Siri creates an appointment in your calendar instead.

You can't use a widget to enter a Journal post. And there's no Shortcut action for it, so there's no way to have the Action button start a new entry.

There's no Control Center button for it, either. Nor is there a Messages app for Journal.

Apple's Journal app explored: Dear Diary - PhoneArena

Apple Journal: Issues and how to fix them

Of course, the app is still in beta, so it's normal to expect issues and bugs. One of the more common bugs, which me and multiple users seem to have experienced, is the lack of journaling suggestions when starting Journal for the first time.

As usual, when you have a problem and go on the online, there's a pretty high chance you might discover a fix pretty quickly. One suggested fix for the issue is to go into "Settings -> Journal -> Journaling suggestions -> Suggestion privacy settings -> Clear history", and then relaunch the Journal app, which should repair one of the app's base functions. It didn't do it for me, but it's worth checking out if it would fix your issues.

iOS 17 Journal App: All You Need to Know

Journaling Schedule
Journaling is something that needs consistency, but it is easy to forget about penning down certain entries in our busy lives. To help you with this, you can set a schedule for the start or end of your day to help make journaling a consistent practice.