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Apple's Journal app is finally coming to iPadOS and macOS.
The app was announced at WWDC 2023 and launched exclusively on iPhones with iOS 17 .2. After almost a two-year wait, Apple has extended support for it on iPad and Mac.
"With iPadOS 26, Journal comes to iPad, making it easy for users to capture and write about the details of everyday moments or special events," Apple writes in the release notes for iPadOS 26. A similar line has been added to the release notes for macOS Tahoe 26 as well.
On the iPad, Journal will support Apple Pencil . The stylus can be used to navigate the app and incorporate drawings and handwriting. On both iPad and Mac, users will be able to keep multiple journals and sync data across Apple devices.
On the App Store , the Journal app says it's compatible with iPadOS 17.2 and later, but it doesn't show up in search on the iPad, and loading the link on an iPad running iOS 18.3.2 produces a messages that says, "This app requires specific features not available on this device."
This is a big win for users like me, who have been waiting for the app to be available on all Apple platforms. I use Day One for journaling and steered clear of Apple's Journal app just because it wasn't available on both my iPhone and Mac. Now that the entries can be synced, I might be tempted to switch.
Speaking of Day One, the app will be one of the first to get access to Apple's on-device large language model (LLM), Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering, announced during the WWDC keynote. This means the Automattic-owned app will be able to incorporate "privacy-centric [Apple] intelligence features" soon.
On the other hand, by default, Apple's Journal app provides intelligently curated suggestions based on recent activity, including photos, people, places, workouts, and more. It can also send scheduled notifications to help you build a journaling habit and allows you to lock journals so that your thoughts remain private. At WWDC 25, Apple also added a map view to help organize entries by location.
Many other features were announced during the WWDC keynote. Check out our coverage on iOS 26 , iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26 , and watchOS 26 to learn more.
