Day One v Apple Journal on iOS 18
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I have tried just about every journal app out there. Day One, Journey, Punkt, Moodistory, Daylio, Card Diary and Apple Journal to name a few.
My two favourites are Day One and Apple Journal.
I like the simplicity and intuitive nature of them both and I’ve been considering moving to Apple Journal. It’s baked into the OS, free and offers API suggestions including graphics of walks etc that Day One can’t handle despite it using the same API. (That’s being worked on apparently)
However I’m curious about the fact that Day One moved away from iCloud for storage due to sync reliability and data loss back when it was Day One Classic. Apple Journal is using that same storage so are we potentially going to see Apple Journal users lose data? One of the many benefits of Day One is that you can export your data for migration or backups. Apple Journal in iOS 18 will let us make PDF’s which is good but I don’t know if that is as a batch or day by day. There’s also no mention of a data backup option.
So I’m curious to hear from Day One Classic users that had issues when they used iCloud sync and the devs themselves on what pitfalls they foresee for Apple Journal users. Perhaps there should be a page on the website prominently comparing the functionality of both? -
Apple Journal is using that same storage so are we potentially going to see Apple Journal users lose data?
I can’t speak to the reliability of Apple’s Journal app and sync, but I can say that Apple has access to iCloud and system APIs that aren’t available to third-party developers. So they may have some features baked in to the iCloud sync system that are specifically tailored to their Journal app that will make the sync more reliable with iCloud than it is/was for third-party developers.
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