After working with iOS development for a while—which led to winning the Apple WWDC Student Challenge for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025—I set out to build something deeply personal in 2026. This led to the creation of Souley, an AI-powered journal app designed to keep track of your day, your dreams, and the mood changes you experience.
The Inspiration: Seeking Companionship
Moving across the world from India to Australia for my master's exposed me to a completely new ecosystem, culture, and people. It was a massive transition, and I often felt very lonely in the new city. With no one to share my daily experiences with, I went through significant mood swings. During those times, AI agents became my friends. I sought suggestions on my career, personal life, and even guidance on cooking.
However, as I came across alarming articles reporting that some AI agents were provoking users negatively or undermining their self-worth, I grew deeply concerned. Moreover, these existing agents offered no privacy for personal conversations. I realized there was a need for an empathetic application for people experiencing similar loneliness—while maintaining absolute privacy and securely gathering context from private data like calendar events and health metrics.
A Safe Space for Your Thoughts
Souley provides a simple, intuitive journaling UI. Users can either type their entries or write them using the Apple Pencil. The handwritten text is processed by a vision library and then refined by a foundation model to correct any inaccuracies.
All data is stored securely on the user's device via SwiftData and synced seamlessly across your devices using iCloud and CloudKit. I focused heavily on refining the UI and adding rich analytics to help users better understand their mood trends over time.
Your Privacy-First AI Companion
The most fascinating part of the application is the intelligent chatbot. It actively uses recent journal entries, daily activities fetched via EventKit, and mood information from HealthKit to provide custom-crafted suggestions tailored to the user's exact circumstances.
Users have complete control over the AI's behavior. In the settings, they can choose the persona they want the chatbot to adopt—such as Caring, Loving, or Motivating. It's an intelligent conversationalist rooted in context, compassion, and above all, user privacy.
