Compose your diary entries on Mac, iPhone and iPad apps. Powerful encryption and password protection. Sync seamlessly and securely via iCloud. Import entries from other journaling apps. Add in-line rich media with photos, emojis, files and links. Find your entries using star favourites and hashtags. Keep your diary and notes in one place. Day One is one of the top journaling apps with lots of hype and its living up to it!

Keeping a diary is still a popular habit nowadays. With multiple portable gadgets, it’s no longer a problem to write down your every thought or memory at the first onset. No doubt, you may have an online diary or journal, but this means that you have log in into the browser each time you want to access it. It might be a time-consuming procedure for those who want to start writing asap. That’s why various apps for iPhone and Android are a good solution here. Have a look at the best diary & journal apps we tested for you.

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5 Best Diary Apps for iPhone & iPad

Let’s start with diary apps for iOS devices. You’ll find the best free ones below.

Day One

Day One is one of the most famous journaling apps for iPhone which has firmly established at the top for several years already. With it, you may create up to 10 diaries with different designs and add up to ten pictures to each entry. When you create a new note, the app automatically adds a bunch of metadata to it, including your current location, the music you’re listening to, your emotions, the weather data, tags and time, etc.

Day One allows you to lock the secret entries with a Touch ID passcode. Besides, if you want, you can export all your diaries in PDF and back up them on your PC or a flash drive. You can also set up custom reminders to help you fill that journal with text every day.

At the moment, the app is free.

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Best Diary App For Mac

Pros:

• multiple diaries;
• automatic metadata;
• free;
• password;
• reminders.

Cons:

• none.

Moment Diary Tale

Moment Diary Tale is a diary app especially for young girls who appreciate design in pink colors and easy-to-use layout. There are not many features actually, but this is rather an advantage. All the notes are totally private and won’t be published elsewhere, unless you do it yourself.

The app adds a timestamp to each note. It also counts the number of words you type, shows your entries calendar, and lets you add numerous photos to posts, e.g. take photos of your food or daily travels. You can export your notes to your email, back up and restore them from your PC or Mac. Of course, a 4-digit-password protection is available.

Moment Diary Tale is free. Still you may enrich the app design database with paid backgrounds and stickers.

Pros:

• free;
• password;
• fast export.

Cons:

• simple layout;
• paid stickers.

Grid Diary

Grid Diary is a well-designed diary app with intuitive interface. All the posts come in grid format what is pretty unusual but comfortable. Naturally, you can add pics to your notes and select a personalized template. What is great, the app provides a full-text search, thus it’ll be very easy to find an old post.

The free version lets you backup and restore the entries within the app. While in the paid version ($4.99), you can export your posts to Dropbox and Evernote. The password protection is available in the paid version as well.

To cut a long story short, Grid Diary is a nice personal journal app that is perfect for those who want to have something simple and stylish.

Pros:

• grid layout;
• text search.

Cons:

• paid backup to cloud storages;
• paid password protection.

Diaro

Diaro is another free app which is very similar to Day One. With it, you get one notebook filled with all your entries, a powerful search, and the ability to access your notes from a browser. You may organize your diary entries using folders, tags and locations and add photos and videos to them.

Please note that the free version of Diaro includes ads. The paid one without ads costs $4.

Diaro is good choice if you’re just looking for a simple journal app without a lot of features.

Pros:

• search;
• folders.

Cons:

• advertising in the free version.

Momento

Momento is a smart private journal app that helps you collect your memories. With this app, you can not only write down your memorable moments in just a few taps, but also automatically capture your daily activities, posts and photos from social networks, other apps and devices. Each moment is automatically organized into a beautiful private journal that chronicles your whole life and stays up to date effortlessly.

The app is free for iOS users. This is also PRO version available.

It’s a good option for people who used to keep all interesting things and ideas in one place.

Pros:

• automatic activities capturing;
• custom reminders;
• search.

Cons:

• paid password protection.

Top 5 Diary Apps for Android

Now let’s check what popular diary apps for Android you may use for your aims.

Journey

Journey is a stylish diary app for Android that is also available on Chromebook, Mac and Windows devices. The app makes it easy to add entries with visual content. You can also look through your previous notes with a calendar view, or an atlas view that shows your notes based on the location. All the entries are stored in Google Drive. Everything is intuitively laid out.

“Embark on the journey of self-improvement towards better qualities of love, life and health” – the description of the app says. In fact, with Journey, it’s simple to capture every moment of your life and keep your private memories forever.

The app is free. There are some in-app purchases which include a night mode and Markdown support.

Pros:

• cross-platform;
• various view modes;
• simple to use.

Cons:

• none.

Penzu

Penzu is a popular all-in-one free diary, journal and notepad. The app lets write entries in a single journal, set reminders, and lock the journal or the whole app with a password or PIN code.

The app also has a web-based version. So you can access your diary from any web browser and other devices.

The app is free, Pro version (that lets you create more than one journal with the ability to lock them with different passwords) starts at $4.99/month.

It’s a good choice for those who appreciate minimalism in mobile apps.

Pros:

• password;
• reminders;
• web version.

Cons:

• single journal.

Dream Journal Ultimate

Dream Journal Ultimate, as its name suggests, is specifically oriented on storing people’s dreams. The app has a feature called Dream Wall where you can read, like, comment dream journals from other app users. You may also share your dreams on this wall by checking the respective option. To help you remember to write an entry every day, there is an option called Dream Journal Reminder. The app lets secure your dreams with a password and sync dreams across your devices.

