Private Journal: Punkt Reviews

by Luislobo

PrivateJournal is great and I love how simple it is to journal. This has been the journaling app I have stuck with the longest because of how simple it is. I would definitely give PrivateJournal 5 stars if it had a native iPad app where I can use my iPad and it’s keyboard. I also wish that what ever I added to the journal on my phone would automatically sing with my iPad. The problem is that I have two different journals now. If these two updates were to come to PrivateJournal I would definitely highly recommend it and I would give it 5 stars.

by Nthpete

I am really enjoying how simply PrivateJournal treats journalling. However, one of the things it promises is iCloud support. I don't see any reference to iCloud support in PrivateJournal nor does it seem to save anything to my iCloud. I would like to be able to sync it to Punkt on my iPad soI can write about my day regardless of whether I have my phone or my iPad handy. Another thing is the name of PrivateJournal . Not a fan. It always makes me think of the "Punk'd" show from years ago. I kinda feel like I'm being Punk'd using PrivateJournal because it promises iCloud support but it's nowhere to be found. Why use a journaling app with no cloud back up? Kinda scary. Also, on the iPad app, the interface to go premium doesn’t work. At least it doesn’t on my iPad Mini 5. Restore purchases doesn’t work on the iPad either :(

by Snsnssn

I loved this so much! I was looking through this subreddit for a way to read all PrivateJournal Store’s featured stories and stumbled upon your post.

PrivateJournal is absolutely perfect and I’ve only been using it for about three minutes. I love that there is no subscription if you pay the one time fee! I will definitely come back to donate more to the development of PrivateJournal when I have the chance.

Just a suggestion - would love an option to add multiple videos and photos to the story. For the functionality, the user can swipe up to scroll through the videos or photos then swipe left or right to go to the next story.

by Ii_hito_

It’s great for daily journalling. However right now it only exports your entries as csv. This is fine if you literally only write one sentence per day and don’t attach pictures. Anything longer, and the csv file will be messy because each sentence gets broken up into the cells of the spreadsheet, and csv does not support pictures. I asked if pdf export will be an option, but have not received a response from support.

by Fixxeren

I have tried many Journaling apps and frankly failed at journaling. PrivateJournal actually has me journaling more often which is a win. I love the insights from the statistics this is insanely helpful. For me there is one key feature missing. I really need iPad support. I understand why it’s iPhone first as it allows you to capture your thoughts in the moment. However, some days I like to sit downs with a cup of coffee and just lose myself in my iPad. It would be great to be able to pull PrivateJournal up and journal while I’m doing that in a multi window view.

by MilkdotWhole

I tend to stare at my phone when dozing off to bed. Since getting PrivateJournal, I have more of a purpose and a dedicated time to easily open PrivateJournal and write a way. It’s fantastic for just that easy access to jot a couple highlights or scratches in my day. With premium I can also see PrivateJournal as a great way to also log my dreams! 🤔

Huge respects for the pricing, too. I love the option to pay once or pay any amount for monthly. That king of flexibility is a privilege these days... especially with it being ad-free.

I would absolutely LOVE to see an iPad and MacOS release for PrivateJournal as it would be nice to have a larger display to view my timeline of memories.

by Luke Rooney

i’m glad PrivateJournal doesn’t charge for tracking your feelings like pretty much every journal app.

i love the font choices and overall simplicity. my only wish is that you could export all your entries as an xml file or something. i can definitely see that as something people would be willing to pay for!

by Traveler2233

I really love PrivateJournal. I have used it everyday since I downloaded it. The motivational quotes are great and I appreciate the reminders. Many evenings I would forget to write without the reminder. Every night I know I can write at least one sentence although I find I consistently do more. It is so much fun to add custom reasons , now have quite a few. Keep up the good work and I will keep journaling!

by Zackspedicey13

PrivateJournal is perfect to get you into journaling, and a really cool feature that no other journal has is that it can associate your moods with your location, as well as the activities that caused said moods. Super super helpful for reflecting back on better and worse times. Overall, one sentence a day is the perfect balance between to much and too little. Beautifully minimal and gorgeous app design. Perfect!

