Review Insights · App Store
Day One: Daily Journal & Diary
Bloom Built Inc · 116,189 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
116,189 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 43 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"been"
18 negative reviews mention this · 42% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Trust Is Lost. I know the AI garbage is "opt-in" (for now) but I do not trust that it won't eventually work it's way into my private information. I mean they're using OpenAI, a company that's as sketchy as they come and I would never trust with anything! …" - olethembones
2
"years"
16 negative reviews mention this · 37% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ai & price jump. The recent new update made me very unsatisfied. Been using the app for a few years and I loved it, but after the new update they ruined it. Why do they have to add AI for. To make it worse the button to use AI is everywhere in the app witho…" - Rileylizard
3
"update"
12 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App crashes. Can’t use it. The app crashes 2 seconds after I open it. Only started happening after the latest update. Never had an issue before." - Zzzz1231
4
"since"
9 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI reading entries! Why? Since when??!?. Private features gone after 3.5 year streak break ." - InternationalAmerican
5
"features"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI reading entries! Why? Since when??!?. Private features gone after 3.5 year streak break ." - InternationalAmerican
6
"into"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Trust Is Lost. I know the AI garbage is "opt-in" (for now) but I do not trust that it won't eventually work it's way into my private information. I mean they're using OpenAI, a company that's as sketchy as they come and I would never trust with anything! …" - olethembones
7
"loved"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ai & price jump. The recent new update made me very unsatisfied. Been using the app for a few years and I loved it, but after the new update they ruined it. Why do they have to add AI for. To make it worse the button to use AI is everywhere in the app witho…" - Rileylizard
8
"entries"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI reading entries! Why? Since when??!?. Private features gone after 3.5 year streak break ." - InternationalAmerican
9
"journaling"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not everything needs AI, especially this app. The LAST thing we need is our most personal and private thoughts fed into and training AI. What a violation of privacy. Some of us keep analog habits such as journaling to distance ourselves from the over-hyped AI glorification and now this…" - curiouscornellian
10
"love"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Price point!. Although I love this app, and have found it better than most, it’s entirely too expensive for a one-time subscription." - AH95@
11
"latest"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App crashes. Can’t use it. The app crashes 2 seconds after I open it. Only started happening after the latest update. Never had an issue before." - Zzzz1231
12
"latest update"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App crashes. Can’t use it. The app crashes 2 seconds after I open it. Only started happening after the latest update. Never had an issue before." - Zzzz1231
📋 All 43 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
AI reading entries! Why? Since when??!?
Private features gone after 3.5 year streak break .
App crashes. Can’t use it
The app crashes 2 seconds after I open it. Only started happening after the latest update. Never had an issue before.
Trust Is Lost
I know the AI garbage is "opt-in" (for now) but I do not trust that it won't eventually work it's way into my private information. I mean they're using OpenAI, a company that's as sketchy as they come and I would never trust with anything! I've been using Day One since it was released but now I'm done. I cannot trust Day One's keepers anymore. I can't believe Paul & Co would think throwing AI into a journal app is an acceptable path to take. I knew the acquisition by Automattic would eventually lead to a terrible decision. I'll be exporting and letting my membership expire at the end of next month. What a bummer...
Ai & price jump
The recent new update made me very unsatisfied. Been using the app for a few years and I loved it, but after the new update they ruined it. Why do they have to add AI for. To make it worse the button to use AI is everywhere in the app without a way to turn them off. The final nail in the coffin was the price jump. Why $35 to $50. Seriously? Sad they are going this route.
AI
I’m done with apps that shove AI down our throats.
Daily user since 2014 Now Looking for an alternative
Writing this review on behalf of my mom. She was a longtime user of this app since 2014. But the iOS glass or update has ruined everything. Her older entries aren’t here. It’s missing so much. It’s a disaster in every single way. Thank god she has older devices where she can still access the older version of the app. I regret getting her a new phone. She’s so upset. And she pays for gold. This is a nightmare.
Paying User since March ‘11 Launch
Your arrogance in pushing all to Gold, without a hint of permission, tells us who you are at your core. Likewise, your AI delusions of grandeur confirm who is, and is not, in the room as you cement decisions. Translation → I defy anyone to tap the Create an Entry image, using ANY of its type choices, and come up with something that does NOT shout #OscarsSoWhite. It’s a well known problem, arrested only by the intelligent. Eg Download MindSera’s trial, play around in it, and notice their gentle yet effective taming mechanism. WordPress people, this you can NOT blame on Apple. YOU chose your coding. YOU chose to remain blind. Anything with your name on it now joins the Target list.
Forcing ai into the compose view
There’s a new ai button in the compose view that can’t be hidden. I’ve been a paying subscriber for a decade but I’ll migrate all my notes soon if there’s no option to hide it. I appreciate that all the ai features are opt in but now I am constantly reminded that they exist. Sad.
Latest update completely fried it
I’ve used Day One for years. Over the last few weeks, the typing became very laggy, almost to the point of not being usable. Then, today, it attempted to update, but is stuck halfway downloaded. I am unable to either delete the app or cancel the download, so I have no access to it at all. I’m disappointed, as this has been my favorite app. Please fix it quickly!
