The one app I didn’t expect to love on my Pixel — and 5 ways I use it

I’ve always been a big fan of digital journaling, going all the way back to the early days of Android.

From pocket-sized travel journals to digital apps that fit into, well, pocket-sized smartphones, I’ve tried most ways of capturing my thoughts, fleeting moments, and everything in between.

So, when Google announced the Pixel Journal app alongside the Pixel 10, I was suitably intrigued. Most first-party journal apps end up being a bit too limited and simplistic. Or, occasionally, abandoned.

However, I’ve been giving the Pixel Journal app a fair shake, and there are some features here that go above and beyond what the alternatives offer.

The app isn’t perfect, far from it, but Google’s mix of on-device AI, subtle pointers in the right direction, and a clean interface are definite plus points that have made me use it much more than I anticipated.

Here are five ways that I use the Pixel Journal app.

5

Journaling

Lowering the barrier to journaling

Journaling is the obvious use case for an app titled Pixel Journal. However, the biggest barrier to journaling tends to be easy access to a paper journal. And the second biggest? Inspiration.

Turns out, the Pixel Journal app solves both. One, it is always accessible since it sits in the phone I carry around with me everywhere.

More than that, though, the Pixel Journal app sidesteps the problem of inspiration by drawing on all the metadata that revolves around my life, as well as the journal entries I make, while also coming up with intuitive prompts that help me get started with writing.

So, for example, if I’ve been writing about a streak of stressful workdays, it’ll nudge me to write by effectively asking questions like, “You were stressed earlier, how did your presentation go?”

On the flip side, it’ll pick up on previous entries talking about a day out with friends and ask me to reflect on my feelings about it.

All of this is happening because of the phone’s on-device AI, which is leveraged by the Pixel Journal app.

One of the coolest applications I’ve seen of the on-device Gemini Nano LLM is the Pixel Journal app’s sentiment analysis.

It scans through my entries, without sending them to the cloud, and assigns a happy or sad emoji in the calendar view, giving me an overarching look at my days and weeks.

It’s an easy way to celebrate a week that went well or reflect on a stressful few days.

4

From workouts to memories

Activities, photos, and places as prompts

Since the Pixel Journal app is a first-party app, it has access to Google’s entire suite of services, including Health Connect. This means it is possible to turn workouts and activities into journaling prompts.

It’s early days still, and I’ve been fairly lazy too, but I haven’t seen it being pushy with its prompts. It’s a feature I’m looking forward to testing out in the coming weeks.

Google demoed the app being able to tap into activities like hiking and pushing you in the right direction to comment on them as part of your journaling efforts.

But it’s not just workouts. The Pixel Journal app can tap into photos and location data to help you create richer journals. For me, that makes it the perfect travel journal app.

I used to add notes to recently clicked photos within Google Photos. Now, I’ve started adding photos as a journal entry with relevant information like, say, who I was with, or the occasion, or even an interesting meal I had while clicking that photograph.

It’s somewhere between a travel journal and a digital scrapbook for me.

I hope that Google will update the app soon to add a dedicated map or timeline view, which would make identifying location-based notes that much easier.

3

Tags-based organization

Embracing the chaos

I love organization. Everything from my music library to my ebooks is meticulously cataloged and stored. I use separate journals for personal thoughts, work, and travel.

The Pixel Journal app’s annoying limitation of offering just a single notebook could’ve been a dealbreaker for me. I didn’t want work, travel notes, late-night thoughts, or recipe ideas fighting for my attention in one space.

But the more I think about it, it’s pretty reflective of the chaos of real life.

So, I’ve started tagging my entries with dedicated headers for the aspect of my life that I’m talking about in the entry.

If it’s a work-related journal entry, I’ll add a text tag to the title. Same for work, life, relationships, and more.

It can look a bit disorganized, and support for multiple notebooks would be great, but I can live with this.

2

AI-based nudges

Prompts that inspire creativity

Part of building a journaling habit is to stick to it. However, there are days when inspiration doesn’t strike. Trust me, that happens more often than you’d imagine.

However, the Pixel Journal’s AI-based prompts do a lot of heavy lifting in making those days easier.

When I open the app and tap the fresh entry button, there’s usually a high-quality prompt waiting for me.

And it’s not something as basic as a pre-generated query about my day. Instead, the on-device LLM queries previous entries and creates fresh queries based on those.

So, if you went on a picnic a few days back, it might ask you to reflect on that.

Look, no AI is going to become your personal on-device therapist or buddy. However, a subtle nudge is often enough to lead you down a thought and get the words flowing.

More than helping me find a topic to write about, since journaling isn’t exactly a writing exercise, the on-device AI has helped me be more consistent with my journaling. Even on days I didn’t have much going on to write about.

That’s better than any gamified nudge that I’ve come across.

1

A digital safe space

Strong on privacy

Journals are deeply personal, digital journals more so. So privacy and security are paramount when it comes to committing to one.

The Pixel Journal app encrypts entries and processes them on-device to ensure that your most private entries aren’t used to train an LLM. That was a crucial factor for me before I committed to using the app.

Similarly, the app offers encrypted backups to your Google account. However, I find the lack of export options rather off-putting. Especially given Google’s history of shutting down apps and services.

Doing less but doing it better is exactly why I’m sticking with Pixel Journal

When I started using the Pixel Journal app, I went in with an open mind. I wasn’t expecting much, nor was I expecting to swap out some of the best journal apps on Android for Google’s brand-new effort.

Turns out, I shouldn’t have worried about it. The app has quickly become a go-to on my Pixel 10 Pro.

Sure, it needs some work. A map view, an export option, maybe some support for multiple journals. But in its current form, its simplicity and meaningful AI features are already helping me build a journaling habit.

I like that Google opted for a simpler, limited feature set instead of cramming the app with half-baked additions. Those could come later.

For now, the focus on nudging users like me towards building a journaling habit and sticking to it with limited touches of AI magic has proven to be the best possible showcase of the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel Journal app’s capabilities.