Want to Use Apple’s Journal App More This Year? This Makes It Much Easier

The iPhone’s Journal app is a simple way to keep a record of events, including photos, videos, locations, workouts, music, and more. Typing out journal entries on your iPhone isn’t ideal, however. That’s where iPhone Mirroring can help.

Why is the Journal App Only Available on the iPhone?

If you’re an Apple user and have always wanted to keep a journal, you may have been excited when Apple launched the Journal app in 2023 alongside iOS 17. If you were hoping to be able to update your journal on your Mac or iPad, however, you will have been disappointed.

Currently, the Journal app is only available on the iPhone, with no native support for iPad or Mac. At first, this seems bizarre, with the iPhone being the worst of the three when it comes to entering a lot of text. However, when you consider how the Journal app works, Apple’s decision does at least make some sense.

That’s because the Journal app isn’t just a place to write out your thoughts on a daily basis. The app will actively suggest things to keep a record of, based on things such as the places you’ve visited, the photos that you’ve taken, the workouts you’ve done, the music you’ve listened to, and even the people you’ve been with.

This is only really possible with a device that you carry around with you all the time, and as useful as your iPad and Mac may be, they’re not devices you necessarily take with you wherever you go.

Apple seems to have limited the Journal app to the iPhone since it’s the device that can offer the best experience in terms of personalized suggestions and prompts for your journal. The downside of this is that you have to make your journal entries using the iPhone’s tiny keyboard. Even using keyboard swiping, it can be an awkward and time-consuming process.

Apple does everything it can to make journaling as simple as possible on the iPhone. You don’t even need to write anything, since you can just pick images and activities and drop them into an entry. But what if you want to write?

iPhone Mirroring Makes Journal Entries a Breeze

The good news is that there’s a way to get all the benefits of the personalized suggestions that the Journal app can make on your iPhone, while still being able to make your journal entries using a physical keyboard with the help of iPhone Mirroring.

Your iPhone needs to be running iOS 18 or later, and your Mac needs to have Apple Silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip and be running macOS Sequoia 15 or later. If this is the case, you can use iPhone Mirroring to make your entries in the Journal app via your Mac.

iPhone Mirroring creates a virtual copy of your iPhone on your Mac that you can interact with using your Mac’s keyboard and mouse or trackpad. Anything you do while using iPhone Mirroring on your Mac is reflected on your iPhone, so you can open the Journal app on your Mac and use the Mac’s keyboard to type out your journal entries much more quickly.

Open the iPhone Mirroring app on your Mac and log in using your fingerprint or password. Move the pointer just above the virtual iPhone and click the Home Screen icon that appears. Click “Search,” type “Journal” and open the “Journal” app from the results. You may need to authenticate again with your fingerprint or password before the Journal app opens.

Once the app has opened, you can create entries as you would on your iPhone, but with the added benefit that you can type out any text you want to enter using your Mac’s keyboard.

Tips For Using the Journal App on Mac

If you’ve not used iPhone Mirroring before, there are a few tips that can make the experience a little smoother. Firstly, there are some useful keyboard shortcuts.

Command+1 takes you to the Home Screen in the same way that swiping up from the bottom of the screen does on your iPhone. Command+2 opens the App Switcher, and Command+3 opens Spotlight search.

This means that the quickest way to open the Journal app if it doesn’t have pride of place on your Home Screen is to press Cmd+3 and start typing “Journal.” You can then select the Journal app icon from the results.

If your iPhone vibrates, you may be tempted to pick it up to see what the notification says, but if you open your iPhone, iPhone Mirroring will disconnect. You might prefer to finish off your journal entry first or check the notification on the virtual iPhone on your Mac.

The Journal app also gives you the option to take a photo within the app to add to your journal entry. However, you can’t use your iPhone camera while using iPhone Mirroring, so you’ll need to take any photos you want to add in advance.

Pairing a Keyboard With Your iPhone

If your iPhone or Mac doesn’t support iPhone Mirroring, then this option is unfortunately unavailable. However, there is an alternative option, although it can feel like overkill if you’re only using it for Journal entries. It’s possible to pair a Bluetooth keyboard with your iPhone which you can use to type out your entries rather than using the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard.

You can even use apps such as 1Keyboard to make your Mac emulate a Bluetooth keyboard, allowing you to type on your iPhone from your Mac’s keyboard, although many of these apps come with a price.

The Journal app for iPhone has a lot going for it, but typing out full journal entries on the iPhone’s tiny keyboard isn’t always the most pleasant experience. iPhone Mirroring makes typing your entries so much easier and may be enough to get you to start journaling on a regular basis.