Some of the many new features coming to the Journal app in iOS 18. Image credit: Apple
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The release of iOS 18 brought a number of new features to Apple's Journal app, including the new ability to search and sort entries.
Apple's Journal app was originally introduced in December 2023 with iOS 17. It received its first major update in October 2024 as part of the iOS 18 update.
There's new support for recording your state of mind if you want, as well as the ability to print individual entries, and more. The biggest new addition to Journal in iOS 18, however, is the addition of search and sorting features.
Search, which was oddly absent from the original release of Journal, now has the familiar “magnifying glass” icon right at the top, allowing you to search by a variety of criteria. Clicking on it will show all your recent searches, along with categories that you can filter by when you searched, such as date, mood, or any specific word or phrase.
Entries can also be searched and sorted by other criteria, including text messages or messages with photos, audio, or video. Other categories include “Bookmarked,” “Places,” and “Muslims.”
For example, in addition to a word or phrase like “basketball game,” you could add a “Videos” category to only show entries that have videos. Feel free to mix and match things like “Mood” and “Places” with any word or phrase you might have used in an entry to make it easier to find.
Moment Dates, Stats, and More
The iOS 18 update to Journal also brings more sorting options. The original version only sorted entries by the date they were written, but now there’s a new method called Instant Date.
When you’re writing about an event that happened in the past, you can now set the entry date to the date the event happened — Instant Date — or leave the entry date at the day you wrote the entry. Instant Date lets you view a timeline of events as they happened, rather than the moment you documented them.
If you use Instant Date rather than the day you wrote the entry, Instant Date will appear when searching for entries within the specified time period.
iOS 18 also brings stats to the Journal app, called Insights. You can see the average number of words written per entry, places you’ve visited, how often you’ve written in a given time period, your longest writing streak or break, and more.
The Journal app now also has a calendar view, marking entries and stats, including writing streaks. Like the Notes app, Journal now lets users record an audio recording of their journal entry instead of writing it, with a new Record button.
After recording, the user will be prompted to create a transcript of the audio. iOS 18 also brings more text customization, including colored text and highlighting.
Home and Lock Screen Widgets
There are also new Home and Lock Screen widgets. They offer writing suggestions and the ability to start a new entry right from there.
Examples of journal widgets for the lock screen (left) and home screen (right).
For the home screen, Journal can add streak and new post widgets. The streak widget shows your current streak if you’re in one, or your past daily or weekly streaks, depending on how often you make new posts.
If you tap the widget, it will open the Journal app to the Insights page for more information.
The new post widget will show a random writing prompt on the home screen. Tapping the prompt will take you directly to the new post page in the app.
Lock screen widgets are also available for the Journal app. These provide direct access to new features like an audio recording, an image picker, and quick additions to your state of mind status or photos or location information.
To add one of the Journal widgets to your lock screen, long press the lock screen and then tap the Customize button. Select Lock Screen, then tap App Widgets, which appears just below the time display.
From there, choose one of Apple’s existing widgets or scroll through the list of apps to see their widgets. Tap one to add it, then tap Done to exit Lock Screen editing mode.
What’s more, users can expect to see new Apple Intelligence features roll out to the app throughout 2024 and 2025, with additional Apple Intelligence features coming to iOS 18.2 and later updates. If you have an eligible iPhone, like the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, Apple Intelligence will offer features like summarizing long entries or helping you rewrite an entry to suit a certain tone.
These improvements and enhancements should encourage more users to keep and update their journal regularly, and make it easier to document their lives, thoughts, and special moments. While there are no iPad or Mac versions yet, surprisingly, the ability to dictate entries and add media makes it easy to create a journal from anywhere in the world.
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