Introduced in iOS 17.2, the iPhone’s Journal app includes a feature called Discoverable by Others. This may sound disconcerting at first, but it’s not as worrisome as it seems. When Discoverable by Others is enabled, other iPhone users can discover your device via Bluetooth, increasing the relevance of journal suggestions for you and other users.
When iPhones are nearby, Journal can collect information about the number of contacts that may be nearby and prompt users to create a journal entry based on the situation. For example, you might get a writing prompt to reflect on your meeting with a friend with iPhone.
It’s important to remember that Apple has implemented strong privacy and security measures and recognizes that journal entries are personal and may contain sensitive information. (Your journal content stays on your device and Apple doesn’t even know what writing prompts are suggested. When you upload journal content to iCloud, everything is encrypted.)
However, not everyone wants to enable the Discoverable feature. Here’s why that’s the case and how to disable it.
Why might you want to turn off Discoverable by Others?
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Your name and location, or that of anyone else, will never be shared – all data is processed locally on your device. So why would you turn off Seen by Others when it’s such a harmless feature? There are two main reasons for this: first, if you don’t use Journal, you won’t need it. And second, it gives you full control over your privacy settings, making you feel more secure.
There are other ways to prevent your iPhone from being detected. For example, it’s always worth learning how to completely disable location tracking on iPhone. But for now, let’s focus on how to prevent the Journal app from detecting your iPhone.
1. Open the Settings app
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To disable the “Discoverable by others” feature, Start the Settings app And tap Privacy and Security.
2. Scroll down
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Then scroll down and about halfway, Tap Journaling Suggestions.
3. Disable discoverability
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You will see that “Discoverable by others” is enabled by default. To turn it off, simply Tap the switch next to “Discoverable by others.” (The button changes from green to gray.)
As you’ll see, this also disables another feature called “Prefer suggestions over others.” This means you won’t receive journal suggestions when you’re with your contacts or large groups.
And there you go. You now know how to stop the Journal app from recognizing your iPhone. Want more privacy tips? Then check out 7 important security measures you must take to protect yourself and your data. We also have information about a new privacy feature in iOS 18 that lets you lock and hide apps.
