Day One Improves iOS Navigation — And I Love It

It’s been a busy month at Day One. In addition to launching a Windows version, which I wrote about yesterday, they’ve also been working to improve the iOS and iPad apps.

From the announcement:

“Our latest update for iOS brings a major redesign to Day One’s navigation, making it easier to manage journals and revisit past memories.

With a refreshed layout, this update introduces a more intuitive way to access your journals and key features. Whether you’re organizing entries across multiple journals or revisiting past moments, the new navigation ensures everything is right at your fingertips.”

I found the previous navigational elements clunky, and once Journal from Apple rolled out, features like On This Day needed some love. This redesign has improved all of that, and it looks great.

“As part of this update, we’ve introduced two new tabs—Journals and More—to simplify navigation. The Journals tab keeps all your journals in one place for easy access, while the More tab organizes key features like On This Day, Daily Prompt, and Streaks in one convenient hub.”

The term hub perfectly describes what the More tab feels like. I know that if I want anything other than direct access to one of my journals, it’s over there in a visually appealing and easy-to-navigate space.

They’ve made some small cosmetic improvements to the Journal tab that I really appreciate, like adding a small colored notebook icon next to each of my journals and the ability to reorder how the journals appear in the menu bar. That second feature may have always been available, but with the previous design, I felt no desire to explore the menu. It was mostly functional, but not especially appealing.

I haven’t played with the new iPad version yet, although it also looks promising. I’m heading out this weekend to get a new iPad to replace my now six-year-old iPad Air 3. I’ll share my thoughts on the iPadOS updates soon These navigation and layout changes are a positive step in Day One’s evolution, and I’m glad to see them iterate on the good work they’ve put into their app over the years.