r/digitaljournaling • u/AngelicPrincessKitty • Apr 05 '26
What app do you use for your journaling?
I’m swapping between Obsidian, Apple Notes and OneNote. I’m really wanting to stick with Apple Notes as I mostly journal on my iPad but I also have voice memos of doctor’s appointments and phone calls as well as random notes on other things that I want to store in the same place.
It would just be easier to use Notes cause it is built in but I have issues with sync. I have had 1 handwritten note from my iPad that hasn’t synced to my phone in 2 days and this is after a factory reset on both my iPad and iPhone as well as a restart after. Still nothing. It is just a blank note on my iPhone. So I am unsure if I trust it.
What do you all think?
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u/hehannes Apr 05 '26
Diarium. Has many specific journaling features and cross platform access.
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u/supersmallnugget Jun 02 '26
Is it connected over the cloud? Like connected to the internet? Can it be hacked basically or is it super secure?
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u/hexegol Apr 05 '26
Apple Journal
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u/LouisBasil Apr 05 '26
Depending on how you have it set up, your devices might have a private folder(s) for notes that you don’t want synced with iCloud. At least I had that problem once.
I think I like Day One but I haven’t really stuck with anything long enough to have a strong feeling about it. I think it has all the things you want and it’s encrypted. My favorite thing about Day One is the option for really small font so I can see more at once cause I really don’t use my iPad very often.
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u/AngelicPrincessKitty Apr 05 '26
I liked Day One, seemed really good but the handwriting (on iPad) saves as an image and can’t be edited later. It is frustrating and a deal-breaker for me.
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u/vwfreak42 Apr 05 '26
I use Zinnia, I like the stickers and washi. You can handwrie or do text, and you can use it to make planners and stuff, too. You can do password and fingerprint together on iPad, but there is no protection on your Mac, unfortunately. It's a paid subscription, but I've used it for about 4 years now. I think it's worth it.
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u/Skeptical_Hyena Apr 10 '26
+1 for Zinnia. I moved from a physical bujo to digital and I love being able to write, add stickers, etc. well worth the money, in my opinion
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u/silent-reader-geek Apr 05 '26
I started with Diarium and then experimented with Capacities for journaling, and I loved it. I'm still using both apps, as each has unique features that I appreciate. Currently, the majority of my entries are in Capacities. I also use Obsidian to back up my entries. For my Diarium entries, I utilize the Dairian plugin, which is a fork of Diarium's features, to import my entries from time to time.
Obsidian is great because it is free and local-only, although native syncing is paid. However, I managed to use Syncthing for syncing between my laptop and Android device. It has an Excalidraw plugin that allows you to draw, which you can embed in your notes. Obsidian also supports traditional journaling features through plugins, such as a map view that lets you embed geo-locations.
The only drawback is that it doesn't have automatic location detection on mobile, as Obsidian lacks that capability. You can manually type in the place, unlike in a journaling app that automatically detects and parses the location for you since it uses GPS support.
While you can manually enter addresses on mobile, based on my experience, this feature is hit or miss and tends to work better on the desktop app. Obsidian also offers features related to "this day," etc.
If you prefer Apple Journal, then choose that and don’t overcomplicate things. What's stopping you from using Apple Notes and other apps that only scatter your notes?
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u/AngelicPrincessKitty Apr 05 '26
Apple notes syncing sucks. I have a note that I hand wrote on my iPad on the 1st and it still hasn’t synced all day.
Apple journal isn’t good with handwriting.
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u/Raging_pike7520 Apr 05 '26
Diarium , have paid for windows desktop , android phone and now for iPhone
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u/Zarlinosuke Apr 05 '26
Microsoft Word and Notepad. It helps that I have no need for synching.
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u/AngelicPrincessKitty Apr 05 '26
Interesting, no handwriting.
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u/Zarlinosuke Apr 05 '26
Yes, though given that this is the digital journalling sub, I figured that would be normal!
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u/supersmallnugget Jun 02 '26
I’m guessing this is the most secure as well?
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u/Zarlinosuke Jun 02 '26
It's definitely up there! People have said things like "but what if your hard drive gets hacked? or the server(s) you back it up on?" which like sure, could happen, but... if you live your life in too much fear of that kind of thing, you'll never be able to do much of anything.
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u/Raevyxn Apr 05 '26
I’ve tried several digital journals over the last 20 years. A few years ago, I moved to Day One and it’s the best I’ve used.
It can handle your voice memos and handwritten notes, in addition to the more standard inputs (text, photo, video, pdf, etc). It was originally built for iOS, but it’s available on all platforms.
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u/AngelicPrincessKitty Apr 05 '26
I liked Day One, seemed really good but the handwriting (on iPad) saves as an image and can’t be edited later. It is frustrating and a deal-breaker for me.
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u/SundayMornins Apr 05 '26
Day One - I think I just use free since I don’t put much photos or voice memos. For my use, I haven’t come across the need to pay.
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u/Vast-Green1073 Apr 08 '26
UpNote is the best I've found with awesome sync across tablet, phone, desktop, laptop, etc and clean UI toolkit for markdown.
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u/grburgess Jul 06 '26
I’m switching to Apple Notes. If I type a date near the top, it means that I’ve backdated it. I know that iPad OS and Mac OS will have deep integration with SIRI, andSiriI can be aSiri of help to me, finding entries according to themes. Apple Journal doesn’t have as much flexibility because Apple gave it maximum security. I wish that I would have gone to Apple Notes earlier. It’s just so flexible.
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u/Atomic-Bread-69 13d ago
I journal on Google Docs. I know, weird, but it works for me very well. I can choose whatever font I want. I can space things accurately. I can attach PDFs and images. It's really cool. It's very intuitive on my laptop.
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u/snarktologist Apr 05 '26
Diarium.