Very intriguing looking iOS/iPadOS app called Journelly:
Its under-the-hood syntax is based on Org mode, interestingly, though the developer is gauging interest for Markdown. Entries are stored as plain-text files on the device.
The guiding principle seems to have been making entry as easy as possible.
All my previous mobile note-taking attempts failed to stick around almost exclusively because of friction. By bringing a social-media-like feed to my notes and making it remarkably easy to just add and search for things, app stickiness quickly took off.
Of course, these being my personal notes, privacy is non-negotiable. With Journelly being offline by default, combining elements from note-taking, journaling, and social media apps, I came to think of Journelly’s experience as “tweeting but for your eyes only”.
I love the idea. Lack of a MacOS version (or the ability to run the iOS version on MacOS) is a bit of a deal breaker. I primarily journal through the day working on my Mac.
Thanks for sharing this, Celsius. I hadn’t heard of Journelly before, but the concept sounds refreshingly simple, especially with the Org mode syntax and local plain-text storage. I can see how the “tweeting for your eyes only” approach could really lower the barrier for quick, consistent entries. Curious to see how it develops, especially if Markdown support gets added.
No has yet mentioned Obsidian. Free to use and also has a non-proprietary file format (namely Markdown). Prettyifying the presentation requires some knowledge of CSS. Depends what you want to spend — money or time to get something that appeals to visual senses.