The best journal and diary apps to help you keep track of you memories, record important events, and collect your thoughts on your iPhone or iPad!
Looking for the best iPhone apps or best iPad apps to journal with? There's something beautiful, almost magically analog about a crumpled old note pad, a key-locked journal, a well worn moleskin, and the ink and graphite that fill their pages. For centuries that's how we recorded our most intimate dreams, our most personal desires, our greatest works, and our most important memories. It's how we've gotten things out of our heads and onto paper so I brains could relax, let go, and move on. But paper doesn't sync. It doesn't back up. It can't be shared over digital networks. It copies and pastes in only the most mechanical definition of the term. And while an iPad or iPhone won't ever replace a real-world diary for those of us who kept them since childhood, they are and will increasingly become the journals of choice for the future. But which journaling apps are the very best?
Day One
Aside from the great interface, Day One supports tags, markdown, photo upload, and more. The main view of Day One also makes it incredibly easily see a quick count of total timeline items, tags, photos, and more. Day One supports iCloud sync, the ability to passcode protect your entries, and export them to PDF. You can also embed media and write in Markdown, if you prefer. A universal app, it supports both iPhone and iPad. There is also a Mac app available, completing the Day One ecosystem
If you're looking for an ecosystem that lets you write no matter what device you're on, get Day One.
- $4.99 - Download Now
See also:
- $9.99 - Mac - Download Now
Momento
Momento is an iPhone-only journaling app that intertwines your own personal thoughts with what's going on on your social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram. Momento brings all your posts, both within the app and from your social networks, and combines them together in hopes of providing you with a more complete snapshot of your day. Both what you write and any social posts that mention you get imported, and you can export everything via iTunes file as well.
If you are active on social networks, Momento is a great way to not only track your own thoughts, but your social activity too.
- $2.99 - Download Now
My Wonderful Days
My Wonderful Days lets you chronicle each and every day by writing down your thoughts, attaching photos, and describing your mood. You can also select up to two stickers for each day that describe your mood and how you felt. There's also a calendar view that's very nicely done. Tap on any day to view your entries or check out the summary view below it for important information.
If your aim isn't to write long entires, but short and sweet ones that help you keep track of your days, My Wonderful Days is perfect.
- $1.99 - Download Now
Askt
Askt is a new kind of journal app that focuses on helping you get to know yourself rather than letting you write about random thoughts. Each day you'll be presented with a different question to answer about yourself. Askt can then track your answers and let you compare them year after year to see how you've grown emotionally. You can even go back and answer missed questions if you forget to write some days. Askt also has a passcode feature so you know that no one else can read your responses without your knowledge.
If you need a little help writing about yourself, Askt is a creative and inspiring way to get it.
- Free - Download Now
Heyday
Heyday is a photo journaling app that can import all the photos you take on your iPhone and create a media rich journal out of them. You can then go back and add thoughts and descriptions to photos and memories. You can even tag your Facebook friends in Heyday posts they're a part of. If you find a photo or memory you'd like to add more photos to, just select them and group them all together.
For a visual journal that requires very little effort on your part, you want Heyday.
- Free - Download Now
Collect
Collect is another photo journal app like Heyday but doesn't focus on journaling everything, just the important moments. Manually choose to import photos from Dropbox, Flickr, or your Camera Roll. From there you can add tags, descriptions, albums, and notes about photos. Better yet, Collect optionally lets you create collages that are print ready along with video slideshows (requires in-app purchases). You can make Collect as simple or as robust as you want by adding only one photo per day or multiples each day.
If you want a photo journal but want more control than apps like Heyday offer, be sure to check out Collect.
- Free - Download Now
Your picks for best journal apps for iPhone and iPad?
These are our favorites when it comes to capturing thoughts and recording memories right on your iPhone and iPad but as always, we'd love to hear your thoughts both on the above apps and any other apps you've come across that you find to be great for journaling!
