[APP REVIEW] Daylio provides easy journaling for busy students

Daylio+separates+daily+moods+into+categories+of+awful%2C+bad%2C+meh%2C+good%2C+or+rad.

Lucia Granja

Daylio separates daily moods into categories of awful, bad, meh, good, or rad.

Teenagers, especially, have very busy lives. Moods of teens range dramatically from day to day, or hour to hour. Keeping track of personal moods and how certain things make you feel is easy and simple to do on The Daylio journaling app. 

Journaling is a simple way to get people thinking about how their days went, and Daylio provides just that, without forcing users to take too much time to write and reflect on their day. 

Daylio Journal is a free mobile journaling app available on Apple and Android devices that helps users keep track of their moods. Its purpose is to be very quick and easy. There is little writing involved, as the app is focused around just a few clicks per entry. Daylio is advertised as a “Super Easy Journal with Stats” on the Apple Store. 

Daylio has a very minimalist approach to journaling. For daily entries, users simply click the plus button and select their daily mood from one of the 5 moods: awful, bad, meh, good, or rad, all of which are customizable into other names. Then, users can tap activities that have led to that mood, (also customizable) as well as adding a few words or sentences about their day, if they choose to. After a while, users can see their monthly mood stats, and what activities are linked with certain moods. Daylio also provides other customizable options such as colors, activity icons, dark or light mode, and personal goals. 

Screenshot from Daylio app

Journaling is a simple way to get people thinking about how their days went, and Daylio provides just that, without forcing users to take too much time to write and reflect on their day. 

A great feature of Daylio is it allows users to view trends in their moods and how these moods were linked to different activities from their day. It provides a great way for users to learn about themselves and see their overall moods are, by only tapping a few buttons every day. It also provides charts and graphs that allow users to visualize how their mood has changed throughout the month. 

Although quick entries are great for most people, and typically account for most amounts of time users want to spend on these types of apps, Daylio does not provide for an elaborate journaling experience. For those who prefer writing extensive entries about their day, Daylio wouldn’t be a good fit. Daylio is more of a mood tracker than a diary app, even though it has space for a few words about your day. 

Overall, Daylio is perfect for what it’s advertised for: simple, brief, beneficial journaling.