Ask HN: Is no one bothered that Apple silently installed Journal app on iPhones?

Silently? It was announced and loudly advertised as a new feature of iOS 17. They showed it on stage in their keynote, put it on their website, in press releases, and put it in the release notes of the specific release.

It's hard to know how much less silent this could have been.

It's also hard to know how Apple adding features to the OS can be considered either greedy or a 'breach'.

> but I feel like I am nearing my limits

For them adding nice new functionality they promised to the device?

How is it different from Calculator or Notes? It's a new feature. I don't see the problem.

Androids are much worse. You get Samsung or OnePlus etc installing new apps with OS versions as well. And sometimes they're baked in to the system partition so you can only disable them.

Look, I actually get it. He just feels about journaling apps the way I felt about U2’s Songs of Innocence album appearing uninvited on my phone one day. It was a nice gesture and all, but I think we all are free to feel irrational irritation from time to time. This one is way easier to remove than a gifted U2 album, thankfully. OP can maybe turn off updates until he’s able to mentally prepare for hostile OS additions, and can still receive security updates. Maybe journaling about it will diffuse some of that angst.

So you can delete it? Cool. So there's no problem, then.

It was literally announced to huge fanfare in all of the tech press, and even some of the mainstream press, that Apple was releasing a Journaling app as part of the new iOS. People were going on and on about "wellness" and all the rest of it. It's like complaining that they "silently installed" their timer app on your phone, or their stock market app (which I have never seen anyone use). It was about as silent as a declaration of intent in front of the world media, months and months before it happened.

Uninstall, and it’s done.

A minor annoyance, imho.

Yeah, move over to Android and then tell us…

I’m more curious how the journal suggestions API will play out and change our relationship with third party apps.

I don't see anything wrong with this. Every update adds a bunch of new code and features to your phone that you don't even get to look at, does it matter if they add something which you can see?

What’s the problem with Apple including another app as part of iOS?

Why?

Your phone already comes with lots of apps you didn’t install

How is that any different at all?

Of all the things to complain about Apple this seems like the minor-est

It didn’t bother me one bit.

I used Obsidian app for my notes so I’ll just ignore the Journal app.

The problem is we have Notes app why is Journal needed?

If you just ignore the new Journal app, does it do anything worth caring about?

If Apple had added FreeCell, Minesweeper, Solitaire, and Tetris "classic games" apps to iOS 17.2.1, would you have been bothered?

Apple has been a for-profit corporation for a bit under 50 years now. My assumption is that they've always had "capitalist ethics". But years ago, when Apple was a relatively small player in the market, it was much easier for most people to sweep their misbehavior under a "always side with the scrappy underdog" rug.

> I am finding Apple to be such a greedy, hypocritical company and am getting disgusted by their PR image

I definitely agree with this but don't have too many issues with them installing the Journal app to be honest. I actually like the app personally, but totally agree with your sentiment.