According to the latest patent US20240264719, Apple is working on drastically improving its relatively new Journal app. As with most of Apple’s products, apps, and features, the Journal app will be integrated with Apple Intelligence, which will open up all sorts of new possibilities.
Apple released the Journal app with iOS 17 last year and was met with mixed reactions from users. While some praised its simplicity, others criticized the lack of options and the app’s absence in iPadOS. However, it seems Apple is addressing these criticisms, as the new patent promises a number of significant improvements.
The first part of the document highlights some features of the Journal app that are already available, such as adding photos to journal entries and answering common questions from within the app. However, the second part introduces some innovative features that are likely to be powered by Apple intelligence.
First, we may receive push notifications asking us if we want to add certain events or activities to the Journal. For example, the Photos app may detect that you took an unusually large number of photos in a certain location and send a signal to the Journal app to suggest creating an entry for that activity.
Next, the document reveals a new entry structure. It appears that users will be able to create timeline-like entries by inserting multiple images and other media between blocks of text, rather than just using images as entry overlay as before.
Users can also generate prompts for their journal entries, so if you aren’t sure what to write about today, you can ask the AI to ask you relevant questions, such as “How was your run?” or “How was the food at this restaurant?”
The document also shows what looks like a journal widget that can be placed on your home screen. I believe this will serve more as a shortcut to creating entries, rather than displaying existing entries and reminders, for privacy reasons.
Although it was not explicitly mentioned in the document, some of the images appear to depict a tablet, suggesting that the Journal app could soon be available on iPads as well as.
We don’t know when (or if) Apple will release all of the improvements to the Journal app, but it’s safe to assume they’re coming soon and will become another part of the overall Apple Intelligence ecosystem.
