Apple’s iOS 17.2 update comes with the much-anticipated Journal app, initially teased in June.
Monday’s (Dec.11) release comes after last month’s announcement that major development is on pause while the company ensures products meet its exacting quality standards.
Journal is designed to help “users reflect and practice gratitude through journaling, which has been shown to improve wellbeing,” according to Apple’s press release.
The app allows users to easily capture information in a variety of formats, from simple text to images, videos, voice notes, and even data such as workouts and songs from other apps. Journal has been created to make it easy for users to embed whatever moments they want to remember.
“We are excited to bring the benefits of journaling to more people,” said Bob Borchers, the company’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
He continued: “Journal makes it easy to preserve rich and powerful memories, and practice gratitude by intelligently curating information that is personal to the user, right from their iPhone.”
Journal’s API and security focus in iOS 17.2
In an interesting move that other journaling-focused apps have welcomed, the world’s most valuable company has released an API that developers can use to integrate the machine-learning suggestions from Journal into their apps. Paul Mayne founded Day One, a popular journaling app, in 2011.
He said, “We have integrated the Journaling Suggestions API into the Day One app to give our users an even richer experience that puts privacy at the forefront, and we can’t wait for them to try it.”
Speaking to TechCrunch, he said “Rather than seeing this as competition, we embrace Apple’s entry into digital journaling as a testament to its growing importance. This evolution is not just beneficial for Day One, but also for our valued users.”
As well as releasing the API, Apple has focused on the security of Journal users’ data. When your iPhone is locked, Journal entries are encrypted. You can add a layer of security by locking the app with a code, FaceID, or TouchID, so even if someone else has access to your phone they can’t read your Journal. Entries are also end-to-end encrypted when stored in iCloud. This should be no surprise as Apple has long been dedicated to user privacy, but it is reassuring nonetheless.
Featured image credit: Apple
