Journaling that gives
you superpowers

Steps is a journal that texts you first, in iMessage. Reply, and it asks you a question drawn from how Marcus Aurelius, Oprah or Benjamin Franklin kept theirs — or one you wrote. Answer the way you'd text a friend.

Start free See the templates
Free for 30 days, no credit card. Two minutes to set up, and the first text comes on the next morning you chose — for most people, tomorrow.
S Steps ›
What good shall I do this day?
ring mum back and actually listen
What good did you do yesterday?
walked the dog the long way. she loved it
Saved. Back on the next morning you picked.
Today 8:04 AM
Morning. Hope Monday's being gentle.
when did I last write about mum?
Delivered
Saturday, June 27 — took mum to the market. she told the ring story again and I let her.
iMessage●

I kept leaving my journal somewhere else.

A notebook in a drawer, in a hotel, in the house I moved out of. So I built one you can't leave behind: it lives in Messages on your iPhone, and it texts you first. Nothing to install, nothing to remember, nothing to lose.

Line-art portrait of Tiago— Tiago, father of four in Porto

Today 8:02 AM
Morning. Hope the week's being kind.
Today 1:34 PM
No rush — this morning's journal is still open. Two minutes, whenever you have them. Don't want these afternoon texts? Tell me and I'll stop.
the 9am got cancelled. does that count
It counts. Anything else from today?
(1)

A journal that texts you first

On the mornings you pick, at your hour — one a week or all seven. Miss one and a single follow-up comes after lunch, then nothing: no streaks, no scores, and one text switches the follow-up off for good.

app.steps.org
Your journal, in your own words
JUL 18
dad rang last night for no reason and stayed on an hour
also wrote · the 9am got cancelled and I got the hour back
JUL 14
we got the house. still doesn't feel real
also wrote at 11:40 PM · can't sleep, keep walking through the rooms in my head
read it all download it all delete anytime
(2)

Saved, word for word

Anything you text, at any hour, goes into that day's journal exactly as you typed it. Read it, search it, download all of it at app.steps.org — or delete it. Steps texts from a plain phone number you save under any name, so nothing on your phone says journal — and nothing arrives until you've texted it first.

what did I write last tuesday?
Tuesday, July 14 — we got the house. still doesn't feel real.
and when did I last mention dad?
Saturday, July 18 — dad rang last night for no reason and stayed on an hour.
(3)

Ask for any day and it sends it back

A day, or a word — "last Tuesday", "dad", "the house" — and what you wrote comes back in your own words, nothing added and nothing read into it.

What should I think and write about to become a better person?

Nobody starts out knowing. So each morning Steps asks you a question from a template — a set of prompts drawn from how someone real kept a journal, for years — and you make it yours. Try one for a month. Change a word. Write your own.

can I try marcus aurelius's instead?
Sure. From the next morning you picked: Who are you likely to find difficult today, and what will you do when they are?
and if I want to change a word?
Just tell me the new wording. Your old answers keep the question you actually answered.
(4)

Journaling templates from real people

Marcus Aurelius's, Oprah's, Julia Cameron's, Benjamin Franklin's — and each one says plainly which words are theirs and which are ours. Try one for a month, change a word, or write your own — by text.

how much am I supposed to write
As little as you like. Six words is an answer.
ok. and should I call my sister more?
That's yours to decide. I just keep the journal.
(5)

It never analyzes you or gives advice

Ask it anything about journaling — how much to write, what to do on a morning when nothing comes — and it answers. Ask what to do about your sister and it stays out of it, every time, on purpose.

See all the templates →

How it works

  1. Sign up with your phone number and pick a template — Oprah's, Marcus Aurelius's or Benjamin Franklin's. Change it any time, or write your own, by text.
  2. Choose your mornings and a time, then send the word hi to the number on your screen.
  3. On the mornings you chose, it texts you. Reply, answer the question, done. A few words are plenty.

Start free

Painting of tree-crowned crags under summer clouds

Plenty of people kept a journal for years. Some of them you've heard of.

Marcus AureliusPrivate notebooks, written on campaign, never meant to be read
SenecaThe whole day retraced, every night before sleep
Ignatius of LoyolaFive points, twice a day — kept by Jesuits ever since
Leonardo da VinciNotebooks of observations, questions and drawings
Charles DarwinNotebooks kept while working out where species come from
Benjamin FranklinTwo questions he asked himself, morning and night, in a printed timetable
Oprah WinfreyFive things she was thankful for, written down every day
Ryan HolidayMorning and evening, the way the Romans did it
Marcus AureliusPrivate notebooks, written on campaign, never meant to be read
SenecaThe whole day retraced, every night before sleep
Ignatius of LoyolaFive points, twice a day — kept by Jesuits ever since
Leonardo da VinciNotebooks of observations, questions and drawings
Charles DarwinNotebooks kept while working out where species come from
Benjamin FranklinTwo questions he asked himself, morning and night, in a printed timetable
Oprah WinfreyFive things she was thankful for, written down every day
Ryan HolidayMorning and evening, the way the Romans did it
Virginia WoolfDiaries kept across most of her writing life
Anne FrankA diary addressed to a friend she invented
Joan DidionA notebook, to keep hold of who she used to be
Susan SontagNotebooks where, she said, she created herself
Julia CameronThree pages, longhand, first thing in the morning
Ryder CarrollA daily log, and a reflection underneath it
Austin KleonA few lines a day in a paper diary — an index of his days
Matthew McConaugheyDiaries since his teens, read back to write a memoir
Virginia WoolfDiaries kept across most of her writing life
Anne FrankA diary addressed to a friend she invented
Joan DidionA notebook, to keep hold of who she used to be
Susan SontagNotebooks where, she said, she created herself
Julia CameronThree pages, longhand, first thing in the morning
Ryder CarrollA daily log, and a reflection underneath it
Austin KleonA few lines a day in a paper diary — an index of his days
Matthew McConaugheyDiaries since his teens, read back to write a memoir

None of them used Steps. All of them kept a journal.

