Back in June, a host of new Apple Intelligence features were unveiled, AI powers for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. While we’re still waiting for these updates to hit devices, it seems as though Apple has plans for plenty more AI upgrades in the future.
As spotted by The Mac Observer, a newly filed Apple patent outlines a number of ideas for the Journal app that now comes on the iPhone. Launched in December as part of iOS 17.2, the app enables you to keep a personal diary of your comings and goings.
The patent document suggests that the Journal app is going to offer more prompts for what users could write about: workouts, photos, or events that are logged in a calendar, for example. This is where Apple Intelligence could come in.
If you’ve used the Journal app, you’ll already know that it offers some basic writing prompts based on your day, but it looks as though Apple wants to make the feature more proactive and smarter when it comes to making suggestions.
Interface changes
Furthermore, you might be able to get some AI assistance when it comes to actually writing in your journal. You could be asked about how the food was at a restaurant visit, for example, or how your run went, if those activities have been detected.
It also seems that some interface changes are coming to the Journal app, with widgets for the iOS homescreen and a new view option that displays your memories as a flow of text and images – not unlike a social media feed.
What we don’t get here is any indication that the Journal app will be heading to the iPad or to macOS in the near future – so for the time being, all of your tracking and musing is going to have to be done on an iPhone.
While Apple has announced new features coming to the Journal app with iOS 18, they’re not the ones mentioned in this patent. As always though, patents are no guarantee that features will actually launch – they just show ideas that companies are exploring.
