
Show HN: ZenJournal – Fast journal app with chat interface - randomor
https://thezenjournal.com
======
randomor
Maker here. A while ago I wanted to find a journal app that would allow me to
type my thoughts and ideas into a stream as if chatting or tweeting. I
couldn't find anything. Most current journaling apps are either bloated with
irrelevant features or require too much efforts like notifications, answering
random questions, multiple taps, too much whitespaces, or forcing you to come
up with a title. So I decided to create it using React Native, and V1 was
published last year, and had gained a small user base.

ZenJournal 2.0 offers a few unique features other than a single-stream focused
interface where you can open and type:

\- Unified search and type: you can type '?' into the log entry point and
start searching. \- Discreet Mode: you can double tap your logs and it can
obfuscate everything so you can comfortably journal in public spaces or show
off your past efforts. \- Pull to graph: you can pull from your stream to see
a heatmap of your past 100 days. \- Hashtag auto-suggestion. Organize
everything using #hashtags and tap to search.

V2 was just made available on iOS App Store today, with Android coming in the
following months. Let me know if you have suggestions and feedback. Thank you!

~~~
jamais
I just fell in love with this journal. that would be great if I had control
over the fonts.

~~~
randomor
Thank you for the shout-out! Will add that to the feature list. What's your
desired font?

~~~
piranha
I love Helvetica, but a bit bigger than default font size right now.

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llagerlof
Well, I am testing this app since yesterday, now I can make some valid points.

Things I loved:

\- Can start typing just after opening the app.

\- Can add text with line breaks.

\- The same button to confirm is the button to add a new text.

\- Clear and dark modes are very nice.

\- Easy to backup and restore.

Things that would improve the app:

\- Edit previously saved records

\- Add a field "updatedAt"

\- Allow the user to quickly sort by "createdAt" or "updatedAt".

\- Add a marker to show the records that were updated (change the style of
datetime, add a dot, an asterisk, etc. anything to show that this record was
modified. Or show both datetimes on modified records).

I just found one little strange behaviour. If you type just blank characters
(spaces and/or LF), it allows you to add the entry.

To finish, congratulations for this beautiful application.

~~~
randomor
Thanks for the feedback! Although edit is something I rarely had the need to
use, I agree it’s probably something that i have to add. Love the idea of
having a marker to differentiate.

About the spaces, yes you can add an empty line if you want. I’ve used it to
add a separator. Sometimes I also just start or end my log with an empty line
it also will separate logs if they are logged within five minutes(so they are
auto grouped together).

Are you using the iOS version? Would the Discreet Mode be useful to you at
all?

Please help spread the word and leave a review in the store if you can. Happy
holidays!

~~~
llagerlof
> About the spaces, yes you can add an empty line if you want.

Sorry, I think I don't explained well. What I meant to was if the user type
only spaces, oy only LF, or both, without text and confirm, this entry will be
recorded, but without any text.

~~~
randomor
Are you saying the app doesn’t prevent you from just adding blank logs as
entries? That’s also intentional as a way to do separators. :)

~~~
llagerlof
AH, ok so.

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jonteru
For me, the killer feature in a journal is that it sends me reminders of what
I was doing 1 month/year/etc ago. I was willing to pay for that feature in the
app I use. Maybe it can be useful for your planning.

All the other features seem to be spot on!

------
alanng
The biggest concern of me with journals is that I'm always afraid that one day
the developers will stop developing it, and all my data will be gone.

Therefore, I choose some reliable names like Evernote or Wordpress to store my
thoughts there. Although agreeably, they are not fast and smooth, they provide
reliability. How do you plan to solve this?

I believe many people have the same concern as me because personal thoughts
are very important.

~~~
randomor
Very valid concern! Currently it exports to and restores from JSON so it's
already 10x portable than most journal apps.

I've been using this app for the last year and half consistently so it's hard
to quit this habit now.

In the event that I can no longer update this app, it will be open sourced.
I’m also considering OS it before that so more can contribute.

Also, right now the JSON format is extremely simple with a log key and
timestamp key and anyone can create a compatible app. I'd recommend it as the
new hello world project instead of a to-do list app. :)

------
criddell
Thank you for making something that doesn't put all of it's data on somebody
else's server. I love that it's an offline app.

------
npo9
Wow, I really like the privacy policy of this app.

I think I’d rather use pen & paper for this sort of thing, but I might come
back to this to use during times of very light travel

~~~
randomor
Thanks for noticing:
[https://thezenjournal.com/#privacy](https://thezenjournal.com/#privacy)

Pretty deliberate about the policy. I don't care about third-party analytics,
especially in a journaling app.

I use this to app sometimes multiple times a day, on the go. But I wanted to
make sure the experience is as close and stress-free as pen & paper.

------
HenriNext
Looks really nice, well done.

The video was bit too fast for my slow post-christmas brain (plus fast pace
doesn't induce feeling of calm and Zen). Otherwise perfect :)

~~~
randomor
Thank you! Yes the video is a bit fast. I’ve slowed it down since my first
draft but still too much content to be fit in the 30s.

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moreorless
Looks awesome. How does the author monetize? If it is free, someting
something.

~~~
randomor
Right now I'm purely solving a personal pain, so I'm just offering it for free
because I have to publish anyway and I kinda enjoy the process. As soon as
there are enough requests coming in for features that I personally don't use,
like syncing, appearance (color, fonts) customization, prompt questions etc.
I'm going to experiment with a freemium model to make this more sustainable.
This is also why I haven't open sourced it yet, because I want to leave room
for experiment and make this sustainable long-term.

~~~
eitland
To me offline is more important than open source for an app like this.

Sustainability without being another app that demands monthly payments is also
important to me (there are some really nice examples of apps that play their
freemium game excellently out there. Agenda on iOS come to mind as an example
as does Manic Time on PC. I own both.)

------
genuineirony
Honestly, I have fallen in love with this app.

~~~
randomor
Wow thanks! I spent two weeks to create that space illustration myself so I
guess it’s worth it... :) please give it a review or spread the word so more
people can find it.