A paper journal, two journaling apps, and Steps

Three ways to keep one, and what each asks of you every day.

The paper journals

Paper is lovely, and you probably own a beautiful one. But a book can't text you first. Travel for a week, sleep through two alarms, and it stays in the nightstand drawer.

The journaling apps

Moods, photos, streak medals, widgets, AI summaries of your feelings. A feature-stuffed app turns three honest lines into one more icon asking for your attention every time you pick up your phone.

Steps

A text on the mornings you pick, a question or two, your answers, everything saved. As simple as paper — except it texts first, so you can't leave it behind.

Steps Five Minute Journal Gratitude: Self-Care Journal Day One
Texts you first Yes — on the mornings you pick, at your hour No — it's a book Push notifications Push notifications
Lives in Messages on your iPhone — nothing to install A book on your nightstand Its own app Its own app
Daily effort Answer one text — a few minutes, or six words Five minutes, pen in hand Open the app, pick a prompt Open-ended — as long as you like
Your prompts Marcus Aurelius's, Oprah's, Benjamin Franklin's — or your own Morning + evening sections Hundreds of prompts, quotes, vision boards Blank page + prompt packs
Write about anything else Any time — it goes in that day's journal Fixed blanks Free-form entries Open-ended
AI on your journal Saves your words. Never analyzes you or gives advice. None — it's paper — AI summaries & chat on Gold
On your phone A plain number, saved under any name — App icon + notifications App icon + notifications
Price First 30 days free, no credit card · then $5/mo $32 a book — about six months Free tier · Pro $4.99/mo or $29.99/yr Free tier · Silver $49.99/yr · Gold $74.99/yr
If you stop Every word stays readable and downloadable, free, forever The book is yours · 6-month money-back guarantee App Store refund rules App Store refund rules

Competitor details from their published websites and App Store listings, July 2026. "—" means not offered as a comparable built-in feature. All names belong to their owners; all three are fine products. At its six-month pace, the paper book works out to about $5.30 a month — slightly more than Steps. The templates belong to no product — they come from people who kept journals long before any of us, and every template says who kept it.

Start free — 30 days, no credit card →

Questions, answered

I've tried journaling before and stopped. Why would this be different?+

You didn't fail at it; the setup did. A notebook or an app asks you to remember it, open it, and face a blank page — one busy week is enough to end it. Steps takes all three away: it texts you first, it lives in the thread you already open every day, and when you reply it asks you a question, so the page is never blank. And if you stop again, every word stays saved.

Will it nag me?+

No. On the mornings you picked, one short text at the time you chose. If you write nothing that day, one follow-up in the early afternoon — and you can switch that one off. No streaks, no scores, no "don't lose your progress". A quiet week is saved as a quiet week, and the next text arrives on your schedule.

What questions does it ask?+

The ones you picked. When you sign up you choose a template — a template is a set of prompts someone actually kept: the two gratitude prompts, Benjamin Franklin's, or Marcus Aurelius's. One answer is enough. Later you can reword any prompt, write your own, switch to morning pages (free writing, whatever is on your mind until you run out), or turn them off. Every template, and whose words each prompt is, is at steps.org/templates.

Who reads this?+

A program, not a person. It asks you a question when you reply, saves what you text, and counts your own words when you ask — it never analyzes you or gives advice. Your journal is encrypted, stored in the EU, never sold, never used for ads, never used to train AI. The one exception, said plainly: to make Steps reply better, someone at Steps may read a record of a conversation, with your name, email and phone number masked out first.

What happens after the 30 free days?+

You're not charged — there is no credit card on file to charge. On day 31 the morning texts stop: no countdown, no guilt trip, no "we miss you". Want them back? $5 a month, and that is the first time we ask for a card. Either way, every word you wrote stays readable and downloadable at app.steps.org, free.

Do I need to install an app?+

No. Steps is a contact in your Messages app: nothing to download, nothing to log into, no icon to start avoiding. It runs on iMessage, so you need an iPhone.

All questions, answered →

Privacy, in plain words

A journal only works if it's private. What you write is encrypted on the way to us and while it's stored, in the EU, under European privacy law. The only program that reads it is the AI that files each text under the right day and texts you back — that is its whole job. It's a program, not a person: it never analyzes you, never gives advice, and nothing you write is ever used to train an AI, ours or anyone's. No ads, no tracking.

Nothing is sold, nothing is shared with anyone. Take everything with you, or erase everything, whenever you like. Read our privacy promises →

Painting of a house on a green hillside

Oprah wrote down five things every day. Start with one.

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