AI journal app: speak for a minute, get a summary
VitaMood is an AI journal app for iPhone and Android. You talk for up to a minute about your day, your phone turns it into text, and AI writes a one-line summary with a mood score from 1 to 10 and up to four tags. The free plan includes 5 AI summaries a week, and the recording never leaves your phone.
Updated
AI journal apps use a language model to do something with what you write or say: summarise it, tag it, answer questions about it or suggest what to write next. This page explains what VitaMood's AI does and does not do, what you can use for free, and how four other AI journal apps compare: Rosebud, Reflection, Mindsera and Stoic. Every detail about another app was checked on 10 October 2026 against that app's own website, help pages, privacy policy or store listing. Where no source settled a point, the table says "Not stated".
The short answer
- You want to speak, not type, and keep the recording on your phone: VitaMood. Transcription runs on your phone and only the text is sent to write the summary.
- You want to talk back and forth with an AI about your entries: Reflection, whose free plan includes an AI Coach, or Mindsera, whose Genius plan lets you ask questions across your journal.
- You want your entries stored only on your devices: Stoic, whose help pages say entries are kept on your devices, or VitaMood, which keeps entries on your phone.
- You want your mood next to your sleep and heart rate: VitaMood Pro, which reads them from Apple Health or Health Connect.
What AI does in a journal app
An AI journal app sends the text of your entries to a large language model and shows you what comes back. Apps use this in four main ways:
- Summaries and tags. The model reads an entry and returns a short summary, a mood or a set of topics. This is what VitaMood does.
- Prompts. The model suggests what to write about next, based on what you wrote before.
- Chat. You talk with an AI coach about an entry, or ask a question across your whole journal.
- Reports. The model writes a weekly or monthly review of your entries.
Each of these means the text of your entries leaves your phone and is processed by an AI provider. Before you choose an AI journal app, check which provider it uses, what is sent, and whether the company stores your entries on its servers.
VitaMood: the mood app journal you talk to
VitaMood is built around a one-minute spoken check-in. In the evening the app asks "How was today?". You answer out loud, in any of 26 languages. The recording stops at 60 seconds.
Your phone turns the recording into text with its own speech recogniser. For a language the phone cannot transcribe, VitaMood offers to download a speech model so transcription still runs on the phone. The audio is never uploaded.
The app then sends the transcript text and its language code to our server in Belgium, which passes it to Google's Gemini API. The AI returns:
- A summary: one sentence, written to you, in the language you spoke. It covers only what you said.
- A mood score: from 1 (very low) to 10 (very good). You can change it.
- Tags: up to four from a fixed set of ten: work, family, friends, relationship, training, sleep, stress, health, food and rest.
- An energy level: low, medium or high, only when you talked about your energy, tiredness or alertness. It is never guessed from your mood. You can change it too.
We do not store the transcript or the summary on our servers. Google does not use them to improve its products. The check-in, with its text, summary, mood and tags, is saved on your phone.
What VitaMood's AI does not do
- It does not chat with you. There is no AI coach or conversation.
- It does not diagnose or give medical advice. VitaMood is a wellness journal, not therapy.
- It does not decide what your health data means. The app works out the figures on your phone, such as your average mood on days with more sleep, and the AI only puts them into words.
- It does not say one thing caused another. Same-day comparisons say what happened alongside your mood.
What the free plan includes
- Voice check-ins of up to a minute, and transcription on your phone
- Your full history of check-ins
- 5 AI summaries a week, each with a mood score, tags and a one-line summary
- No ads
The weekly count resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC. When you have used all 5, your check-ins are still recorded, transcribed and kept on your phone. The app tells you when the next summary is available.
What needs VitaMood Pro
- 5 AI summaries a day
- Health insights that put your mood next to your sleep, HRV (heart rate variability), resting heart rate, steps, workouts, active energy and respiratory rate from Apple Health or Health Connect, plus mindful minutes and time in daylight from Apple Health
- Daily targets you set. A summary or weekly report may end with one small everyday-habit suggestion, never medical advice
- A weekly report
VitaMood Pro is a monthly or annual subscription with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers on both plans. The app and the store show the price before you subscribe.
Rosebud
- Free and paid: free to use, with a paid plan called Rosebud Bloom (Rosebud's website).
- AI: memory across entries, weekly reports and guided journals (Rosebud's website). Its privacy policy names OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, AWS and Groq as AI providers.
- Voice: you can speak your entries (App Store listing). Audio goes to a transcription provider, ElevenLabs, and is discarded after processing (Rosebud's privacy policy).
- Storage: in the cloud on Google Firestore, encrypted in transit and at rest (Rosebud's privacy policy).
- Health data: not stated.
- Platforms and languages: iPhone, Android and the web. 18 languages on the App Store.
Rosebud suits you if you want an AI that remembers your earlier entries and writes reports, and you are happy for entries to be stored in the cloud.
Reflection
- Free and paid: the free plan includes core journaling, daily prompts and access to the AI Coach. The paid plan is Premium (Reflection's website).
- AI: AI Coach, questions across your journal, insights, and weekly and monthly reviews. Its terms say it uses Google Gemini. The AI can be turned off with one switch (Reflection's website).
- Voice: speech is turned into text (App Store listing). Not stated whether this runs on the phone.
- Storage: on Google Cloud, encrypted at rest (Reflection's website).
- Health data: not stated.
- Platforms and languages: iPhone, Android, Mac and the web. 1 language on the App Store, English.
