Mobile Prayer Journal

6 Replies

Recently, we got a question asking about the availability of a mobile prayer journal. Here’s the question as it was sent into us:

Could you recommend an easy to use prayer app that I cold use on my computer and iPhone

Now, a search in the Apple App Store (using the word “prayer”) would show that there are a lot of applications designed to help you pray, however this listing has several limitations (and interestingly enough, we don’t list any either):

  • You don’t get Christian prayer apps, but also those for other faiths
  • You get apps compatible with the iPhone/iPad, however there’s no indication that any of these would also work on a PC/Mac/Linux computer, and…
  • You get nothing but screenshots displaying the interface and aspects of use

The person writing in really did have a simple question in mind, but there doesn’t seem to be a decent answer that can come from this.

In our reply, we mentioned that instead of a prayer app (since the desire is to also use this on a PC/Mac computer), that perhaps using an existing cross-platform Bible reader such as OliveTree would be useful. Within the OliveTree domain, there are plenty of prayer-led devotionals, that work alongside the Bible content. In addition, OliveTree’s applications also offer an ability to save notes and follow a reading plan – making it quite useful as a prayer journal. Its a bit of a cobbled solution, but one way that this could work.

Other apps such as Logos, YouVersion, etc. could probably also work in this manner. However, none of these are designed as a journal first, then something that facilitates this aspect of making notes about or for prayer needs. You could go the route of using a notepad application – perhaps something that was designed more like a wiki that can connect to people in your address book, or to text messages that came in. But, I’ve not seen much in terms of that direction, aside from the mountains of developers who keep writing notepad apps.

So, instead of putting together an idea for such an app (can you tell we already have), we’d like to pitch that question out to you and ask you what might be your recommendations for a prayer journal that works both on a mobile device and a conventional computer. Leave your answers in the comments and let’s see if we can figure something out for our prayerful contributor.

  • I disagree that this is a difficult question. Think of the features important to you and pick the one most closely meeting your requirements. Simple. I don’t see the need to complicate the question with cross platform since the iPad/iPhone are usually glued to the hip. If however crossplatform is required. Evernote will suffice quite well

  • I disagree that this is a difficult question. Think of the features important to you and pick the one most closely meeting your requirements. Simple. I don’t see the need to complicate the question with cross platform since the iPad/iPhone are usually glued to the hip. If however crossplatform is required. Evernote will suffice quite well

  • James Thomas

    I went on the search for a prayer notes app a couple of years ago. Ended up settling for Evernote.

  • James Thomas

    I went on the search for a prayer notes app a couple of years ago. Ended up settling for Evernote.

  • I think you are thinking the way that I did when I first read this Anthony. The idea that one wants to keep a journal on multiple platforms would indeed be served well by Evernote. However, we don’t get from that question what kinds of features the person was looking for… which makes an Evernote recommendation easy, but not perfectly fitting.

    For example, if this person wants to link to their bible app of choice for relevant scriptures, what mobile bible apps would connect with Evernote in such a manner? What desktop/laptop apps? Or, would some kind of integration with Dyer;s Bib.ly need to be undertaken. What if the person is looking to see these notes in a calendar day/week/month view? This isn’t done by any view in Evernote, and while some prayer journals and devotionals have it, the inability of some of these to be cross-platform is an issue. If the person was looking for consistency and wanted/needed some task or alarm feature, this is also something Bible apps, Evernote, etc. just don’t do.

    In a real sense, the ability to answer this question hinges on what core features the person is looking for. From there, then app or service suggestions can come to light. But, I think that I demonstrate in the paragraph above that a journal bent on monitoring and improving one’s prayer life just isn’t built to spec as well as we think it should be… yet.

  • I think you are thinking the way that I did when I first read this Anthony. The idea that one wants to keep a journal on multiple platforms would indeed be served well by Evernote. However, we don’t get from that question what kinds of features the person was looking for… which makes an Evernote recommendation easy, but not perfectly fitting.

    For example, if this person wants to link to their bible app of choice for relevant scriptures, what mobile bible apps would connect with Evernote in such a manner? What desktop/laptop apps? Or, would some kind of integration with Dyer;s Bib.ly need to be undertaken. What if the person is looking to see these notes in a calendar day/week/month view? This isn’t done by any view in Evernote, and while some prayer journals and devotionals have it, the inability of some of these to be cross-platform is an issue. If the person was looking for consistency and wanted/needed some task or alarm feature, this is also something Bible apps, Evernote, etc. just don’t do.

    In a real sense, the ability to answer this question hinges on what core features the person is looking for. From there, then app or service suggestions can come to light. But, I think that I demonstrate in the paragraph above that a journal bent on monitoring and improving one’s prayer life just isn’t built to spec as well as we think it should be… yet.