Show HN: Minimalist offline journal app with a chat interface

[randomor]

Maker here. I’ve went against the grain[1] and maintained this journaling app for the third year now. This is V3 that I just pushed few months ago that added photo logs (iOS only for now unlike V2). It may help people reflect now we are entering the holidays with a new start soon.

Why make another journaling app when there are so many other Day One look-alikes? Because it’s unique in the following ways:

- Offline only, no cloud, no tracking

- Easy to export to JSON (you own your data)

- Minimalism design taken to it’s logical conclusion

- Open and type, no step 2

- Type “?” to search, no step 2

- Type “#” to use hashtag to organize

- Double-tap timeline to hide and keep logging in discreet

- Pull up the timeline to see a 100 day GitHub like heatmap

Also it tries to avoid the following anti-features:

- journal titles (my pet peeves, way too much info up front)

- Sparse timeline with main/detail layout that forces you to drill down to see your full journal entry

- Notifications/reminders

I try to expand the answer in this post too: https://thezenjournal.com/why

Feedback and suggestions welcomed. Thank you!

[1]: https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1303812935773556736

[progman32]

Love the design. Lowest possible friction is important.

I personally a) dislike writing _anything_ on touch screens b) live in the terminal anyway. So I wrote a script called "n" that appends a timestamp to a text file, then: If there are command line arguments, it appends them to the file verbatim and exits. Else it opens vim, in edit mode just under the timestamp. For example:

  # n 'Hello, world!' # Writes a quick timestamped note and exits.
  # n # Adds timestamp, opens vim. For bigger notes.

Since the text file is on my NAS I can view it from all the devices I care about. Yes, I know it's not a system everyone would want (curlftpfs anyone?), but it works for me, and is guaranteed to remain readable for decades. It's just a text file on disk. I search it using the text editor.

Here's my scripts. I think I got the idea on HN somewhere, if it was you, feel free to set the record straight. Also I'm bad at shell scripts, so any suggestions welcome.

~/bin/n (add note):

  #! /usr/bin/env bash
  cd ~
  echo >> notes.txt
  echo -n '# ' >> notes.txt
  date '+%a %d %b %Y %T %Z' | tr -d "\n" >> notes.txt
  echo ' #' >> notes.txt
  if [[ $# -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo $@ >> notes.txt
    tail notes.txt
  else
    vim "+normal Go" +startinsert notes.txt
  fi

~/bin/nt (review notes):

  #! /usr/bin/env bash
  less +G ~/notes.txt

~/bin/ne (open vim at the last line for revisions):

  #! /usr/bin/env bash
  vim "+normal G" ~/notes.txt

I plan on setting up an old laptop with a proper full travel keyboard on my nightstand that boots straight to this, no graphical environment, nothing else.

[thebiblelover7]

I created my own, more complicated script called npad which automatically creates a note in the `~/Npad` directory when you run it. I created it because I kept on writing text files in random places and couldn't find them later.

Check it out at https://gitlab.com/thebiblelover7/npad

[randomor]

Have you heard of jrnl.sh? You may like it if you live in the terminal. I’d like one day support merging jrnl logs.

[occamschainsaw]

Love the idea! I am installing it right now and will get the pro to support you. I have a question about backup/restore. What is the backup format? A markdown/plain text would be best for archival purposes, especially for a journal that might be read far into the future. I get that it is offline, but having a journal on one device only without is a double edged sword. If I lose my phone, I lose my journal. Would it be possible to sync it to iCloud? Then it would be easier to have it on multiple devices as well. Thanks for making this!

Edit: After playing around with the app, I see that the backup is a zip with a json file and images. That is great for archival.

[randomor]

The backup format is a simple zip with a folder `assets/` that contains all the images, and a `logs.json` file that contains all the logs, which itself is a simple array with `createdAt, text, image` as keys.

Yes, the offline thing is kinda a hurdle to many. The way I'm convincing myself: if I log from multiple devices and backup often, I get some sort of offline partial replication? :D iCloud is great in its partition of user data so the devs don't have access to it, so yes if I were to support auto sync, iCloud would be top of the list. NextCloud is also on the table.