Going from five stars to one star
Day One is using AI to upsell sloppy features that are just plain risky to use. AI in my journals? Hell no. You lost my trust and respect by automatically turning on AI features.
Why is there AI??
Extremely disappointed with Day One and Automattic for the integration of AI into the app. I loved this app for years, but shoehorning in the AI features with a price hike was a dealbreaker. No longer subscribed, and moving to text edit.
memories brokener
bad app,evil company
Lost all of my data
I had been using day one for over a year and lost everything. Worst app ever
Keeps freezing daily
I used to love this app. I've been using it for years. It has been freezing daily and it's unusable.
Ai Slop
I’ve been happily paying for Day One for years. Now they’ve introduced AI slop into the app and I immediately canceled my plan. I will never let them use my data for LLM. They’ve broken all trust with this bad update.
Duck AI
AI is raising my power bills and it’s polluting water. It’s investors bait, and shows the devs don’t care about what the people who buy their software.
Not able to open!! Used for years but can’t ATM!
Been using this app for a few years without any problem until now. I can’t even open the app, it’s stuck in updating on my iPad Air M3!
Introducing AI features while ignoring stuttering/slowdown/insane overheating
Been using this app for five years and have loved it, but the update they claimed fixed the issues that have been plaguing the app for the last few weeks did nothing for me. I was happy to see another update come through, sure that this would actually fix the problem. But this update just adds a new paid tier full of AI stuff that’s completely unnecessary and just bogs down what should be a simple app. I could ignore that if the technical issues weren’t still making the app unusable. My email to the developers simply generated an AI auto-reply generated from their FAQ that seemed to be outdated, so I don’t even know if the devs know that some people are still experiencing the issues they claim were fixed a couple updates ago. Ready and willing to change this to 5 stars if they can just actually fix this issue.
Latest update freezes
The latest update seems to freeze up my whole phone. Very concerning, hope they fix it.
What broke?!
I’ve been using Day One for a year and a half and it was great until a few weeks ago. I’ve tried offloading memory, I’ve tried rebooting and re-downloading the app, I’ve updated the app (again today! When the fix they promised was released this week!) and it still freezes my phone when I open the app and start an entry, and then takes forever to unlock enough to type. I’ve been using this to track my pet’s health conditions. I’m going to need to find an alternative.
They took away features that I paid for
I’ve been a paying user of Day One for years and have hundreds of entries in this app. I already thought the subscription was expensive, but I accepted it because I used features like Go Deeper Prompts, Entry Summaries, and Title Suggestions regularly.
I paid for a full year in November, and now those same features have been removed from my plan and placed behind an even more expensive tier. That means I paid for something and then had it taken away before my subscription even ended.
This isn’t about new features costing more this is about losing features I already paid for. It feels unfair to loyal, paying users.
I would not have subscribed at the current price for what is now included. Very disappointing.
I paid for a full year in November, and now those same features have been removed from my plan and placed behind an even more expensive tier. That means I paid for something and then had it taken away before my subscription even ended.
This isn’t about new features costing more this is about losing features I already paid for. It feels unfair to loyal, paying users.
I would not have subscribed at the current price for what is now included. Very disappointing.
doesn’t work anymore
used to love this app but for the past few weeks i haven’t been able to type on it. it runs very slow. and now that ai was added i’ll have to look for an alternative i don’t trust it for privacy
Killing my phone
I just updated the app, but continue to experience the same problem… as soon as I open any journal to write in it, my phone begins to heat up tremendously and the app itself is clearly struggling. I can’t type more than two characters before it locks up, and it takes a minute before it can calm down. So disappointing, I used to use this daily but now it zaps my battery, makes my phone too hot to handle, and can’t manage even the most basic task 🙃
Ruined
Congrats for ruining a perfectly good app by forcing ai into it and making it impossible to turn off chat views and other such nonsense in the today view. I was going to recommend this to someone. Now I won't.
Buggy Recently
Have used this app with no issues for years, but it’s gotten incredibly slow and buggy in the last couple weeks, pretty much impossible to use
Lost love
I loved the app for years. Latest update though introduced an unbearable keyboard lag (unless you’re offline -> why does it need to send every keystroke to the cloud?) that the app is pretty much unusable.
Broken
I used this app for more than 5 years and loved it. It was great. But for some reason in the last week or so it almost completely locks up every time I go to use it. I’ve tried removing some of my entries from memory and stuff like that but nothing has fixed it. Not sure what’s going on but I’d like to keep using this app!! Please fix!!
Slow, clunky, bloated
I’ve been a Day One user since the early days.
I loved Day One. It was a great journaling app. But over the years it has gotten bloated. The UI/UX is slow and clunky. It’s no longer a delight to use.
It’s time to move on. We had a good run. Thank you Day One.
I loved Day One. It was a great journaling app. But over the years it has gotten bloated. The UI/UX is slow and clunky. It’s no longer a delight to use.
It’s time to move on. We had a good run. Thank you Day One.
