Journal 4+

I've been a professional writer all my life (novels and screenplays) but I've never been able to get into journaling, nor particularly wanted to. But I live by my iPhone (if it could be implanted in my head, I'd be happy) and Apple's own native Journal app is a thing of simplicity and pleasure.

You can very easily capture any thought or memory or reflection you like, including adding photographs and even music tracks. If, like me, you're a news junkie (I used to be a journalist), you can very simply post stories from your favorite online news sources and you don't even need to comment - you can just have them there as a record of our times.

There's a bookmark you can add to more personal posts, to make them easier to find, and while I'd like new ways of navigating all the posts you've written to be added in the future, this app is beautiful in its simplicity. Its true value won’t become apparent until later, when you have years' worth of recollections to look through, but the act of journaling is therapeutic and it's like a more private form of social media: you can vent, but only you see it! I would highly recommend trying this.

I really do enjoy writing in this, it just has a few issues that may not apply to most users, but it does for me. So, I am aspiring to be a writer, and I thought it would be cool to try using this app. It’s super cool and really good, just has a few issues that I’m willing to overlook but would really love to see these differences: 1, I like it when you tap the writings, it extends, but it only does that for smaller amounts of writings; I’d like it if it did that for larger ones too. 2, I’d love it if the pictures that I can submit, I’d love to edit which part of the picture is used, and where it is submitted. I think it’s cool and looks like a book cover, but most of the time, I have the perfect picture but it only shows part of it, and it doesn’t work. 3, (last one) I don’t think this app lets me change my words’ font, and I think it’d be cool if I could customize that sort of thing, like background or font and stuff. BTW, number three is not super important, just my small requests. But I really do love this app, I’m not much of a person who likes to document my day or think about it, I like to be more creative and fun with what I write. So, anyway, hope that if you get this app, you enjoy it. I think it’s super cool, again, just those small requests that would def brighten up my day. *looks up at all that I wrote* Dang, I talk a lot…

I found this app one random morning while the sun had yet to come up. I’ve been randomly using it for basic things like dream journaling, checking in with feelings, and some random ideas here and there. Pros: I love that I can add pictures. Write long entries. No pop up adds. Private suggestions to write about. Reflection questions to think about and write. And copy and paste to words with not so much of an issue. Cons: There’s no fonts to chose from. The list of entries goes from latest to earliest and only gives you options to pick up from “all entries” or “pictures” only. This app is not available on IPad.

Suggestion to developer: More fonts. Create Folders for entries. Make it available for IPad.

Overall for a free app, it’s basic and smooth and it’s yet to crash on me and I write volumes. It is totally worth the hype for creating entries without the complication of other apps, just simple and basic font with the ability to add a picture if that’s what anybody else wants. If it were available on IPad this would be my go to app for doing basic planning, ideas, journaling and dream journaling.