June saw the unveiling of a bunch of new Apple Intelligence features, bringing AI powers to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. While we’re still waiting for these updates to hit devices, it appears Apple has plans for many more AI upgrades in the future.
As noted by The Mac Observera newly filed Apple patent outlines some ideas for the Journal app now available on iPhone. The app launched in December as part of iOS 17.2 and lets you keep a personal diary of your comings and goings.
The patent document suggests that the Journal app will offer more prompts for what users can write about: workouts, photos, or events logged in a calendar, for example. This is where Apple Intelligence could come in.
If you’re familiar with the Journal app, you already know that it offers a number of simple writing prompts tailored to your day. However, it seems like Apple wants to make the feature more proactive and smarter when it comes to suggestions.
Interface changes
Additionally, you could get some AI assistance when it comes to actually writing in your journal. For example, you could be asked how the food was at a restaurant, or how your run went, if those activities are detected.
There also appears to be some interface changes coming to the Journal app, with widgets for the iOS home screen and a new view option that lets you display your reminders as a stream of text and images – similar to a social media feed.
What we don’t see here is any indication that the Journal app will be coming to iPad or macOS anytime soon. So for now, you’ll have to do all your tracking and rumination on an iPhone.
While Apple did announce new features for the Journal app with iOS 18, they’re not the features mentioned in this patent. As always, patents aren’t a guarantee that features will actually launch — they just showcase ideas that companies are exploring.