Apple Reportedly Developing Journaling App for iOS 17, Codenamed Jurassic

After reports last week about the leaked details of iOS 17, a new report from the Wall Street Journal claims that Apple is working on a brand-new app for the next iPhone operating system: a journaling app. The app, codenamed Jurassic, is said to be designed to help users keep track of their daily lives.

According to the report, the Day One competitor will let users compile their daily activities as part of its efforts in the market for mental and physical health technology. The app is expected to offer much tighter integration with the rest of Apple’s apps, including the ability to analyze behavior to determine what a typical day is like, including health, location, text messages, phone calls, calendar events, and “whether a certain day included something outside the norm.”

The Journal claims that the new app will work with all iPhone hardware that comes with Apple’s coming operating system, iOS 17. It’s currently unclear whether there will be a Mac component like the Freeform app that launched in iOS 16.2 and macOS 13.1.

Journaling apps have long been popular with iPhone users, with Penzu, Day One, and 1SE, among other apps, garnering millions of downloads. Apple’s push into the journaling space may rankle app makers, who often accuse Apple of “Sherlocking” popular app categories. The term was popularized after Apple released its own Sherlock 3 search app to compete with the similar Watson app in Mac OS X.

Some journaling apps charge subscriptions for extra features. For example, Day One charges $35 a year to remove limits on journals, photos, videos, and other features.

WWDC will kick off on Monday, June 5, with a keynote presentation to unveil the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and more, including the anticipated launch of its new AR headset. It’s not clear from the report whether this new journaling app will be a feature of the headset.