Apple is planning a new journal app in iOS 17 with deep iPhone integration

Image: Foundry

After a flurry of details about iOS 17 leaked last week, a new report claims Apple is working on a brand-new app for the next iPhone operating system: a journaling app. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Day One competitor “is designed to help users keep track of their daily lives.”

The report claims the new app, codenamed Jurassic, will “let users compile their daily activities as part of its efforts in the market for mental and physical health technology.” The app will offer much tighter integration with the rest of Apple’s apps, with the ability to analyze behavior to determine what a typical day is like, including health, location, text messages, phone calls, calendar events, and “whether a certain day included something outside the norm,” according to the report.

That would give the app a major advantage over current journaling apps, which are restricted from accessing certain parts of the phone. The Journal says the app “is set to work with all iPhone hardware that comes with Apple’s coming operating system, iOS 17.” It’s unclear whether there will be a Mac component like the Freeform app that launched in iOS 16.2 and macOS 13.1.

Journaling apps have long been a staple for iPhone users, with Penzu, Day One, 1SE, and other popular apps garnering millions of downloads. Apple’s push into the journaling space is sure to rankle app makers, who often accuse Apple of “Sherlocking” popular app categories. The term was popularized after Apple released its own Sherlock 3 search app to compete with the similar Watson app in Mac OS X.

Some journaling apps charge subscriptions for extra features. For example, Day One charges $35 a year to remove limits on journals, photos, videos, and other features.

WWDC will kick off on Monday, June 5 with a keynote presentation to unveil the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and more, including the anticipated launch of its new AR headset. It’s not clear from the report whether this new journaling app will be a feature of the headset.