Apple will launch a journaling app in iOS 17, but that’s bad news for some devs

Enlarge / The 2022 iPhone SE. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple plans to unveil a personal journaling app at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The app will be pre-installed on all iPhones that run iOS 17, and it will deeply integrate with location services, contacts, and more on the user’s phone.

The WSJ  based its reporting on analysis of internal Apple documents about the product. Apple plans to position the app (which is codenamed “Jurassic”) as a mental health tool, noting research that shows regular journaling can help with depression and anxiety.

Jurassic (the name will surely be changed before launch) will be able to look at data stored locally on your phone to determine what a typical day looks like, with access to your contacts, your location, workouts, and more. It will make recommendations to users about what they might journal about that, including when the app detects behavior that is outside of the normal routine.