Are you sure? From Apple’s press release:
With the new Journaling Suggestions API, developers will be able to add journaling suggestions to their apps
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That was my understanding, too.
Day One will be able to suggest things from Day One to add to Journal, not vice versa.
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With the new Journaling Suggestions API, developers will be able to add journaling suggestions to their apps [emphasis mine]
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Yeah, I read that quote differently than you do. We’ll see!
I agree with your read. It does not read “developers will be able to add journaling suggestions to Journal,” which would imply write-only api access. This seems to suggest read access since developers will be able to add suggestions to their apps.
I don’t know which view as to access is correct, as between read-and-write or just write. But from a sentence parsing standpoint, this one seems to pretty unambiguously point to read-access.
My bias: I also hope it’s correct because I don’t like to see the markets wiped away from third-party developers.
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Day One responded today, touting its new Shared Journal feature, and cross-platform support, including Android.
It would seem that way from the marketing copy, and I hope it’s true. Most coverage is very sparse on the details of the API, but I’ve read at least a couple articles (which somehow I can’t find at the moment - I’ll post if I can track them down) that indicated contrary.
The big thing to me though is that Marco Arment, who is at WWDC and talking to the people there, seems to think that it’s not the case. Usually I’ve found his assessments of this stuff to be accurate.
We’ll see when the API rolls out this fall.
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I’m not so sure I’d trust Apple with my journaling data. Sure it’s E2EE, but who has access to the key? Is it still encrypted in icloud?
Besides this, if Apple cannot sort out the appalling syncing of their icloud, this will be just another app where data gets stuck.
I’d also add that Apple’s software may have 5-star GUI’s but it’s functionality is often mediocre. Certainly no better than other software. 13 years ago I was mostly using Apple’s software. Now I’m only using the OS. Microsoft Office and Adobe have replaced iWork and Final cut pro. I’m not sure Apple is a threat to serious Day one users at this point.
EDIT
Even on my iphone the only stock app I use is mail.
On Upgrade and ATP, they’ve claimed it’s about Apple providing the ability to other Journalling type apps to understand what’s happened during the day, rather than tell Apple Journal that they completed a Strava workout
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It doesn’t make any sense to me that a 3rd party journaling app would be able to add to “suggestions” for Apple’s journal app. Suggestions are from things like location, photos, health monitoring, calendar etc. to be a basis of what you might journal about. I can’t imagine that you’d ever want a suggestion from what you had already written in a journal app.
3rd party journal apps already have access to photos, health, calendar etc… If Apple is pulling those kinds of access into an API which uses machine learning to make suggestions, it makes complete sense (and adds to privacy) to require 3rd party apps to replace their patchwork access across the system with a single access via the suggestions API.
I guess we’ll know when they release it “in a software update later this year”.
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I’d like to add that Safari has somewhat sherlocked a lot of alternative browsers by adding profiles and webapps. I’m thinking of Arc, Vivaldi, SigmaOS or Orion, although they offer features that go far beyond that, if more basic user cases are supported by Safari then the adoption barrier becomes higher.
On ATP Casey said he initially took it as Apple providing info to the other journaling apps, and Marco replied with a very low “noooooooo”, at which point Casey noted that he’d had people clarify to him that it was for other apps to give data to Apple, not the other way around. Timestamp on the most recent episode is right around the 59 minute mark.
I just looked at Upgrade, and it was the opposite (timestamp around 47:30). Myke thought it was that other apps could contribute to Apple’s info, and Jason indicated he believes the API worked the other way.
So I guess it’s anybody’s guess at this point - although my bias is to trust the programmer (Marco), as they’re more likely to be talking to other programmers and asking detailed questions about APIs.
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To be fair, Marco is probably asking his contacts what he will have to do to make sure that Overcast history appears in suggestions, rather than accessing Apple suggestions in his own app!
Also, it’s quite possible the API will provide connections both ways (as with the Health one)
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That would definitely be his use case. Marco seems to be the sort of person who would want to know all the details though, as he definitely considers himself somewhat of a “tech journalist.”
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I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned that Apple sherlocked Sherlock when it introduced Spotlight search.
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You can likely log this under “nobody cares,” but I renewed my DayOne premium subscription for another year.
I want to both support them, as well as believe it is a superior app and platform. I am cross-platform with some Windows devices, and their web app is pretty awesome (even in beta). Plus, like other DO users, I have over a decade of entries. I also appreciate DO’s positive spin on Apple getting into the game.
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I think supporting Day One was more of a big deal before they were acquired by Automattic. Automattic’s Wordpress definitely isn’t going anywhere, regardless of what happens to Day One.
That being said, I think Automattic is one of the few companies out there doing good for the internet and the world at large, so, yea, support for them is great. I guess I just talked myself into a circle here.
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It’s a good point about their acquisition versus trying to make it on their own, but I still think it’s a way of “voting” with my wallet. Meaning, there is still a place for them IMO.
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