by Allioopsys

I’ve been using PrivateJournal for almost two weeks and absolutely love that privacy is a priority. Summing up the day in a sentence and looking back on how my mood has varied over time are both strangely comforting. The daily quotes still seem to be an issue for me—I don’t get the notifications and they don’t load within PrivateJournal despite the update.

by G Unit 555

It’s simplicity is welcomed in a complicated world. I had previously never kept a journal. I have now used PrivateJournal every day for over a year. My only technical problem is when you create a new custom reason it seems like you can’t delete it. There is a toggle switch to unselect it, but I can’t figure out how to delete or edit it. Overall very happy with my lifetime membership purchase!

by Marlomajor

I love PrivateJournal so much. It has made it incredibly easy to journal everyday. I don’t have many negative things to say about it besides that I think their should be more features! But considering this is only the beginning, I will look forward to every update. This is my first ever review on any product, ever. I’ve loved using this. Can’t wait to see how it evolves.

by Randiiiii7861

I absolutely love PrivateJournal!!! It is simple and easy to use, yet also gives you the freedom to describe your day as freely and creatively as you like. Personally, I found that PrivateJournal makes it very easy to define my day as a creative exercise, which I LOVE!!! It also is a form of a self-improvement tactic, which I also LOVE!!!!!! I absolutely love PrivateJournal and would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a simple, motivational journaling app!

by Bejejtoejrirnekrjfkdbe

I’ve been looking for a decent app t write my daily thoughts and feeling down for a while and PrivateJournal is almost 100% free berthing you need to use is free i use it every day and it also tracks your daily reasons for why you were feeling a certain way (I also don’t even pay for PrivateJournal at all) I highly recommend PrivateJournal is you want to write down your daily feeling or even dreams and keep track of your average feelings!

by Puakia

I have been searching for an app like this. I can’t begin to describe how much it means to me. When I get a notification on my watch I cannot wait to see if it is from PrivateJournal. The daily motivational quotes are inspiring and relevant. Please keep up the amazing work! It’s just enough to make me want to journal even more and in these really trying times, PrivateJournal itself feels like a place to rest and recover. A safe space. Thank you very much!

by Oh Catually

I highly recommend this journaling app — it’s an approachable, brilliant little cherry to the end of a day. Any day.

Intuitive, smartly simple, and succinct: that is
what makes this stick to my routine. I’ve been using it for 2+ years.

My hands got tired from gripping a pen, and I eventually outgrew paper journaling and started note taking on my phone. After finding PrivateJournal I never looked elsewhere.

The fun bits are the custom emojis and data analysis for a deeper insight into my time.

Some thoughts for future features:

Exploring summaries: a way to show graphs over a longer length of time to see trajectory over months, years would be helpful — similar to how iOS maps your step count over time and shows bar graph data

A way to display images not just in the background of an entry, but be able to highlight a few photos from this day.

Thanks so much for PrivateJournal, it’s a life and time saver!

by Gabesean2

It’s my first day journaling using PrivateJournal and I can very much appreciate the developer being transparent in his privacy policy. I want everything to stay local. If it’s truly to be believed, it’s just like having a paper journal somewhere in my room that no one but me has access to. My first impressions are really fantastic. Who knew that it would be a joy to try to condense your day in one sentence. Also, you mention a macOS app is in development. I hope it is compatible with Mojave and up as I refuse to upgrade to Catalina as some of my apps are still 32bit!

by Floatsmyboat6

Hi there,
I don’t know about you but I am one of those people who loves to look at al the journals when I go into a department store. My only issue with doing that is I end up with a bunch of empty journals that I have no use for. I would love to journal everyday and have them for reference or even an occasional trip down memory lane, but I’m so bad with committing myself to doing it everyday, I think I’ve made it about just under a week before I would start putting it off in my mind. And then eventually never do it again.
Well I finally found a solution with PrivateJournal! You can legitimately just write a sentence a day everyday and it gives you amazing insights by what you choose to select everyday. And that’s the free version there’s also a paid version where you can wirte unlimited stories a day and look back over them. I think PrivateJournal is amazing and I’m definitely going to buy the lifetime version because I want to keep it forever haha!

