Just Now: Mood Sampling

How do you feel right now?

Just Now buzzes you at random moments and asks that one question. Answer with one tap, and add a note, a photo or the people you are with if you like. Every two weeks, Just Now prepares a review, so you can look back and see what lifts your mood and what drags it down.

The idea comes from the Experience Sampling Method, a research method from the 1970s. Asking at random times catches your mood as it is, not as you remember it later. With enough moments, patterns appear.

FAST TO LOG • Tap one of five faces, from Awful to Great. That is all it takes. • Add a short note, or dictate it. Just Now suggests activities and people from what you write. • Pick activities and people, and add up to four photos. • Place, weather and temperature fill in by themselves. • Answer a buzz straight from the notification, without opening the app.

BUZZES THAT FIT YOUR DAY • Set buzz windows: when buzzes may come, how many, and the shortest gap between them. • Add scheduled times, such as a check-in at bedtime. • Get a buzz when you arrive at or leave a place, such as the office. • Pause buzzes with one tap: for an hour, for the rest of the day, or until you leave the place you are at. • Set quiet times for when you never want a buzz. • Log a moment at any time, with or without a buzz.

SEE WHAT SHAPES YOUR MOOD • Browse every moment in History, on a list or on a map. • Filter by mood, place, activity, person, day or time of day, and save a filter as a lens. • See your mood by place, activity, people, time of day, weekday, weather and temperature. • Worth noticing points out the groups that differ most from the rest. • Compare two periods side by side. • See a whole year in color with Year in moments.

REVIEWS • A review every two weeks, plus monthly and yearly reviews. • Each review shows the period's charts and a question to reflect on. • Write notes on the review or on single moments. • Share a PDF with your therapist or doctor. You choose what goes in it, and you can redact any note. • Export moments and statistics as CSV files.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Your moments stay on your iPhone and in the backups you choose. • No account, no analytics and no tracking. • The only network request asks Apple Weather for the weather, and only when location is on. • Lock the app with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. • Automatic backups to iCloud Drive or a folder in Files, with optional encryption. • Save your moods to the Health app as State of Mind, if you want.

Just Now shows differences, not causes. It is a journal for noticing patterns in your own life, not a medical tool.

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