Best journal & diary apps for Android
Journal and diary apps give you a private place for daily entries, gratitude lists or mood logs, with a passcode lock, reminders, search and backups.
13 apps ranked · How we rank
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Number 1: My Diary - Daily Diary Journal
Dairy App & Notes & Audio Editor & Voice Recorder
4.8 out of 5 (1.3M) 50M+ installs
A free, well-featured diary app with a lock, cloud backup and export, best for daily writers who accept ads and in-app purchases.
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A well-balanced private journal for Android, with strong locking, Drive backup and mood tracking, held back only by ads and purchases.
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A private, well-rounded self-care journal that rewards regular use and costs nothing to try.
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A wide-reaching notebook, planner and PDF tool that rewards anyone willing to keep their writing and scheduling in one app.
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A private, feature-rich journaling app that suits anyone who wants a locked diary with mood tracking and customization.
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A well-established, customizable private diary with strong lock options, free but ad-supported and offering in-app purchases.
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A free, passcode-locked journal built around dictation, best for people who would rather speak their entries than type them.
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A broad, well-established journaling app that suits long-term diarists who want prompts, mood tracking and real privacy controls.
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A wide-ranging free planner for people who want schedules, tasks and journals in one place, with premium templates behind a subscription.
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A well-focused memory journal for parents who want a record without the work of writing one.
More of the best journal & diary apps
About journal & diary apps
They suit anyone who wants to write regularly without carrying a notebook, from people tracking mood and habits to those keeping a plain personal record that survives a lost phone. Prompt-driven journals help when you can't think what to write and encourage a daily habit, but can feel restrictive; a blank page offers freedom with less structure. Storage ranges from on-device only to synced accounts, which affects privacy, and apps differ in how easily your entries can be exported. Some rely on ads or paid upgrades to stay free.
What to look for
- Check where entries are stored and who can read them, because a diary is only useful if you trust the app with private thoughts.
- Look at how reminders and prompts work, since a gentle nudge helps build a daily writing habit while constant notifications become annoying.
- Confirm that you can export or back up your entries in a readable format, so years of writing are not trapped in one app.
- See how the app is paid for, as ads between entries or a subscription for basic features can change how often you write.
- Consider whether the app works offline, because journaling often happens on a commute or in places with no signal.
How we rank
Apps are ranked by their Google Play rating (weighted by how many people rated them), their number of installs, how recently they were updated and how closely they fit the category. Only apps we've reviewed are included.