Thank you for the support!

[junseok]

This is excellent! I've discovered that I value very similar features as I have tried other journaling apps.

I found that my personal favorite solution so far is actually a chatroom with just myself in KakaoTalk. It also has the extremely simple input, which is critical to make sure capture and journaling actually happens, and fast search using substrings and tags, which make recall simple.

EDIT: Also, automatically timestamped input! Which puts both your app and my solution a step above a plaintext file

It's not without its warts, which your app does away with. However, I personally find the ability to post photos, videos, and audio recordings very useful, and for that reason will likely stick to my existing solution for now. Regardless, it's really great to find others share similar values in journaling, and I'll be following closely! Thank you!

[randomor]

Thank you for the kind words! Yes I've also tried a private twitter account, private slack/telegram channel, those would also work wonders if you desire something cross platform. I just realized I need something with minimum distraction, thus a dedicated UI for journal logs, which means no cloud or other people's servers, no profile images, no retweet button etc. :D

Feel free to follow the journey via our Twitter handler @thezenjournal or sign up for the newsletter if interested in following.

[chris-orgmenta]

Would like to try your recommendation, KakaoTalk permissions are a little scary though

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kakao.talk

[ChrisArchitect]

whoa, the design of this web page threw me off at first. Interesting apple vibe but it's all over I don't know where to look, it's just all over/in my face. (on desktop)

[bellyfullofbac]

The first word I noticed on that page: "Declutter".

Yeah, the minimalist websites of today can sometimes be too minimalist, but this... is the opposite.

Edit: ah yeah of course it's an optimized-for-mobile page. Watched the video, it uses hashtags, this potential user says: pass.

[throwaway180118]

I agree. Took me a minute to figure out where to get the software. I'd recommend something like a colored header bar along the top with the store page links.

[jwong_]

At first I thought it was broken in Firefox 94.0.2 for me.

Then I realised that form in the middle of the page was just an image. I also thought the light/dark mode toggle in the middle was real as well.

[randomor]

Face palm moment indeed. I was actually kinda proud of the redesigned landing page, but yes, the image needs to be separated from the copy, maybe with a clear border.

[GaylordTuring]

Yeah, I also thought that I would be able to interact with these elements at first.

[felipeqq2]

The best journaling app is anything that opens a markdown file. You can always build the workflow that suits you best.

[randomor]

I'd like to differentiate between journaling and note-taking. And I do enjoy software that's designed for a specific purpose. e.g.: VS Code for code, Typora for Markdown, Roam for outlines. Markdown file is a great way for persistence, I find the formatting although great for expressing complex and structured thoughts and ideas, a bit redundant for my casual journaling needs (plus no timestamps per log, which I find useful to preserve the context). I do recommend Logseq or Obsidian for longer form note-taking. I also find ZenJournal could be a decent gateway to your other workflows: you log on the go from the phone and transfer the logs back to your other workflows. :)

[TheRealNGenius]

hard disagree, WYSIWYG is the way to go.

Edit: unless you mean literally, in which case, sure.

[Otek]

if i could have a suggestion, rethink the home page design again. I was stunned because I couldn't focus on anything, I didn't understand what I was looking at for a good 5 seconds. My main complaint: the images are too big and the text too small. The information that you can lock using your fingerprint is unreasonably more prominent than the information about what the product is and where you can get it.

Good luck, we need privacy oriented tools!

[randomor]

Haha thanks for the feedback. I definitely am hearing some echos. I was inspired by apples keynote grid design but then realized maybe for a landing page it’s a bit too chaotic? And your eyes don’t have a linear place to start and have to do some extra work. Definitely thinking ways to mitigate this.

[anyfactor]

Seconded. It took way more than a minute to understand what is going on. I kept coming back to thread and the homepage trying to figure what this note app is even for. I am still not sure if it can be used on the browser or the desktop.

[clon]

Thank you. This will replace my notes app.

One small thing that got me confused. Typing ? in my SO's Android (MS SwiftKey) automatically adds a space after it: "? ". No idea why it does that, but it stops search from working. Maybe skip leading whitespace?

