GoKawiilC. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR Pixel Journal is rolling out customizable reminders, media layouts, safer deletion, and support for Health Connect sleep data.
Google also appears to be developing an AI-powered Auto format feature to clean up journal entries after you write or dictate them.
Our teardown found evidence of Simple and Expressive formatting modes, each with a minimum word count before Auto format can be used.
Pixel Journal is still a fairly young addition to Google’s Pixel lineup, and the company doesn’t seem finished tinkering with it yet. A new version of the app is now rolling out with several useful quality-of-life upgrades. But there are also clues under the hood suggesting that there’s nore to come, as we’ve uncovered signs of a feature that Google appears to be preparing for a future Pixel Journal release.
You’re reading an Authority Insights story. Authority Insights brings you all the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage from the Android Authority team that you won’t find anywhere else.
The latest Pixel Journal version brings some changes that will already look familiar if you caught our March teardown of the app. At the time, we spotted customizable reminder times and new Compact and Full layouts for photos and videos, although both features were still in development. They’re now available to all app users.
The reminder controls let you choose whether Pixel Journal nudges you in the morning, afternoon, or evening, with the app showing approximate times of 7 AM, 2 PM, and 9 PM. Meanwhile, the media setting lets you switch between a Compact arrangement that groups images together and a Full layout that gives individual photos and videos more space. Those two additions are both handy, so it’s good to see our earlier findings make it across the finish line. You can see how they look in the images above.
There are also a couple of changes we hadn’t previously spotted. The first adds some much-needed friction when deleting an entry. Pixel Journal currently deletes an entry immediately after you tap Delete, with no confirmation and no way back. The updated behavior first asks you to confirm the deletion, then offers a brief Undo option for about five to ten seconds afterward. Given the sort of stuff people are likely to keep in a journal, that extra safety net seems overdue. The images below show how the new setup looks in the app.
Pixel Journal is also expanding the Health Connect data it can use for personalized writing inspiration. The app can already make use of activity information, such as exercise and other physical activity, and it will now ask for permission to read sleep data as well. Health Connect treats Activity and Sleep as separate data categories, so granting access to one doesn’t automatically grant Journal access to the other.
... continue reading