Reflectly is an AI guided journal app that features a mood tracker and inspirational quotes. With Reflectly, you can set reminders to write in your journal that fit your schedule and create a journaling routine. There is a free version of Reflectly, as well as a premium version that costs $19.99 – $59.99, depending on which app store you use.
Pros & Cons of the Reflectly App
Reflectly is a journaling and mood tracking app that is quick and easy to sign up for. As a user it is unclear what additional features the premium version offers. However, the free version of Reflectly works great and offers everything you need to start a journaling practice.
How to Sign Up for The Reflectly App
You can sign up for an account by downloading the Reflectly App in the Google Play or Apple App Store.
What is the Reflectly App?
Reflectly is an artificial intelligence (AI) guided journaling app that also features a mood check-in. The AI will ask you journal prompts and acts as a guide in the app. There is an awesome free version with basically the entire app available to use. There is also a premium version, which costs $19.99 annually on Android and $59.99 annually on Apple. There is a seven-day free trial after you create an account.
Reflectly has some really great features, like the option to upload pictures or use a talk-to-text option when journaling and recording moods. The talk-to-text option could be a great feature for those who may have low hand mobility or vision troubles, however it doesn’t seem to work consistently on Android. Each day, Reflectly will offer you a daily “challenge” to complete, like draw or paint a picture, say three positive affirmations to yourself, or give someone in your life a compliment. These easy tasks make the app fun to engage with and keep you coming back to see what challenges the next day brings.
While Reflectly does offer a premium version, there does not seem to be any difference between the free version and the premium version. The one main difference that we could discern was the ads to upgrade to premium disappeared, and that seemed to be it. We reached out to Reflectly for more information, but did not hear back from them while creating this review.
Reflectly has the option to export your data from your journal as a PDF file. This file will be sent to your email address, where you can download it and save it or print it out. Having a copy of your journal is handy to take to your therapist or psychiatry appointments and limits having to pull out your phone and scroll through a bunch of information while there.
Who Is Reflectly Right For?
Reflectly would be great for those who need journal prompts, want mood tracking and journaling in one spot, and want easy to understand graphs about their moods over time.
You Want Journal Prompts
Reflectly has a daily journal prompt for you to finish, which is great for those who struggle with what to write about. While you can only add one sentence to these prompts, they are great for getting your creative juices flowing.
Mood Tracking & Journal
Each mood check-in you complete with the Reflectly app allows you to add additional notes. If you complete the daily journal prompt first, then do the mood check-in, you can continue your thoughts about the prompt. Or you can easily write about what is affecting your mood at the time of your check-in.
Easy to Read Graphs
With some journal and mood tracking apps, the graphs and statistics provided can be confusing at first. Reflectly has very easy to understand graphs and breakdowns of your moods and what affects them. This can make it much easier to see exactly what your weeks or months have looked like overall.
Who May Want an Alternative to Reflectly?
While Reflectly can be a great tool for many, there are some people who may benefit from something else. Those who need more free writing space, enjoy more AI guidance, or those under 13-years-old will need to seek out an alternative.
Free Writing
If you enjoy a more free writing experience, then Reflectly will not be a good fit for you. While there is a place to add longer notes during mood check-ins, it is not a space that provides unlimited characters. Other apps, like the Day One journal, will give you the space to write as much as you want and also add pictures.
You can read more about it in our comprehensive review of the Day One journal.
More AI Guidance
While Reflectly does offer you a daily journal prompt to respond to, there is very little guidance otherwise. If you are looking for more guidance from an AI bot, you may want to try an app like Wysa or Woebot. Both apps will allow you to interact with an AI bot that can guide you through journaling, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, and much more.
You can learn more about AI chat bots in our in-depth review of Wysa.
Under 13-Years-Old
Unfortunately, Reflectly has explicitly stated in their terms of service that the app is only for those 13+. Younger tweens and children who are looking to journal may want to seek out a more traditional option like pen and paper. There are guided paper journals available on Amazon and in big box stores.
What Users Are Saying About the App
The Reflectly app has a 4.6-star rating from 80,000+ reviews in the Apple App Store and a 4.5-star rating from 40,000+ reviews in the Google Play Store. Most users had positive things to say about Reflectly, but others found it to have many flaws. A large number of the reviews in both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store are over a year old, as well.
Pushy In-App Ad
Users that have the free version of Reflectly mentioned they were constantly having to click “No Thanks” to the ad for the premium version. Many noted that they thought this was annoying to have to do each time they logged into the app. I actually cannot agree with this sentiment more. Each time I logged into the free version, I was immediately asked to upgrade to premium and it was really off-putting.
Glitches & Issues
A lot of users pointed out their apps would glitch, lag, or have other technical issues. Some users pointed out that if they logged out of the app, all of their data was gone. The main issue I have had with the app is that the voice recording functionality does not work at all.
Update Made App Worse
According to the dates in Google, around 2020 Reflectly did a huge update to the app. This took away several features previously available, like a stories function, achievements, and editing options. None of these features are present in the app today, however the app store details still list them as present.
Reflectly, in its app description in the Google Play Store, lists itself as using positive psychology, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy. These claims do not seem to be true at all. There are no mindfulness techniques in the app and there are no CBT lessons to read or listen to.
Fun & Easy to Use
Many of the positive reviews mentioned that Reflectly was fun and easy for them to use. They enjoyed the quick journal prompts and the mood check-ins. I found Reflectly to be a straightforward journaling app that would be perfect for someone just starting out with journaling and mood tracking.
