With the debut of iOS 17.2 beta, users are now able to explore the capabilities of Apple’s newly announced Journal app, a platform dedicated to capturing and cherishing life’s moments. Apple positions this app as a groundbreaking tool for appreciating and preserving memories, all while maintaining a strong emphasis on user privacy.
Journal serves as a private space for users to document and reflect on significant events, daily activities, and everything in between. It allows for rich entries, complemented by photos, music, audio recordings, and more. Users can highlight particular moments for future reflection, aiding in insight discovery and goal setting.
A distinctive feature of Journal is its ability to offer personalized suggestions for moments worth remembering and documenting. These suggestions are intricately generated based on a variety of data, including photos, location, music preferences, workout routines, and more, all processed through on-device machine learning. This ensures that users’ personal information remains confidential.
Emphasizing security, the Journal app is fully encrypted from end to end, and users can opt to secure their journal with Face ID or Touch ID authentication.
Additional features of the Journal app include:
- Writing Prompts: Engaging prompts to kickstart reflection on various experiences
- Save to Journal: An option to save suggested moments for future journaling
- Find and Filter: Tools to browse through and filter past entries based on specific criteria
- Bookmark Entries: A feature to easily bookmark and revisit certain journal entries
- Filter Entries: The ability to filter past entries by content type such as photos, videos, places, or bookmarked websites
- Share Sheet: A seamless way to incorporate music, podcasts, and thoughts on books, websites, or news articles into journal entries
- Notifications: Alerts for new journaling suggestions
- Journaling Schedule: An option to set a routine schedule to encourage consistent journaling practices
The Journal app is available for developer beta testing starting today, and will soon be accessible to the public through a beta release, followed by a general release later in the year.
Complementing the Journal app, iOS 17.2 also introduces the Journaling Suggestions API, allowing third-party journaling applications to leverage the same smart suggestions utilized by Apple’s Journal app. This API showcases a visual picker interface, presenting personal moments based on user activities, interactions, and preferences. However, only suggestions approved by the user will be shared with third-party apps.
Adoption of this API is necessary for third-party developers that are looking to integrate these features into their apps.