A private diary written by your iPhone
What Journary is.
Journary records your location history in the background without a start or stop button. It turns that evidence into a map, detected trips, daily writing and route films. Your location history stays on your iPhone and syncs only through your private iCloud. You can add your own writing, connect Apple Health if you choose, and export your history in standard formats including GPX, KML and JSON.
The parts
What it does
Automatic Location Capture
Journary records where you go in the background at an interval you choose. There is no recording session to start or stop.
Map Visualization
See your entire history on Apple Maps. View any day, week, or custom date range, with transport-mode colors for walking, driving, cycling, and flying.
Cinematic Trip Videos
Turn a journey into a shareable route film with your path and photos. Export it in square, portrait or landscape.
Automatic Trip Detection
Journary groups recorded travel into trips and shows the destination, dates and distance.
The long view
Ordinary days add up faster than you notice.
A street you lived on for a while. A city you passed through once and could not place again. Every day you carry your phone joins the ones before it, until the map stops showing where you are and starts showing where you have been.
Good to know
Questions people ask
How does automatic location capture work?
Journary records your location in the background at an interval you choose, from one minute to 24 hours. There is no trip to start or stop, and location capture is available free.
Will Journary drain my battery?
Journary uses interval-based background recording instead of continuously requesting a location. Battery use varies with the interval, movement, coverage and device. Choose a longer interval if you want fewer location checks.
Does my data ever leave my phone?
Your journal is stored on your iPhone. A normal encrypted device or iCloud backup can include it, but Journary does not promise live sync. No Journary server receives your location history or diary. If you choose Feedback and support, the message, topic, stable source identifier, anonymous installation identifier, and optional reply email leave your phone. Basic app and device diagnostics are included only when you turn on consent for that message. The app contains no third-party analytics or advertising trackers.
Is Journary private compared to Google Timeline?
No Journary server receives your location history. Journary keeps that record on your iPhone and syncs it only through your private iCloud. There is no Journary account, advertising profile or third-party analytics SDK.
What's free and what's Pro?
Free keeps every map, trip, photo, search result, correction, export, poster and your own writing available at every age. It also includes Journary-generated diary writing from the last 12 months. Pro unlocks older generated prose.
Is Pro a subscription?
No. Journary Pro is one non-consumable purchase that unlocks Pro for life. The US base price is $69.99. There is no subscription, trial, renewal or launch discount.
How do trip videos work?
Choose a trip and Journary draws the route across the map with your photos. You can export square, portrait or landscape video.
Can I export my data?
Yes. You own your data and can export your full route history in standard open formats including GPX, KML and JSON. Export remains available free, regardless of the age of the record.
How does Apple Health integration work?
If you opt in, Journary reads steps, floors climbed, walking and running distance, and elevation from Apple Health. Journary processes those statistics on your iPhone and does not upload them to a Journary server.
Private by default
A diary belongs to one person.
Journary stores your location history and diary on your iPhone. They sync through your private iCloud, and no Journary server receives either one. The app has no third-party analytics, advertising trackers or ads.
- Written on your iPhone
- Journary processes your days on your iPhone and syncs them through your private iCloud, not a Journary server.
- Correct it or remove it
- Change a place, drop a day, or delete the whole history.
- Take it with you
- Export the diary as GPX, KML or JSON, on every tier, at no charge.