Unusable
That update is so bad as to make the app useless for its purpose. First letter-LETTER-takes seconds sometimes minutes to appear, then the whole keyboard vanishes. If I were starting new, I would not chose this app to trust.
Slow and freezes
Ever since a recent update, typing lags, the app is really slow, and it freezes and closes. Please fix this, it’s really challenging to use this app.
Price point!
Although I love this app, and have found it better than most, it’s entirely too expensive for a one-time subscription.
Not everything needs AI, especially this app
The LAST thing we need is our most personal and private thoughts fed into and training AI. What a violation of privacy. Some of us keep analog habits such as journaling to distance ourselves from the over-hyped AI glorification and now this app has succumbed. I’ll be looking for alternatives.
No lined templates
Waste of a half an hour trying to set up the app and find an actual page to journal. I should not have assumed that, because it allows handwritten entries, the app has templates that support that.
Now pushing AI into journaling
I have used and paid for DayOne for several years. It had everything I wanted from a journaling app. Recently AI has been introduced into it. Even with AI features toggled ‘off’, the app pushes suggestions to use AI and attempts to upsell you to the highest subscription plan that uses AI. Even if I am to attempt to disregard the moral, ethical, and environmental layers against AI and just use the app I pay for; well- DayOne will keep encouraging me to have AI journal FOR me whenever I open it. What is the point of journaling if I were to ask AI to think for me? I’m really supposed to WANT my most private thoughts introduced to AI summaries? It’s insane. I will not be renewing and I will be sure to delete my DayOne account ASAP.
i used to love this app so much.
after the ios glass update this app has been a laggy unusable mess, i have periods of time where i can’t even the open the app without it crashing, or not being able to open at all. i miss when this app was simple to use and able to sync across multiple devices for free.
Journals Lost. Feels like Ransom.
Journals Lost in iPhone transfer and no help available except with upgrade.
Forcing Premium
I like this app and have never had a problem with it, but recently it updated and automatically put me into the gold tier. I think I was able to move it to silver, but I don’t know for sure. Why didn’t it ask me beforehand if I wanted the premium tier? How do I know for sure what tier I’m on?
I have no desire or use for AI and it gives me pause that the developers want to push this on me. Why are you giving me a “free” gold tier that I didn’t ask for or want?
I’m getting increasingly concerned about the privacy of my data. Why can’t I store my data on iCloud? How do I know that the developers aren’t using or looking at my data? What happens if the app shuts down suddenly? How will I get my data?
I’m almost ready to go back to pen and paper because of these issues.
I have no desire or use for AI and it gives me pause that the developers want to push this on me. Why are you giving me a “free” gold tier that I didn’t ask for or want?
I’m getting increasingly concerned about the privacy of my data. Why can’t I store my data on iCloud? How do I know that the developers aren’t using or looking at my data? What happens if the app shuts down suddenly? How will I get my data?
I’m almost ready to go back to pen and paper because of these issues.
Ghastly Bright Interface in Night Mode
The recent addition of *really* bright, thick colored banners at the top of the writing frame has completely destroyed the experience of writing at night in Day One.
Try it. The compulsory “neon lights” will burn your eyes out and, most importantly, steal the focus from the writing experience.
I’ve been a Day One user since it was first launched in 2011. I’ve loved the app for years but I’m done.
I now write at night in Ulysses and transfer to Day One while I search for an alternative to this app I have enjoyed for so long.
BTW - I wrote to Day One support about this several times. But unfortunately it’s their overlit way or the highway… it would be so simple to offer a pure black journal color, but they won’t do it. You have to live in technicolor toy land.
Try it. The compulsory “neon lights” will burn your eyes out and, most importantly, steal the focus from the writing experience.
I’ve been a Day One user since it was first launched in 2011. I’ve loved the app for years but I’m done.
I now write at night in Ulysses and transfer to Day One while I search for an alternative to this app I have enjoyed for so long.
BTW - I wrote to Day One support about this several times. But unfortunately it’s their overlit way or the highway… it would be so simple to offer a pure black journal color, but they won’t do it. You have to live in technicolor toy land.
App Evolution
Times change, Apps do too. This app used to be fantastic, but like so many other apps nowadays, in the search for more and more profits and recurring income, the app has evolved. Pretty much all new features are locked behind different subscription tiers.
bad
Today is March 27, 2026. Since the latest update, the software has become extremely laggy!
Awesome but where is daily chat?
It is awesome but I was enjoying daily chat as a way to keep up my journaling habit. Why has it disappeared?
REALLY slow
After using day one for 6+ years with around 2,000 total entries, performance has significantly downgraded. There is a huge lag on every action and it makes it so hard to jot down quick notes and thoughts which is what I use this for. I’m not sure what to do since this has been my go-to journaling platform for so many years.
Major Lagging Issue
I've enjoyed using this app over the last few years. I've stopped journaling for a while and decided to start again. However, I've noticed over the last couple of days, I've had major lagging issues. I use VoiceOver and a Braille display. When I open this app, it has been extremely laggy as of late and even crashing my assistive technology that I use, which makes using this app more frustrating than enjoyable. Please do better.
Sentiment summary
97%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)