I’m not sure when I first came across the critically acclaimed Day One product, which is the best private blogging and journaling app out there, but I began seriously using it daily in 2016 when my father was in the ICU and later passed. Having a private, safe place to write what I was going through kept me sane and helped me process everything.
Writing has always been a salve for me, and I’ve had local or private WordPress installations pretty much since 2003 to capture and archive writing that wasn’t fit for the public web.
Day One not only nails the experience of a local blog (or journal as they call it) in an app, but also has (built) a great technical infrastructure — it works fantastic (when) offline and has a fully encrypted sync mechanism, so the data that’s in the cloud is secured in a way that even someone with access to their database couldn’t decode your entries, it’s only decrypted on your local device. Combining encryption and sync in a truly secure way is tricky, but they’ve done it.
This is a long intro to say, as you can read from Day One’s founder and CEO Paul Mayne, from Eli at WordPress.com, and on Tumblr, that Paul and the team are joining the team at Automattic. For many years I’ve talked to anyone who will listen about my vision of making Automattic the Berkshire Hathaway of the internet, and Paul’s decision to continue to grow his amazing business as part of Automattic is a great validation of the way we’ve been building our culture and long-term orientation in our business. Day One is a beloved product, and bringing it into the fold is a responsibility I take very seriously and comes from a deep respect for what’s been built and a belief that working together we can create something for users better than we could working apart.
Great software takes time, and the Day One team has been at it for about a decade now, I can’t wait to see what they accomplish in the coming decade and beyond. If you haven’t tried out Day One yet, please check it out in the Apple or Google’s app store.
14 replies on “Day One at Automattic”
And thus ends my usage of Day One. I dislike WordPress that much and don’t trust your organization to such an extent that I’m terminating my account. Byeee!
Very sorry to hear that, but I hope you give it another chance in the future. We run lots of products that are very different than WordPress, like Simplenote, so even if you don’t like WP don’t write us off entirely.
I would love to see an easy way to push Day One entries to WordPress.
+1
I can’t agree with you more.Writing diary is a good habit and a good way to relax ourselves.Although I have never used any online diary apps, I often write diaries on my notebook.
This is great. I’ve always loved Day One. I feel like, once you know that it’s personal and not published anywhere, you tend to write more. At least, that’s the case in my experience. I used Day One for a really long time, regularly and stopped using it after I switched to a physical Diary. Haven’t gotten back to Day One ever since. But, I think I’ll get back to it, especially since I don’t use a Diary anymore. Congratulations, Matt and the team!
Hi there.
I have been using Day One for practically the whole decade since it exists. I have +5000 entries covering the lives of my 3 daughters with photos, videos (originally unlisted YouTube links, then embedded videos) and audio.
There is not much I would ask Day One to have that it doesn’t do already… but shared journals would be my number one request! This would allow me to share the journal with my daughters, allow them to read it and continue writing in it once they become adults.
Matt, if you read this… please consider shared journals!!!
Day One is one of the most incredible pieces of software ever created! Many thanks and all the best to Paul and the team from here onwards!
You could scan your diary into it, to make sure it’s never lost. 🙂
Seems a bit tedious, but it’s definitely worth saving those memories. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate your input 🙂
DayOne is an essential part of my daily routine. You now have a huge responsibility. Don’t screw it up.
I don’t think Day One does anything that WP doesn’t (or can’t) do. I think the main reason for Automattic’s interest is laid bare in the third paragraph; the underlying encryption technology.
Expect to see that in WP in the near future, and with it the amalgamation of Day One into WP, with its eventual disappearance as a distinct service.
Being relatively new to Day One and considering adopting it in several use cases, the first I had heard of Automattic was in the notification from the Day One CEO of their acquisition by the company (although of course, like the rest of the World, I know of WordPress and Tumblr). Various blogs expressing concern about the news led me to this site and to read about Matt Mullenweg and his background. Those concerns have now evaporated as far as I am concerned and have evolved into confidence for the future of all these platforms.
Inspirational story, Matt. Keep it up.
Thank you! Really appreciate you taking the time to learn about us, and I hope you really enjoy what’s coming for Day One in the future.
This is really awesome news! I love the comments on the WordPress.com blog; they answered all of my questions (https://wordpress.com/blog/2021/06/14/day-one-the-journaling-app-joins-automattic/). WP-4-Life!