Journal, revealed during the WWDC 2023 keynote, is one of several new iOS 17 features that gives users a new way of capturing and appreciating special moments in life. Introduced by Adeeti Ullal, Apple Senior Manager, Sensing and Connectivity, Journal is designed to help iPhone users reflect and practice gratitude, which has been shown to improve wellbeing.
We often hear about how much people love watching memory movies created from their photos, so we wanted to create a new way to help people not only remember but also write about their experiences, inspired by rich details from their day, including people, places, activity and even music, in addition to photos.
Adeeti Ullal
Using on-device machine learning Journal will provide personalized suggestions to inspire a user’s journal entry. These suggestions will be curated from recent activities and include images, workouts, and locations. The app is built for privacy, being lockable, end-to-end encrypted and uses on-device processing to ensure no one, not even Apple, can access a user’s entries.
Apple has also added a Suggestions API so developers can have suggestions appear in the Journal app from their apps. These suggestions from first and third-party apps, along with timed prompts to write in your Journal, are designed to help users journal consistently.
Apple says that the Journal app will be available “later this year,” which suggests the app won’t be available when iOS 17 initially launches in the fall, alongside the iPhone 15 lineup. Developers can download iOS 17 Developer Beta 1 from developer.apple.com today.