[randomor]

Hope it helps you. That’s a surprising bug. Does it happen with every keyboard? Thanks for the report.

[dang]

One previous thread:

Show HN: ZenJournal – Fast journal app with chat interface - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21876939 - Dec 2019 (25 comments)

(Reposts are ok after a year or so: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. Links like this are just for readers who may be curious for more.)

[randomor]

Thanks for the added context! It's been almost 2 years of idleness from me. Although I've released the android version and few small changes in between, I wish one day I'm updating the app frequently enough that I need to post every year. :D

[deegles]

I think it would be fun to have Whatsapp integration, and I can easily send pictures, notes, voice notes etc to the journal. The other part could be to have a simple chat bot that provides prompts throughout the day, like "what are you doing right now?" or "take a selfie with whoever you're with."

[randomor]

Interesting. I've seen people using telegram to post messages to their Roam graph, it will require some significant work considering this is an offline-only app. But then again, if I do support all these log types, why not just go to the app directly? I do like your auto prompt feature and have thought about it as well (or even support different scripted prompts as plugins), some people do like the prompt and structure, maybe someday when there is enough user interests...

[balaji1]

App looks great. The autocomplete suggestions for hashtag is nice. Would you add functionality to edit notes?

Also I want to keep a few different "threads". I guess the workaround is the hashtags.

[randomor]

Thanks! Editing will be coming, at some point, due to overwhelming demand. :) Hesitant about threads at the moment, as don't want to complicate existing interface. Some also suggested using horizontal scroll for different streams to separate work and life for example.

[eitland]

I found I installed this a long time ago and didn't use it.

Today however it seems like something I can definitely use.

I've been thinking in the same direction a few times (I.e. a personal Twitter) but never came around to it and always fell back to saved messages on Telegram.

Now however this seems to have become what I want.

We'll see, I might still fall back to Telegram but I have at least signed up for the trial without immediately unsubscribing like I usually do; the service is that promising and the price is that good.

[randomor]

Thank you for the shoutout. Yeah most of the features are free but with subscription you are supporting me and also unlocking the photo logs and fonts and hopefully more in the future.

[busymom0]

Feedback: your website on desktop seems way too complex for me to figure out. Kinda goes against the "minimalist" app. I would suggest re-designing the site.

[chilldsgn]

Seconded. It feels chaotic.

[mongol]

What do people use journal apps for? One thing I want to do is to log nature observations when I am out and about in nature. Preferably through voice recording (not neccessarily transcribed) and geotagged. Bonus points if the phone can stay in my pocket and I can do it through a PTT microphone.

Are there apps for this?

[dismantlethesun]

I use journaling to take notes when I am doing undirected research. I also use it to log my thoughts on topics that I later need to write reports about.

My spouse is in journalism. She keeps voice recordings of everything instead of a journal. There aren’t really any good apps for this, but a transcription service and dedication to writing summaries can go a long way I hear. The transcription makes the voice recording searchable, and the summary ensures that you’ve gone back over everting at least once and pulled out the important information.

[Aaronstotle]

This is great! Do you know if this can run an M1 mac? I would like to journal on a laptop versus my phone.

[randomor]

Oh good question, I just tried this the first time, it does! It runs as an iPad app though, and everything seems to be working? :D

My plan is to add some log merging functions, so you can eventually merge your logs from your phone to your Mac and vice versa. Thanks!

[fattybob]

Nice app, shame about the monthly fee for images, a one off fee may get you a large user base!

[avinassh]

I use Daygram, which has a one time fee for pro version. It checks most boxes, very minimal and frictionless to log anything.

[handrous]

Hm. Now I want a journaling/note-taking app that just listens on every chat service I use.

[kinos]

Any chance you have plans on making this usable by groups instead of individuals? I've been looking to find, adapt, or make something like this for collaborative fiction.

[randomor]

I’d just recommend a private telegram or slack group. This is offline only with no tracking of user profiles etc.

[skurtcastle]

That's an epic journal. I like the simplicity of it and minimalistic to it as well. Keep up the great work.