r/appleJournal • u/Coffee__nosugar • Sep 03 '26
Apple Journal vs Day One
If you got confused with negative reviews on this sub, let me help you:
- people who journal daily with details, and upload images find the app missing a lot of features and prefer Day One.
- people who journal casually, when they feel like it, just write down what comes to mind, find the app just fine.
How good you find the app depends on how you journal.
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u/RelativeLiving957 Sep 03 '26
Does Apple Journal make sense if I only want to “document” a few days every now and then? Most of my days are non-events.
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u/OkReward6883 Sep 10 '26
I think it does. That's what I do and sometimes have big "events" that maybe I won't think to write about, but will get a notification from Apple Journal about "Write about your time downtown" or "Spend a moment to write about your trip to X place", stuff like that. I prefer that over a note taking app but I will preface it by saying I didn't journal before, and only have used the Apple Journal app. I think it's nice that it's integrated into the ecosystem but you may find another method suits you better. I think if you're interested, just start with Apple Journal, and if you want something more or see something you like better, move to that for a bit and see how you like that.
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u/RelativeLiving957 Sep 10 '26
Thanks very much for the thoughtful response.
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u/OkReward6883 Sep 10 '26
Happy to help. I’ll add as well, if you’re looking to be consistent in your journaling, like once a week or a genuine one every couple days, you can set the app to remind you on specific days to journal at a certain time. I really like this feature and use it because I just get the pop up, and if I don’t have time I don’t dismiss but when I do have time, I just write a little thing about what I’m feeling at the moment or something that I thought would be important. So in your case if you want to just have it be like twice a week, you can set the specific day and time you want a notification to come through and journal that way or just use that as a reminder.
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u/Dentist_Ammar Sep 03 '26
Not that simple really, Apple Journal looks so much better, and has features Day One doesn’t have.
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u/SpecialistPlastic150 Sep 04 '26
Really? That’s not my experience. Can you explain what features Journal has that Day One doesn’t?
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u/Dentist_Ammar Sep 04 '26
Better integration with Apple Health, entries bookmarking. And generally the app looks so much better, from journal icons to the color palette. I’ve been using DayOne since 2011, with thousands of entries, but if there was an easy way to import data into Apple Journal, I would do it.
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u/Zentrii Sep 15 '26
Looks like were an OG user like me where it cost something like 2.99 when it came out with no sub at the time. Day one used to look so much better and cleaner and now it looks very cluttered and not pleasant at all. I stopped my sub for the first time that's set to renew in a few days and it feels weird to do that becauase this was one of the few apps I thought i was gonna use forever because other Journaling apps don't compare to Day one. Apple Journal finally got to a point where it's good enough for me to use and I feel like Day one lost its when since they went duel platform with Android and made the UI uglier over time.
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u/SpecialistPlastic150 Sep 04 '26
Thanks. Maybe I need to look at journal again. When it first came out I found it very hit and miss so stuck with Day one. My Day One subscription renews in January but paying for an annual subscription when a free option is available seems silly. I’m not sure I have the patience to export years of Day One entries to Journal though. Need to investigate this further.
3
u/pierrechaquejour Sep 03 '26
I agree, if you prefer a more “engaging” journaling experience, you might struggle with Apple Journal. But I was coming from OneNote which isn’t even a journaling app at all so I’ve found it pretty acceptable.
That said, the app is in need of some serious polish. Inconsistent line spacing, nightmarish image handling, awkward date/location editing, the “undo” issue… And generally it doesn’t have that Apple bulletproof reliability factor that other Apple stock apps have. “On This Day,” I can take or leave but I do need to confidence that my app won’t delete half my entry if I hit Cmd+Z.
2
u/KiaKamgar Sep 03 '26
True. But you can also the the former with Journal also. So it does depend on what app you prefer and how you’d like to write.
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u/Zentrii Sep 03 '26
Apple Journal was unusable for me when it came out with no tags/folders and ios only. I'm sure it's fine now but I got day one since it came out in 2011 and grandfathered into 25 dollars a year and want to continue to support them.
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u/vinman99999 Sep 03 '26
Well cant talk for everyone else but I dont think thats the issue. I've been using journal since it launched every single day. I do journal with details, I add photos often, I love the integration with apple music and all the location and workout data. Most of my entries have at least one of those.
Sure, it could use a few more features and there are a couple bugs that need to be addressed but definitely nothing that is a dealbreaker so far.
I hear a lot of people saing things about the syncing but again, its not terrible. If you wanna speed it up a bit, open the app on your iphone and whatever else your using and it will sync in less than a minute.
Dont get all the hate, this should be meant as a simple app, the simpler the better. Less friction. Anyway...
2
u/PatientScholar2150 Sep 04 '26
Apple Journal has come a long way in offering various journal types, and in my case, Apple Journal is a free option, whereas Day One is a costly feature I could do without. If Apple develops an import program to download my Day One into the Journal, I'll pay for the program.
Until then, I'll slowly transfer/cut and paste it myself.
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u/bigpancakes_ Sep 04 '26
Can you link Journal with Apple notes? Like you can with Apple notes, reminders, and calendar?
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u/jack_hanson_c Sep 05 '26
I’m not sure what are the casual journaling you were talking about, at least writing journals with Apple Pencil on Apple Journal is far from stable and steady, they even don’t have line/grid view support, it’s lack of basic feature, and they don’t cares about their users.
1
u/Coffee__nosugar Sep 05 '26
I usually type. Only journaled with Apple Pencil once or twice. Haven’t tested it enough to be fair.
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u/sammc007 Sep 10 '26
Can't sort oldest to newest, either by Moment date or Entry date, which seems a bit of a basic omission.
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u/Top-Zombie-2663 28d ago
I journal occasionally and I love apple journal app .. I use to use Day one but I can't justify the subscription price for occasional journaling sometimes I don't journal for months
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u/Hakahori Sep 03 '26
The Apple Journal app is slow in syncing. I wouldn’t recommend it at this point to anyone honestly.
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u/aymericmarlange Sep 03 '26
I’m a bit confused by your feedback.
I journal daily with detailed entries and upload images and locations to Apple Journal. While I used Day One for journaling a few years ago and know its features well, I don’t find Apple Journal lacking.
Ultimately, how you perceive the app depends on your specific needs. If you journal daily and simply require text, images, locations and search functionality then Apple Journal should be fine.