Journal, released as a Microsoft Garage project one year ago, continues to delight today. It is designed—from the ground up—for personal journaling and notetaking with a digital pen. The Journal app is powered by AI to help you write, search, and annotate your ideas quickly and naturally.
“We think of Journal and our other incubations as platforms to explore and innovate on new and delightful user experiences. Journal is a great example of the kind of tool that helps people achieve more in the era of computer aided reasoning. We see a lot more to come.”
–Stevie Bathiche, Technical Fellow and leader of Applied Sciences, Microsoft
It’s been an amazing year for Journal:
- New features like support for tactile signal capable pens, page styles, and support for writing in multiple languages.
- More than 100,000 people have tried Journal and usage continues to grow every month.
- Major improvements to Journal’s AI, leading to a more accurate instant lasso and improved detection of stars and headings.
Support for folders
To celebrate Journal’s anniversary, the Journal team built one of the most frequently requested features: support for folders.
Now, you can organize your content in Journal by creating folders and dragging your journals right in. No more scrolling and scrolling to find the specific journal you need. Create as many journals as you would like and stay perfectly organized.
“People want folders because they’re making a lot of notes, and the success of Journal speaks to the power and importance of digital ink to Windows users.”
–Jacques Chamberland, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft
Performance improvements
In addition, the Journal team optimized the way that Journal runs AI—most operations will happen up to 28% faster. This is important because Journal runs all its AI operations locally on your device. Journal feels snappier and more responsive, especially on lower powered devices.
The future of handwriting is digital
Over 3.1 million Journal pages have been created since Journal launched. On those pages, Journal’s AI recognized 21 million instances of smart ink—like headings, lists, and stars. This is evidence that people find value in augmented ink.
This is something that paper just can’t do.
“Large organizations tell us that digital ink is key to their digital transformation. A major goal is to eliminate physical paper from their workplace to reduce cost and environmental impact. We are thrilled to be part of that.”
–Oz Solomon, Microsoft, Principal Engineering Manager of the Journal team
Celebrate with us
You can help us celebrate by downloading Journal, for free, from the Microsoft Store. Journal works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices.
While Microsoft never knows the contents of your journals, usage data helps the Journal team understand how Journal adds value to your digital ink experience and where to make improvements.
Let the Journal team know what you think by sharing your feedback in the Windows Feedback Hub.