This app is free for all Android users.

Pros:

• original idea behind;
• reminders;
• free;
• password.

Cons:

• plain interface.

Narrate

Narrate is an open source app created to record users’ thoughts, experiences, and ideas. The interface is minimalistic, still all the basic features are present. You have the ability to add entries, add multimedia content and geo-targeting to them, back up notes to Dropbox or Google Drive and even set reminders for posting. The photos that you take within the app are automatically saved to your camera roll. Narrate comes with a useful feature that lets you restore deleted items.

The app is free, provides several in-app purchases. It’s a good choice for students.

Pros:

• reminders;
• backup & restore;
• metadata.

Cons:

• minor bugs in the app.

Universal Diary

Universal Diary is not very different from the previous diary apps. It allows you add entries with photos and videos (learn here how to convert AVI files to MP4 for that), set a reminder for creating an entry at a particular time, and lock your notes with a password. Besides, you may export the whole journal to PDF and back up the notes on a SD card or Google Drive.

The app is free. It’ll be useful for people caring about backup and security.

Pros:

• reminders;
• free;
• export & backup.

Cons:

• plain design.

And now, do you keep a diary? What app do you prefer? Share your thought in the comments below.

Comments

comments

Human mind is complicated and beautiful. Did you know that on any given day, there are 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts that cross your mind? That’s mind-boggling. It’s no wonder that we are forgetful beings. That also shows how vital journaling apps can be. A place where you can jot down important thoughts and ideas or how your day went by.

A few months ago, I started meditation using an app called Headspace. One trick I learned there was the process of filtering thoughts based on importance and priority. Then came the act of concentrating on positive thoughts and moods instead of negative events in life. Journaling is a great way to note all these thoughts and life's events.

With these thoughts in mind, let’s take a look at some journaling apps for the Windows platform.

1. Journey

Journey is a light-weight journal app that is available on every platform along with Windows. You begin by creating entries for each day. Adding photos, audios, and videos is easy, but only one at a time. Journey uses Google Drive to backup data and sync it across platforms.

The app will automatically add weather and location to your entries. You can also add smileys to note how you were feeling on that day, or about that moment. I like the timeline and calendar feature that allows me to go back in time and find or rediscover and relive all those moments easily.

While Android and iOS apps are free, Windows app will cost you $19.99. There is also a cloud plan priced at $2.49. That will unlock dark theme, daily inspiration quotes, unlimited entries via email, Zapier integration, and more ways to customize entries.

Download Journey

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2. Journalist

Journalist is a Windows-only journaling app that comes with a drawing tool. People who like to draw or sketch their emotions and feelings on paper will love it. What’s more? You can join up to 4 papers to create a scrolling video of sorts. It supports various video and GIF formats. Adding text, images, audio, and videos are easy. Data is backed up to OneDrive.

Journalist acts as a scrapbook of sorts which adds new ways to maintain a diary and log your life. The ability to draw and sketch using a variety of pens and colors gives more freedom to be expressive. However, it also makes the process equally time-consuming. It's definitely more suitable for artists.

You can also record voice to narrate your life’s story which is pretty cool. On the flip side, it lacks advanced features like calendar, timeline, and auto geo-tagging. Maybe in a future version? Fingers crossed.

Download Journalist

3. Glimpses

Glimpses is a free journaling app for Windows that’s packed with features. You can add tags to your entries for easily categorizing them by events or places. You can also mark certain entries as favorite which makes them easy to search. The calendar and timeline features makes reliving old memories fun and easy.

There are a few interesting writing modes available that I haven’t seen in other journaling apps. Typewriter mode arrives with a custom font and makes clicking noises with each keystroke as if you were using a real typewriter. Then there is the dark and distraction-free mode. On the downside, no reminders and you can’t add audio files as of now, and they are still working on Android and iOS apps. Well, it’s free, so you can’t complain much.

Best Diary App For Mac And Ios

Download Glimpses

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4. Evernote

Evernote is probably one of the best note-taking apps, but that’s not all it can do. A lot of fans are using it as a journaling app too. How? Evernote supports images, audio, video files, PDF, and more. You can also record audio or take images directly with it.

How to begin? You create a heading called journal and then create one notebook for each year. Now create one note for each day. You can then tag them for further sanity. Evernote works on all platforms, integrates with third-party apps like Google Calendar (birthday events?), Zapier, IFTTT, much more.

If you are already using Evernote for taking notes and whatnot, using it as a journaling app for Windows makes a lot of sense. One less app to worry about.

Download Evernote

5. Diarium

Diarium takes a different approach. The app integrates with Windows’ system calendar, and for each day, you can create an entry. Text, images, audio, video, files, or drawings; anything goes. You can also import entries from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even Google Fit. That means everything you do, that app will log it automatically. You can view all of that on a map.

Available on both Android and iOS, Diarium is probably the only journal app that doesn’t have a subscription model in place. Instead, you can buy individual apps for a one-time fee of $19.99 (often available for less during a sale).

Download Diarium

Dear Diary

Journaling is a great way to note important dates and events. They are also useful for jotting down ideas. That flashing moment when you have a stroke of genius. That one idea that could possibly change your world and your life. If you carry a laptop with you at all times, one of the above Windows journaling apps will prove helpful.

Next up: Do you also use an iPhone? Click on the link below to learn more about 4 journaling apps for iOS platform.

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Read NextTop 4 Journal Apps for iPhone That Make Journaling Easy and FunAlso See#note #windows 10

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