Your private
mood journal

Feelings, gratitude and goals — one warm, safe place

We never see what you write: everything stays on your device. A private journal and mood tracker with a feelings wheel, gratitude, habits, self-care and meditation.

Stays on your device, not our servers
Works offline
No account needed
Free — no in-app purchases
82 feelings to name how you feel

Everything in one calm place

Mood, journal, gratitude, goals and self-care nudges, thought records and meditation for your mental wellbeing — no clutter, no noise, no streak-guilt.

Keep the moment,
photos and all

Your photos, your words, the feeling — in one entry

Your daily
mood check-in

Four guided steps — name the exact feeling, add a note

Understand
your patterns

Gentle AI insights, drawn from your own words

See your month
at a glance

Every entry and mood, on one calendar

Collect your
little joys

A gratitude pot that fills up as you do

Small steps,
big changes

Goals, habits and reminders that fit your life

Celebrate
every step

Badges and days in a row, cheered on all the way

Question
the thought

Facts for, facts against — then look at it again

Breathe, and let
the day settle

Guided sessions with calm cues — and they work offline

BrightLog’s winged-book mascot ringing a small bell — daily nudges are on

Gentle by design

Small moments of care, through the day

Five kind reminders a day — water, a stretch, a minute outside, a kind word — timed to your day and extra gentle on a hard one. Tap Done and it counts as a moment of care.

Daily nudgesHand-written lines, never generated. Choose how many, when, and which of the twenty kinds; mute today or pause for a week without losing anything.
Your weekA ring per goal, twelve weeks at a glance and next week’s plan — keep, adjust or pause. Never a red day.
What lifts youRate how a task felt and BrightLog shows which activities actually lift you, so next week is built from your own evidence.

How the nudges work

What you can do with BrightLog

PRIVACY FIRST

We never see what you write: your entries stay on your device, and there is no BrightLog server that receives them. You don’t need an account — many people never sign in, so their journal never leaves the device and the AI is never involved. Backup is optional: once you sign in, it goes to your own iCloud on iPhone and iPad or your own Google Drive on Android, which only you can access. The AI features — insights and therapy preparation — work only after you sign in and give your explicit approval; they send only the words of your entries to Google’s Gemini, never to us, and never your photos, voice notes or files. Anonymous usage statistics switch off in Settings.

MOOD TRACKER, ONE TAP A DAY

Tap how the day went — Awesome, Good, Not sure, Bad, Terrible — and get on with your evening. Daily mood tracking in seconds, with no pressure and no streak-guilt.

A FEELINGS WHEEL WITH 82 WORDS

Put a word to it: 7 core emotions, 41 shades, 82 precise feelings. Proud. Powerless. Hopeful. Overwhelmed. Naming the feeling is the first step to working with it.

A DAILY JOURNAL FOR THE WHOLE MOMENT

Write freely, or speak and watch your words appear. Attach photos, videos, voice notes and documents. Search every diary entry instantly and see your month in the calendar.

A SECRET DIARY WITH A LOCK

App Lock keeps your journal behind your fingerprint, face unlock or your device’s screen lock.

GRATITUDE JOURNAL

Drop a sentence, a photo or a video into your Gratitude Pot. Once it holds ten, BrightLog hands one back to you each day.

HABIT TRACKER WITH DAILY CHECK-INS

Turn goals into small daily habits. Start from ten Goal ideas — nine evidence-based starting points such as better sleep, small mood-lifting actions and facing fears step by step, plus Take my medication, a daily reminder at a time you choose — or build your own. Check in with one tap, rate how a task felt and see What lifts you. Plan around obstacles, pick any 3 days a week, or take a break: nothing counts as missed.

YOUR WEEK AT A GLANCE

This week sits at the top of Goals. Your week shows a ring per goal, twelve weeks side by side and next week’s plan: keep, adjust or pause each habit.

DAILY NUDGES FOR SELF-CARE

Gentle self-care reminders through the day: water, a stretch, a minute outside, a kind word. You choose how many and when. Done, Later or Not today — every Done is a moment of care.

THOUGHT RECORD FROM COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY

Question an anxious thought on any journal entry: what happened, what you thought, the evidence for and against, and how it looks now. Learn to spot 16 unhelpful thinking styles.

MEDITATION TIMER

5 to 30 minutes, eleven calm soundtracks or silence, and 16 mindfulness prompts for breath, body scan and grounding.

INSIGHTS AND MOOD CHARTS

Sign in and BrightLog summarises your month and year: what kept coming up, what shifted, one small habit to try. Five views of your mental wellbeing — Story, Heatmap, Trend, Wheel and Mood: your year in pixels. Export as a PDF.

THERAPY PREPARATION

Build a six-part summary from the dates you choose and take it to therapy as a PDF, so your therapist sees the pattern, not just the worst day. The Experts tab lists psychologists and counsellors near you, ranked by distance, never by who paid.

HOME SCREEN WIDGETS

Start today’s mood check-in with one tap, keep your streak and badges a tap away, and see today’s habits with what’s done.

