Journey

Journey

I've got through most of the good and great note taking apps that don't require subscriptions as that was my goal: find the best (local first) Android note taking app. If I've missed a great one that you use, please let me know!

There are oodles of subscription-based note apps that are very popular and I suppose I should review them since many people don't mind having their data on someone else's computer, i.e. the cloud.

When I first tried Journey a few months ago, I stopped as soon as a dialog popped up asking me to subscribe when I wanted to bold a word! I thought I would give it a second chance and I'm glad that I did. They surprised me multiple times and it's hard to surprise me after having tested close to 100 apps.

Journey is developed by the same people as JotterPad. They give you a 3 day trial period which is a little short but at least it didn't force me to signup out of the gate and I appreciated that a lot. This app is positioned for helping with your wellness and it can be used as a great date-based note taking app, aka journal.

The subscription is on the expensive side at $5.49/mo or $38/yr but really you get an incredible amount of features. They support Markdown, attached images, a calendar view that shows thumbnails of your photos, plus you can publish to Ghost, Tumblr and WordPress. Most importantly you can get your data out of their system and export individual or multiple notes. Read on for the details!

Screenshots

Meta

Ugly

  • Can't bold something without getting an upgrade dialog
  • Click publish and spinned for a long time, doesn't say where it's going to publish. Likely because I haven't subscribed as yet
  • Formatting requires payment
  • Price $37.99/yr or $5.49/mo or $124/lifetime (not sure how long that is!). If you wait a day it goes down to $22.99/yr
  • Only Google or Apple authentication, no thanks!
  • Automatically add location is enabled by default. Good that it can be disabled

Bad

  • Coach for self improvement etc. Just don't need it :)
  • No highlighting of text
  • No export to Markdown
  • No linking notes
  • Search is a little sluggish but not that bad
  • Share as text didn't include bullets
  • Share as text and media to email only included media, not the text
  • Share to email didn't put anything in the subject line
  • Chat support is Mon to Fri 8pm to 4.30am EST which is good for night owls I guess

Good

  • 3d free trial, should be longer
  • Fast UI
  • Text formatting: italics, bold, underline
  • Attach photos / images
  • Passcode on app
  • Add temperature
  • Star a note
  • Image in note list
  • Undo and redo
  • 6 font faces
  • 6 font sizes
  • Tags on a note
  • Dark mode
  • Mood on a note/day
  • View all media files / attachments
  • Notifications
  • Import notes
  • Backup and restore
  • Export multiple notes to DOCX
  • Share as text
  • Share as text and media
  • Share as DOCX
  • Addons although I don't know what they are, how many there are, or if I even want them. I definitely don't want someone else accessing my personal stuff if these are 3rd party addons

Great

  • Markdown-ish support
  • Biometric unlock
  • Add audio file / record audio (subscription)
  • WYSIWYG editing
  • Export to HTML
  • 4 line spacing settings
  • Daily journal (of course!)
  • Outline / sub-bullets
  • Nice UI
  • Print a note
  • Print multiple notes
  • Publish to social media (subscription)
  • Publish to Ghost, Tumblr and WordPress (subscription)
  • Quick switch between dates
  • Throwback to go back to current day
  • Web, MacOS, and iOS apps
  • Download as ZIP file
  • Swipe left and right to scroll through notes
  • Share as HTML
  • Two widgets: add text, add media
  • Chat support (see Bad)

Awesome

  • Image thumbnail in calendar view, wow!
  • Incredible help pages on the Web
  • Map view, would be great for a traveler
  • Add an image from a different date asks if you want to put it on that date's journal
  • In media tab, if you click on an image it shows the note that has the image attached, love it!
  • Add geotag and remove geotag easily
  • Can add notes by emailing unique email address including attachments! (subscription)
  • Zapier integration (subscription)