How Much Does Reflectly Cost?
Reflectly has a great free version and a premium version that costs $19.99 – $59.99 annually, depending on which app store you use. The premium version has a seven-day free trial and there are also in-app coupons with various percentages off the annual cost.
Is Reflectly Free?
Yes, Reflectly has a free version that offers a large majority (if not all) of the app features for free. This gives you everything you might need to start a guided journaling habit.
Reflectly Premium
Reflectly Premium costs $19.99 annually on Android and $59.99 annually on Apple. There is a seven day free trial available for both Apple and Android. There are different percentages off the annual cost in the app and these can vary.
Reflectly Discounts
Reflectly offers a seven-day free trial when you first sign up and then different percentages off the annual subscription as an in-app offer.
What If I Want to Cancel My Reflectly Subscription?
You can cancel your subscription at any time by logging into the app store you purchased your subscription from. Go to your profile and click “Manage Subscriptions”, then select Reflectly. There should be the option to cancel the subscription after you tap the app.
Does Reflectly Offer Refunds?
No, Reflectly does not offer refunds for their premium subscriptions.
For more information, please visit Reflectly’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
How To Get Started With Reflectly
Getting started with Reflectly is very quick, taking less than five minutes in total.
- Download the app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
- Enter in a nickname of your choice, choose a theme color, and set up journal reminders.
- Choose if you want to sign up for the premium version of Reflectly or continue with the free version.
- Begin a short tour of what the app has to offer which includes logging your first mood check-in and journal entry.
- Create an account by entering your email address, creating a password, and accepting the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Reflectly Free Version: Detailed Review
Reflectly’s free version seems to offer most of the app’s content for free. You can track your moods, activities, habits, and journal in the free version. After five days, Reflectly will be able to show you a graph of your moods and what affected them the most.
Mood Tracking & Journal
The main offering of Reflectly is the mood tracking and journaling option. The mood tracker will ask you to select which emoji represents your current mood, then select factors that attribute to this mood. Once these are logged, you will have a space to title your entry and then write your journal entry.
I thought that including the journaling with the mood tracker helped me think through what I was feeling in the moment. Being able to title my entries also gave it a more personalized feeling, which is a feature I wish was in more journaling apps.
Inspirational Quotes
Reflectly offers a unique space that shows you inspirational quotes. There are several categories to choose from and they are:
- Personal Growth
- Calm Down
- Hard Times
- Inspiration
- Mental Health
- Work & Productivity
Each category features even more options to choose from like sadness, positive thinking, funny, and much more. You can even change the background pictures, which is a fun customization option.
Mood Graph
Your mood graph will show up after you have consistently used the app for five days in a row. The data you have input will first show up as a line graph and then be broken down even further. You’ll be able to see which moods you are in the most, what makes you happy, what makes you sad, your top activities, and your top feelings. All of this information will start to paint a picture of what affects you the most, either in a positive or negative way.
Journal Feed
While it isn’t labeled as such, your journal feed can be found by tapping the very last icon on the navigation bar. Here you will be able to view all of your mood check-in’s, journal entries, prompted responses, and any photos you have uploaded. This is a really great feature, as one of the best things to do in your journaling practice is to reflect on how you were thinking and feeling before.
Perks & Unique Features
A cool perk that you can find after you do your mood and journal entry is the option to add a photo. On the homescreen, there is a plus sign at the bottom and when you tap it, you will be given three options. One is to do a mood check-in and the other two are “add photo” or “voice note”. While I could not get the voice note option to work at all on my Samsung, the add photo option worked great. You simply tap the photo you want and it will appear in your journal.
Another unique feature Reflectly offers is the option to do daily challenges. These have not been difficult or hard, rather they ask you to do things like draw a picture, say positive affirmations, or give a compliment. They are fun tasks to do to improve your mood and the mood of others.
Reflectly Premium: Detailed Review
While there is a premium version of Reflectly available, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is offered in the premium version that is not available in the free version. Even after spending a week and a half comparing the free version on an iPhone to a premium version on a Samsung Galaxy, there was no noticeable difference.
History of Reflectly
Reflectly was launched in 2017 by Jakob Mikkelsen, Jacob Kristensen, and Daniel Vestergaard. All three have more than a decade of experience in the startup world and are currently based out of Copenhagen. We reached out to the team at Reflectly, but did not hear back from them at the time of this review.
Reflectly VS Daylio
Reflectly and Daylio offer very similar mood tracking capabilities. Each app will ask you to select your mood from some emojis, then select your activities, habits, and feelings. Each mood tracking comes with a journaling space, but the one with Reflectly has a larger character number.
While both apps offer premium versions, it is definitely noticeable in Daylio that there are additional features. With Daylio the premium version unlocks more emojis, habits and activities, as well as the option to download PDF files of your journal. Daylio’s premium version costs $2.99 monthly or $23.88 annually, compared to Reflectly’s cost of $19.99 – $59.99 annually, depending on the app store you use.
To learn more about how to sign up, read our in-depth review of the Daylio app.
Final Verdict
Initially, I really liked the Reflectly app for how easy it was to sign up, the layout of the app, and how fun it was to use. The daily guided journal prompts were fun to fill out and I thought the challenges were easy to complete. After five days, the mood graph and data was easy to understand and read. When I upgraded to the premium version, however, I was severely disappointed. There is no discernable difference between the free version and the premium version of the Reflectly app that I could see. For this reason, I recommend you do not upgrade to the premium version as it seems to be a waste of money.