Best,
Andrew

by Webjac

I’ve been wanting to get into journaling for years but with little time available I wanted a journaling app that was more about how I felt and quick notes of the overall feelings rather than long meditations. PrivateJournal is a dream for that, like I would have designed it for myself.

The how you felt and why quick options are a genius idea. Two taps and you have a picture of that day, genius!

I have a couple of suggestions: ability to set journaling intervals: not just daily but weekly or monthly. Also improvements on the graph view, see the bigger picture throughout the years and things like that. Also I would change the typography, but that’s just my taste.

Other than that this is THE JOURNALING APP I’ve been looking for since forever.

No accounts, no logins, no BS. Honest to god developers doing good things. I gladly upgraded to premium, the price is super reasonable.

If you want to get into journaling quick and easy, PrivateJournal is the way to go. Keep up the good work guys.

by Writer_girl_13

PrivateJournal is great for those like me who love journaling but don’t have motivation to do it. i love the feature where you can see your moods throughout the week. also, there are many other cool features like how you can see what your week is influenced by. punkt is clever because it’s easy to keep a writing streak, as you can choose to write a minimum of one sentence a day.
some people don’t have time to write daily in a journaling app while balancing school or work. PrivateJournal, however, helps you balance your emotions while maintaining a school or work schedule.
one suggestion i have is to add more options for what your week was influenced by, and for the mood that you were in. overall, PrivateJournal has a really good concept and a soothing, simple style. excited for future updates!

by Jpintobks

Well designed idea with good interface, graphics, etc.

Developer replay almost immediately to my suggestions, which made me modify the review.

Glad to know soon there will be easy to personalize the daily personal input with the user’s own background

Choices of Influence moods, reasons for a good or bad day will not be limited, and seem there will be options in the writing space.

I highly recommend PrivateJournal, including paying for subscription as I did which is very well priced and good value..

I am sure it has a great future

by RishiNxt

Clean interface and simple yet pleasant to use. One snag that perhaps the developer can address in a future update: began writing my story before calling it a night, and realized it was just after midnight, so it was counting it as the following day - which meant I would either need to skip my story for the night and write the next day or vice versa.

by Qwertyuiop[]\b

I have tried many journaling apps and they all have me thinking I have to wright 5 paragraphs explaining my day step-by-step every day. But with Punkt I only have to write a sentence or two whenever I feel like it. It is easy and not a chore to do

by Daniel The Greatest

This is a great example of simplifying a concept down to its core components. This does only what a journaling app needs to, in the best way possible. Great work!

#1 request: iPad App! I prefer the keyboard & scribble feature of the iPad for text entry.
#2 request: Option to turn off iCloud Syncing. I see it is on automatically

by Adiaray

I really love PrivateJournal , it’s reasonably priced and I’m learning a lot about myself , I just wish they would add a feature on how I can see my stats for whole month so I can see what my month is mostly influenced by. thanks for adding the education feature. I’m in school and my weeks are mostly stressed out due to education lol

by Mmccroskey

I love the prompts that keep it simple and sweet but help you to focus on the positive bits of your day that will matter in the long run. Just happily subscribed! Two nits:

1. I would love to add videos as well as photos to my story — most memories I want to capture and relive later are videos

2. I wish you could drop a pin on the map at an exact location of your choosing rather than just searching for a place/address — my fam and I make lots of memories at a large nearby park, and I’d love to remember where I was specifically in the park that day rather than have a pin dropped in the parking lot

Thanks and keep up the great work!

by Notivation

Man, I’ve only used PrivateJournal two days but I absolutely love it. I’m starting my first year of college and was looking to start journaling so I can reflect on this time in the future. Other journaling apps are so clunky, have ads, or make me log in through weird services. The simplicity and clean UI relax me just using it, putting me into a better mindset to reflect on my day. I wish more developers would take notes from PrivateJournal... this is how it should be done.

I’m proud to have bought lifetime premium and I’d be happy to continue donating to the cause 👊 This level of perfection needs to be seen by the world.

Thanks for making PrivateJournal exist,
Nate

by Mgm97xc

PrivateJournal is a beautiful companion to log emotions and thoughts! It’s also unobtrusive in its design and function! One hope I have is that you will develop widgets now that iOS 14 is here. I’d love to be able to add a widget to my Home Screen for PrivateJournal!