Maker here. I’ve went against the grain[1] and maintained this journaling app for the third year now. This is V3 that I just pushed few months ago that added photo logs (iOS only for now unlike V2). It may help people reflect now we are entering the holidays with a new start soon.<p>Why make another journaling app when there are so many other Day One look-alikes? Because it’s unique in the following ways:<p>- Offline only, no cloud, no tracking<p>- Easy to export to JSON (you own your data)<p>- Minimalism design taken to it’s logical conclusion<p>- Open and type, no step 2<p>- Type “?” to search, no step 2<p>- Type “#” to use hashtag to organize<p>- Double-tap timeline to hide and keep logging in discreet<p>- Pull up the timeline to see a 100 day GitHub like heatmap<p>Also it tries to avoid the following anti-features:<p>- journal titles (my pet peeves, way too much info up front)<p>- Sparse timeline with main/detail layout that forces you to drill down to see your full journal entry<p>- Notifications/reminders<p>I try to expand the answer in this post too: <a href="https://thezenjournal.com/why" rel="nofollow">https://thezenjournal.com/why</a><p>Feedback and suggestions welcomed. Thank you!<p>[1]: <a href="https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1303812935773556736" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1303812935773556736</a>
Love the design. Lowest possible friction is important.<p>I personally a) dislike writing _anything_ on touch screens b) live in the terminal anyway. So I wrote a script called "n" that appends a timestamp to a text file, then: If there are command line arguments, it appends them to the file verbatim and exits. Else it opens vim, in edit mode just under the timestamp. For example:<p><pre><code> # n 'Hello, world!' # Writes a quick timestamped note and exits.
# n # Adds timestamp, opens vim. For bigger notes.
</code></pre>
Since the text file is on my NAS I can view it from all the devices I care about. Yes, I know it's not a system everyone would want (curlftpfs anyone?), but it works for me, and is guaranteed to remain readable for decades. It's just a text file on disk. I search it using the text editor.<p>Here's my scripts. I think I got the idea on HN somewhere, if it was you, feel free to set the record straight. Also I'm bad at shell scripts, so any suggestions welcome.<p>~/bin/n (add note):<p><pre><code> #! /usr/bin/env bash
cd ~
echo >> notes.txt
echo -n '# ' >> notes.txt
date '+%a %d %b %Y %T %Z' | tr -d "\n" >> notes.txt
echo ' #' >> notes.txt
if [[ $# -ne 0 ]]; then
echo $@ >> notes.txt
tail notes.txt
else
vim "+normal Go" +startinsert notes.txt
fi
</code></pre>
~/bin/nt (review notes):<p><pre><code> #! /usr/bin/env bash
less +G ~/notes.txt
</code></pre>
~/bin/ne (open vim at the last line for revisions):<p><pre><code> #! /usr/bin/env bash
vim "+normal G" ~/notes.txt
</code></pre>
I plan on setting up an old laptop with a proper full travel keyboard on my nightstand that boots straight to this, no graphical environment, nothing else.
Love the idea! I am installing it right now and will get the pro to support you. I have a question about backup/restore. What is the backup format? A markdown/plain text would be best for archival purposes, especially for a journal that might be read far into the future. I get that it is offline, but having a journal on one device only without is a double edged sword. If I lose my phone, I lose my journal. Would it be possible to sync it to iCloud? Then it would be easier to have it on multiple devices as well. Thanks for making this!<p>Edit: After playing around with the app, I see that the backup is a zip with a json file and images. That is great for archival.
This is excellent! I've discovered that I value very similar features as I have tried other journaling apps.<p>I found that my personal favorite solution so far is actually a chatroom with just myself in KakaoTalk. It also has the extremely simple input, which is critical to make sure capture and journaling actually happens, and fast search using substrings and tags, which make recall simple.<p>EDIT: Also, automatically timestamped input! Which puts both your app and my solution a step above a plaintext file<p>It's not without its warts, which your app does away with. However, I personally find the ability to post photos, videos, and audio recordings very useful, and for that reason will likely stick to my existing solution for now. Regardless, it's really great to find others share similar values in journaling, and I'll be following closely! Thank you!
whoa, the design of this web page threw me off at first. Interesting apple vibe but it's all over I don't know where to look, it's just all over/in my face. (on desktop)
At first I thought it was broken in Firefox 94.0.2 for me.<p>Then I realised that form in the middle of the page was just an image. I also thought the light/dark mode toggle in the middle was real as well.
if i could have a suggestion, rethink the home page design again. I was stunned because I couldn't focus on anything, I didn't understand what I was looking at for a good 5 seconds. My main complaint: the images are too big and the text too small. The information that you can lock using your fingerprint is unreasonably more prominent than the information about what the product is and where you can get it.<p>Good luck, we need privacy oriented tools!
Thank you. This will replace my notes app.<p>One small thing that got me confused. Typing ? in my SO's Android (MS SwiftKey) automatically adds a space after it: "? ". No idea why it does that, but it stops search from working. Maybe skip leading whitespace?
One previous thread:<p><i>Show HN: ZenJournal – Fast journal app with chat interface</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21876939" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21876939</a> - Dec 2019 (25 comments)<p>(Reposts are ok after a year or so: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html</a>. Links like this are just for readers who may be curious for more.)
I think it would be fun to have Whatsapp integration, and I can easily send pictures, notes, voice notes etc to the journal. The other part could be to have a simple chat bot that provides prompts throughout the day, like "what are you doing right now?" or "take a selfie with whoever you're with."
App looks great. The autocomplete suggestions for hashtag is nice. Would you add functionality to edit notes?<p>Also I want to keep a few different "threads". I guess the workaround is the hashtags.
I found I installed this a long time ago and didn't use it.<p>Today however it <i>seems</i> like something I can definitely use.<p>I've been thinking in the same direction a few times (I.e. a personal Twitter) but never came around to it and always fell back to saved messages on Telegram.<p>Now however this seems to have become what I want.<p>We'll see, I might still fall back to Telegram but I have at least signed up for the trial without immediately unsubscribing like I usually do; the service is that promising and the price is that good.
Feedback: your website on desktop seems way too complex for me to figure out. Kinda goes against the "minimalist" app. I would suggest re-designing the site.
What do people use journal apps for?
One thing I want to do is to log nature observations when I am out and about in nature. Preferably through voice recording (not neccessarily transcribed) and geotagged. Bonus points if the phone can stay in my pocket and I can do it through a PTT microphone.<p>Are there apps for this?
Any chance you have plans on making this usable by groups instead of individuals? I've been looking to find, adapt, or make something like this for collaborative fiction.
vim and the Android/iOS Notes apps gives me 99% of what I need, 99% of the time<p>general note-taking and text editing has been well-solved for decades now<p>though I do respect the attraction of trying to reinvent and monetize the wheel
downloaded, i like it. the rolling chat feel is just awesome for journaling. im craving this on my computer now and love the #hashtags, could do like #todo thoughts.