You can do this using Apple's own Memos app in iPhone

In fact, diaries in a mobile phone are not new. There are many applications of which Dayone is probably the most notable. When Apple now has its own memo app, it takes what the iPhone already does as its starting point. The phone knows what kind of photos you take and then displays previous albums and movies based on them. The diary app is a further development of this.

Apple Diary takes the lead and suggests posts. If you've taken a tour and are signed in to Apple Health, the app can suggest you post about it and automatically add any photos you've taken. However, it is also possible to start with a blank sheet of paper, so to speak, and add text, images, sounds and locations yourself.

By creating a memo app, Apple simultaneously made these features available to other similar apps. This means that even an already dominant Dayone can benefit from the photos, places, music and other information that the phone's functions can contribute.

In fact, diaries in a mobile phone are not new. There are many applications of which Dayone is probably the most notable. When Apple now has its own memo app, it takes what the iPhone already does as its starting point. The phone knows what kind of photos you take and then displays previous albums and movies based on them. The diary app is a further development of this.

Apple Diary takes the lead and suggests posts. If you've taken a tour and are signed in to Apple Health, the app can suggest you post about it and automatically add any photos you've taken. However, it is also possible to start with a blank sheet of paper, so to speak, and add text, images, sounds and locations yourself.

By creating a memo app, Apple simultaneously made these features available to other similar apps. This means that even an already dominant Dayone can benefit from the photos, places, music and other information that the phone's functions can contribute.

Only on phone and no export

Apple Diary is so far only available on iPhone, so there's no version for PC, web, or iPad. It can be a bit annoying if you want to write longer, more ambitious texts. On the other hand, the iPhone can benefit better from integration with other apps and functions out there. Workouts, locations, photos and videos can be automatically imported and this happens when the app suggests a topic. If you want to include any content from a non-integrated app, you can use that app's sharing feature. This way, you can import a workout from another app, a song from Spotify or anything else you have on your phone that you want to include.

You cannot share your journal entries with anyone else. Hence there is no sharing functionality of the diary app. The idea is that you should keep your thoughts to yourself, and if you absolutely want to share a post, it should be in the form of a screenshot. Apple focuses on memoir writing as a reflection of personal well-being. Therefore, topic suggestions get mixed up when I create a new diary entry.

In addition to the photos you've taken (on which the app sees your GPS location and can therefore print the location), there are also open-ended questions that can be the beginning of a post. The question could be, “What is a difficult decision you made recently that you are glad you made?” Or “Write about an activity that gives you the most satisfaction.” In my case, these suggestions are mixed with suggestions like “Walk in Directen Tubac”, “Afternoon excursion near Krupp” or “Evening: visit to the city centre”. As you can see, the suggestions are often a bit weird and the language a bit stilted, but you can of course edit your post titles and when you open a prepared post, you can also remove places, photos and other things that Apple has already put there. The places Apple suggests are rarely ones you've already been to, but rather a somewhat random place along your walking route. Each suggested post may include workouts, photos, videos, audio recordings, and location information. And of course, there is text that you enter yourself after that. Apple's software can automatically import from apps that use Healthkit, Callkit, Sirikit, and more, meaning, for example, that many training apps can be included without specifically adapting them for that reason.

Additionally, as I said, you can import content from other apps using their sharing functions.

When you next want to read your own posts to remember, which may be the main purpose of a diary, you can see the posts in chronological order and also sort and filter them by location, photo activity, reflection, photo, etc. However, there is no search function, and once you write a few posts, it becomes difficult to find. Apple Diary also lacks an export function, so you can only read posts you've written on your phone.