Apple will launch a logging app in iOS 17, but it's bad news for some developers
Apple will launch a logging app in iOS 17, but it's bad news for some developers
Enlarge / The iPhone SE 2022.
Samuel Axone
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 come pre-installed on all iPhones running iOS 17 and will deeply integrate with location services, contacts and more on the user's phone.
The WSJ based its report on an analysis of internal Apple documents regarding 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 (name will likely change before launch) will be able to look at data stored locally on your phone to see what a typical day looks like, with access to your contacts, location, workouts, and more. It will make recommendations to users on what to log about it, including when the app detects behavior outside of the normal routine.
It will even offer "All Day People Discovery", which will track the user's proximity to others, distinguishing between work colleagues and friends.
This kind of integration with other preinstalled apps and user data will differentiate the app from other logging options on the iPhone, which might make them hard to compete with. The WSJ report includes quotes from Paul Mayne, founder of popular third-party journaling app for iPhone Day One, which was acquired by Automatic in 2021.
Mayne echoes the sentiment of several app developers who were frustrated when Apple launched in-house competitors to the apps they introduced into the ecosystem, often copying features those apps pioneered and adding features that only Apple may offer, in accordance with iPhone privacy and security. policies and APIs.
Apple's documentation for Jurassic is careful to put user privacy and security at the center of the design, and most or all user tracking data used by the app will remain locally on the user's iPhone. each user and, at least in some cases, will not be retained for more than a few weeks.
Apple's privacy-focused policies and messaging seem altruistic: the company has already left money on the table in its commitment to privacy-friendly policies. But the policies serve Apple in two key ways beyond happy customers: they clearly differentiate themselves from competitors like Google and Meta in the battle for public opinion in marketing and public relations, and they prevent third-party apps from have the same type of access. to user data that Apple does.
When Apple seeks to replace or compete with a third-party application, it may sometimes have better access to user data to power functionality than those third-party developers.
Documents seen by Journal reporters did not specify whether Apple would charge for the app. This is unlikely to be a premium or ad-supported download, but Apple has charged users recurring subscription fees for certain features and services in the past.
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 come pre-installed on all iPhones running iOS 17 and will deeply integrate with location services, contacts and more on the user's phone.
The WSJ based its report on an analysis of internal Apple documents regarding 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 (name will likely change before launch) will be able to look at data stored locally on your phone to see what a typical day looks like, with access to your contacts, location, workouts, and more. It will make recommendations to users on what to log about it, including when the app detects behavior outside of the normal routine.
It will even offer "All Day People Discovery", which will track the user's proximity to others, distinguishing between work colleagues and friends.
This kind of integration with other preinstalled apps and user data will differentiate the app from other logging options on the iPhone, which might make them hard to compete with. The WSJ report includes quotes from Paul Mayne, founder of popular third-party journaling app for iPhone Day One, which was acquired by Automatic in 2021.
Mayne echoes the sentiment of several app developers who were frustrated when Apple launched in-house competitors to the apps they introduced into the ecosystem, often copying features those apps pioneered and adding features that only Apple may offer, in accordance with iPhone privacy and security. policies and APIs.
Apple's documentation for Jurassic is careful to put user privacy and security at the center of the design, and most or all user tracking data used by the app will remain locally on the user's iPhone. each user and, at least in some cases, will not be retained for more than a few weeks.
Apple's privacy-focused policies and messaging seem altruistic: the company has already left money on the table in its commitment to privacy-friendly policies. But the policies serve Apple in two key ways beyond happy customers: they clearly differentiate themselves from competitors like Google and Meta in the battle for public opinion in marketing and public relations, and they prevent third-party apps from have the same type of access. to user data that Apple does.
When Apple seeks to replace or compete with a third-party application, it may sometimes have better access to user data to power functionality than those third-party developers.
Documents seen by Journal reporters did not specify whether Apple would charge for the app. This is unlikely to be a premium or ad-supported download, but Apple has charged users recurring subscription fees for certain features and services in the past.
Enlarge / The iPhone SE 2022.
Samuel Axone