Reflection suits you if you write in English and want an AI coach on the free plan.
Mindsera
- Free and paid: the free plan, Curious, has basic journaling, habit tracking and AI-suggested tags. The paid plan, Genius, adds voice entries, entry analysis, questions across your journal and weekly review emails (Mindsera's website).
- AI providers: OpenAI, Anthropic and Google (Mindsera's privacy policy).
- Voice: Voice Mode, with automatic transcription, is part of Genius (Mindsera's website).
- Health data: mindful minutes and state of mind in Apple Health (App Store listing), and optional WHOOP and Oura connections (Mindsera's privacy policy).
- Storage: in the cloud, encrypted at rest and in transit, without end-to-end encryption (Mindsera's privacy policy).
- Platforms and languages: iPhone, Android and the web. 12 languages on the App Store.
Mindsera suits you if you want AI analysis of written entries and plan to pay for the full set of features.
Stoic
- Free and paid: you can journal for free, with a premium subscription and a separate AI purchase on the App Store. AI use has limits that renew weekly (App Store listing).
- AI: prompts and reflections. Only the current entry is sent to OpenAI, which may keep it for up to 30 days (Stoic's help pages).
- Voice: voice notes (App Store listing). Not stated whether they are transcribed.
- Health data: state of mind, mindful minutes, heart rate and a mental health questionnaire in Apple Health (Stoic's help pages).
- Storage: on your devices, with optional iCloud sync for premium users (Stoic's help pages).
- Platforms and languages: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and the web. 8 languages on the App Store.
Stoic suits you if you want AI prompts and want your journal kept on your own devices.
AI journal apps compared
| VitaMood | Rosebud | Reflection | Mindsera | Stoic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What the AI does | Summary, mood score and tags | Memory, reports, guided journals | Coach, questions, reviews | Tags free; analysis with Genius | Prompts and reflections |
| Voice entries | Yes, free | Yes | Yes | With Genius | Voice notes |
| Where speech becomes text | On your phone | A transcription provider | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Entries kept | On your phone | Cloud | Cloud | Cloud | Your devices |
| Health data | With VitaMood Pro | Not stated | Not stated | Apple Health, WHOOP, Oura | Apple Health |
| AI provider | Google Gemini | Several | Google Gemini | Several | OpenAI |
| Languages | 26 | 18 | 1 | 12 | 8 |
Which AI journal app to choose
Decide first what you want the AI to do. If you want a conversation, choose an app with an AI coach or chat. If you want a short, honest record of each day without a conversation, a summary is enough, and it is less to read later.
Then decide what you are comfortable sending. Every AI journal sends the text of your entries to an AI provider. With a voice journal, the recording is a second thing to think about. VitaMood keeps the recording on your phone and sends only the text. Rosebud's privacy policy says audio goes to a transcription provider and is discarded after processing.
Last, check your language. Reflection's App Store listing shows one language. VitaMood transcribes and summarises check-ins in 26: English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Turkish, Italian, Dutch, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Slovak, Japanese, Serbian, Uzbek, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Hebrew and Swedish.
AI journalling with your health data
Your phone and watch already record your sleep, heart rate and activity. With VitaMood Pro, the app reads them from Apple Health or Health Connect and sets them next to your check-ins. It reads up to 60 days of history when you subscribe, and only the types you allow.
The app works out the figures on your phone. To word an insight, it sends only derived figures to the AI, such as a period's average mood or your average sleep on better and harder days. Your raw readings never leave the phone, and the derived figures are not stored. Every insight shows how many days it is based on, and links over the last 60 days appear only from day 8 and only when they are clear.
Privacy
The recording is saved and transcribed on your phone and is never uploaded. Only the transcript text and its language code are sent to write the summary. We do not store the transcript or the summary on our servers. Your check-ins are kept on your phone and in your own iCloud or Google backup. Health data is shown back to you only and is never used for advertising. The full details are in the Privacy Policy.
A wellness journal, not therapy
VitaMood helps you notice patterns in your mood and health data. It does not diagnose or treat any condition and it is not a substitute for a doctor or therapist. If you are in crisis, contact your local emergency number.
Questions
Is VitaMood a free AI journal app?
Yes. Voice check-ins, transcription on your phone and your history are free, with 5 AI summaries a week. VitaMood Pro, a monthly or annual subscription with a 7-day free trial, adds 5 summaries a day, health insights and a weekly report.
Which AI does VitaMood use?
Google's Gemini API, through our server in Belgium. Only the transcript text and its language code are sent. We do not store the transcript or the summary, and Google does not use them to improve its products.
Does VitaMood upload my voice?
No. The recording is saved on your phone and transcribed on your phone. Only the transcript text is sent, to write your summary.
Can I chat with the AI about my entries?
No. VitaMood's AI writes a summary, a mood score and tags for each check-in, and with VitaMood Pro it words your insights and weekly report. There is no chat.
Can I change what the AI suggests?
Yes. You can change the mood score and the energy level, and your choice stays if the summary is written again.
Is an AI journal the same as therapy?
No. VitaMood is a wellness journal. It does not diagnose or treat any condition. If you need help, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional.
See how VitaMood works, compare mood tracker apps or compare free journal apps.
Details of other apps checked on against Rosebud's website, privacy policy and App Store listing; Reflection's website, terms and App Store listing; Mindsera's website, privacy policy and App Store listing; and Stoic's help pages and App Store listing. Rosebud, Reflection, Mindsera and Stoic are trademarks of their owners. VitaMood is not affiliated with any of them.