Today, Day One Labs is available to Silver subscribers again. It’s where we test ideas before they’re finished, and it works best when the people testing them are the ones who journal every day.
You’re the first to notice when a feature helps and when it gets in the way. In Labs, what you tell us early on changes what gets built. It’s yours again. Try what’s in there and tell us how it’s working.
If you’re a Silver subscriber, here’s what you need to know:
You have Labs again. It’s included with Silver on version 2026.17 and later, at no additional cost.
This is a return, not a debut. Labs was part of Premium until we moved it to Gold in March. Now it’s coming back.
Everything in Labs is experimental. Features can change, graduate into the app, or move to a higher tier. We’ll always tell you before that happens.
Why the change
Day One has never been one thing. No two people use journals the same way, and the ways you use yours show us things we never designed for. That’s the reason Labs exists.
Labs is where our big ideas go before they’re finished, so the people using them can shape what they become. When a few hundred people try something and tell us how it went, we learn whether it works. When thousands do, we learn whether it belongs in people’s lives.
Labs used to be part of Premium. When we introduced Silver and Gold in March, we listed access to Labs as one of the things Gold included. Subscribers who had spent months trying and helping shape experimental features lost them. Several of those features graduated into Gold the same day. That was a real loss and people were honest with us about it. We heard you and are bringing Labs back to Silver.
What’s in Labs right now
There’s a thread running through what’s in Labs right now: it’s about journaling out loud.
Talking is faster than typing, often helping people get past the paralysis caused by the blank page. It also catches what typing edits out. The problem has always been what you get back. Raw transcription is a wall of text that can be difficult to make sense of, so the entry sits there unvisited and the habit quietly stops. Both of these features are aimed at preventing that result.
New Audio Recorder (iPhone, iPad)
A rebuilt recorder for capturing audio in an entry, with AI summaries of what you recorded. For the six-minute recording you can’t remember the shape of.
AI Format Transcription (iPhone, iPad)
Takes the raw transcription and gives it punctuation, grammar, and an optional title. The words are all yours. They’re just formatted so you’ll read them again. Results vary, and we’re refining based on your feedback, which is why it’s in Labs.
Android and Windows don’t have Labs features available right now. When something’s ready to test there, it will appear on its own.
How Labs works
Labs is an active workshop, and ideas arrive unfinished. Some of what we test graduates out of Labs into the app, and some of that lands in Gold. A feature you’ve come to rely on may eventually require an upgrade. Others will be finished and ready for you in Silver. What we can promise is that it won’t come as a surprise.
We tell you three times, at the three moments it matters most.
When you turn Labs on, you read and confirm this: Labs features are experimental and may be removed or moved to a higher subscription at any time.
While you’re using it, every Labs feature carries a Labs badge, so you always know what’s still an experiment.
Before anything changes, we tell you in the app: what’s graduating, where it’s going, and what it means for you.
You should know this going in, not discover it after.
A note on AI
Some Labs features use AI, and Silver subscribers can now use them in Labs. Right now that’s the AI summaries in the New Audio Recorder, and AI Format Transcription. Both are off until you turn them on.
The AI Features toggle in Settings is a separate thing. It governs Daily Chat and the AI tools in the entry toolbar, and it remains part of Gold.
Any Labs feature that sends your writing somewhere tells you first and asks. Nothing is processed unless you choose it, nothing is stored on our servers, and nothing is used to train models. The privacy principles Day One is known for haven’t changed.
Turning Labs on
First, update to version 2026.17 or later. Labs access is tied to this version, so on an older build you’ll still see the Gold paywall.
iPhone and iPad
Tap your profile photo to open Settings, tap Labs, then toggle on Enable Labs and confirm.
Mac
Choose Day One > Settings from the menu bar, or Settings from the sidebar. Click the Labs tab, then toggle on Enable Labs.
Web
Click the gear icon in the top-left corner, click Labs (below Advanced), then toggle on Enable Labs.
Everything inside is individually optional, and you can switch any of it off at any time.
While you’re there, turn on Email Newsletter at the top of the screen to stay informed about new features we’d love to have you try out and shape.
Tell us what you think
If something is useful, tell us what you used it for. If something is broken, or confusing, or almost right but not quite, tell us that especially. There’s a Share feedback button at the bottom of the Labs screen that comes straight to us.
Many of you have trusted Day One with years of memories and everyday moments, and some of you have told us, bluntly, where we’ve gotten it wrong. We didn’t build Labs as a perk or a preview. It’s part of how Day One gets made.