THIRTY BADGES

Quiet milestones for journaling, mood, gratitude, habits and meditation. No leaderboards.

GOOD FOR

A mood diary and journal for anxiety, stress, low mood and everyday mental wellbeing · A secret diary you actually want to open · A gratitude journal and healthy habits with a daily check-in · Therapy preparation with real notes Dark mode and 20 languages.

We never see what you write — everything stays on your device

BrightLog is built so that we cannot read what you write — not as a promise, but as the way it works.

We never see what you writeYour entries are saved on your device. There is no BrightLog account holding your words and no BrightLog server that receives them. You don’t even need to sign in: many people never do, and then nothing ever leaves the device.
Backups go to your cloud, not oursBackup is optional: sign in and it goes to your own iCloud or Google Drive. It belongs to you — we cannot access it.
The AI only ever sees what you hand itInsights and therapy preparation work only after you sign in and give your explicit approval. Only the words of your entries go to Google’s Gemini — never to us, and never your photos, voice notes, documents or files. Daily nudges are written by hand, not by an AI.
Lock it with your face or fingerprintApp Lock adds Face ID, Touch ID, your fingerprint or your device’s screen lock on top of everything else.
Anonymous usage statistics onlyWe count things like how often a screen is opened, so we know what to improve. We never collect what you write.

Frequently asked questions

Does BrightLog read my journal?

No. Your entries are stored on your device, not on a BrightLog server, and we never see what you write. Your words leave your device only for a feature you choose to use — an AI insight or a therapy preparation (only the words of your entries, sent to Google’s Gemini, never your photos, voice notes, documents or files), a backup to your own iCloud or Google Drive, or dictation, which Apple’s or Google’s speech recognition may turn into text online.

Is BrightLog really free?

Yes. BrightLog is free on the App Store and Google Play, with no in-app purchases, no subscription and no paid tier. Every feature described on this page is included.

Does BrightLog work offline?

Yes. Your journal, mood check-in, gratitude, goals and Your week, daily nudges, thought records, the meditation timer and the feelings wheel all work with no connection at all. Only the optional AI features — insights and therapy preparation — and cloud backup need the internet and a sign-in; finding professionals nearby needs the internet but no account.

Do I need an account?

Not to write. You can install BrightLog and start journalling straight away. A sign-in is only needed for the optional AI features — insights and therapy preparation — and for backup to your own iCloud or Google Drive. Many people never sign in — then everything stays on the device and the AI is never involved.

What are daily nudges?

Short, kind reminders to look after yourself through the day — a glass of water, a stretch, a minute of daylight, a kind word. Five a day to start with, spread across your waking hours; you choose how many (up to twelve), when, and which of the twenty kinds. Tap Done and it counts as a moment of care; Later brings it back in half an hour; Not today keeps that kind quiet. After a bad day only the gentlest kinds come. Every line is written by hand, never generated, in all 20 languages — and you can mute today or pause for a week at any time.

Can BrightLog help me build habits and reach goals?

Yes. Start from ten Goal ideas — better sleep, small actions that lift mood, reshaping thoughts, stepping towards what scares you, staying in touch, taking your medication and more — or build your own with a when-then plan and an if-then plan for the days something gets in the way. Each task has its own rhythm, including any three days a week you like, and a check-in takes one tap. Rate how a task felt and BrightLog shows what lifts you; This week and Your week show a ring per goal, twelve weeks side by side and next week’s plan — keep, adjust or pause. Take a break whenever you need one: nothing counts as missed.

What is the feelings wheel?

BrightLog gives you a three-level feelings wheel — 7 core emotions, 41 shades, 82 precise words — so you can move from “bad” to the word that actually fits: powerless, anxious, overwhelmed, hopeful. A gentle wizard walks you there if you are not sure.

Can I back up my journal and move it to a new device?

Yes. Back up to iCloud on iPhone and iPad or to Google Drive on Android with a single tap; once you are signed in, a monthly automatic backup runs the first time you open the app each month, and if one cannot run, BrightLog tries again and tells you plainly what to do. Restore your entries, photos, goals, gratitude, streak and badges on a new iPhone or iPad from iCloud, or on a new Android device from Google Drive; insights are written afresh.

Does BrightLog collect any data about me?

Only anonymous usage statistics — for example how often a screen is opened — so we can see what to improve. Never the content of your entries, your photos or your voice notes, and you can switch it off in Settings. You can read exactly what is collected in the privacy policy.

Can I share what I have written with my therapist?

Yes. BrightLog builds a six-part summary over any period of up to 60 days — your mood and emotion trend, what kept coming up, triggers, thought patterns, what shifted and points to discuss — as a PDF or copied text, written only when you ask and clearly labelled as AI-suggested patterns, not a diagnosis. Still looking for someone? The Experts tab lists psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors near you, nearest first.

Can I delete everything?

Yes, at any time, from inside the app — your entries, your media, your backups and your BrightLog sign-in. Nothing is kept behind, and the app returns to first setup. The delete-my-data page explains every step.

Start your journal tonight

Free on iPhone, iPad and Android. Two minutes a day, five kind reminders, and what you write stays with you.