Apple Journal in iPadOS 26

0:00 Apple Journal has finally made its way to the iPad and Mac, and I have to say, it feels like we've been waiting forever, even though it's only been a year. It started off as a solid app on the iPhone, but in iPad OS 26, it's got real potential, but is it any good? Let's break it down. So, let's talk pricing. Apple Journal is 100% free. No subscriptions, no hidden charges, which is refreshing, especially now when some journaling apps are charging ridiculous amounts. Journey, for example, now costs $200 for a one-time purchase. That's just wild. So, a free journaling app from Apple is very

0:46 welcome. The user interface is clean, minimalist, modern. You can collapse the sidebar to give yourself more writing space, and that's fantastic on the iPad's bigger screen. But there's a catch. You can't customize it. No themes, no color options, no alternate views. If you like personalizing your space, you're out of luck. It's polished, sure, but also quite plain. You can create multiple journals, which I absolutely love. One for prayer, one for travel, one for work, you name it. Your entries can be typed, handwritten, or a mix of both. And you get to choose

1:32 whether they stay on your device or sync across your Apple ecosystem. Plus, it supports Face ID and Touch ID, whichever works on your device, so your private thoughts actually stay private. Of course, I started with handwriting. We get the full Apple Pencil kit experience, including the new Read calligraphy pen from Apple Notes. The canvas is basic, nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. What I really love is that your handwriting sits in line with your type text. You can resize it, move it around. It feels like you're journaling in a natural flow. But I'll be honest, it feels more like a sketch pad than a proper handwriting

2:18 journal for now. When you type, you get the basics. Bold, italic, underline, strike out. There's a bit of text color, too, which makes me wonder why we still don't have this in Apple Notes. Just a thought. No highlighter, though. And you won't find headers, titles, or rich text formatting. Less are basic, just numbered or bulleted. It's simple and it works, but it's not actually inspiring. You can add photos, videos, and audio recordings without worrying about file sizes. Seriously, no trimming, no compressing. Huge win. Audio has to be recorded inside the app,

3:05 though. Dragging in external files didn't work for me, but the built-in recorder does transcribe your audio, and that's incredibly useful. Maybe it's just the type of audio files I try to bring in. So, let me know if you've had better luck importing audio files into Apple Journal. Your photos can come from a camera, photos library, or files, but there seems to be a limit to how many you can add. Apple doesn't say what the limit is or how it works. Is it size or total number of attachments? We really don't know cuz the app actually doesn't say. The good news, we can finally wrap text around our images. Not perfectly because

3:52 it's either on the left or extreme right. Can't really center it. Can't put it in the center. But it's still way better than being forced to stack everything at the top of your entry, which is what we've had in journal up until now. The app can log things like your location and mood. I'm not the biggest fan of the mood chart. It's a bit too detailed for a quick log, but if you're tracking mental health, it's really well done. It even links to the health app, which is a smart move. You also get suggestions and reminders to journal and some basic stats to keep you motivated. if you're motivated by those

4:38 kinds of things. The app supports dark mode, live text, and even Apple's AI writing tools. But what really stands out is data detection. You can tap on your dates and times in your entries to create calendar events or reminders. I love that their widgets, too, if you like those on your home screen. Personally, they feel a bit too in my face. But hey, options are always a good thing. There's one thing that feels like a huge miss. Scribble. It makes the most sense for a journaling app. So sadly, we can't handwrite our entries to get them converted to text in real time. And for

5:25 someone like me who doesn't use a keyboard with iPad, that would have been perfect. So hopefully it's coming soon. Search is great. You can search across all your journals or within one entry. And there's a find and replace tool, too, if you ever need to edit on the fly. Is Apple Journal on the iPad perfect? Not at all. But is it a fantastic start? Absolutely. It's free, private, and it does the basics really well. If Apple adds Scribble, better formatting, and maybe some templates down the line, this really could become one of the best journaling apps out there. Let me know, are you using Apple Journal? What do you

6:10 like about it? What are you still waiting for? Drop your thoughts in the comments. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and fantastic human, stay fantastic.