The memory
One photograph, the whole screen
Each memory opens on its own, with the date it was taken and how many years ago that was. No grid to decode and no feed to scroll past.
Memorylens
This day.
This day.
Every year before.
Memorylens finds the photos you took on today's date, in every year before this one, going back as far as your camera roll does.
Free. iPhone, iOS 18 or later.
Your camera roll is mostly not memories.
It is screenshots, receipts, parking signs, and the nineteen near-identical shots you took to get one good one. Scrolling back through all of that is the reason nobody scrolls back.
Without it
Scroll, scroll, give up. The photographs are all still there, and you never see them again.
With Memorylens
Open it once in the morning. Today's date, every year you have photos for, already filtered.
And it learns
Set how strict the filter is. Anything that still gets through, hide once, and it never comes back.
Straight from the app.
Real screens, not mockups. The photographs in them are staged, so nothing here is anybody's actual memory.
The day
One date, all the way down
Two years ago, five, nine. It keeps going as far back as your camera roll does.
Yesterday
Turn to the day before
The day turns like a block. The day before is one gesture away, and so is the one before that.
Sharing
Send the year, not just the picture
Share a memory in a frame that carries the numeral and the date, or share the photograph on its own.
The bits that matter.
Small app, short list. Everything on it is something you will use on an ordinary morning.
A reminder each morning
One notification a day, at a time you pick. Miss it and the day is still there when you open the app.
Hide it once, for good
Any photograph hidden permanently, with one tap. It never surfaces again, in any year.
You set the strictness
One slider, from Everything to Best only. Screenshots and receipts stay hidden at every setting.
No signal needed
Finding today's photographs happens on your phone. It works on a plane and in a basement.
No account to make
No email address, no password. A random identifier, and that is the whole of the sign up.
Your photographs, plainly.
A memories app reads the most personal thing on your phone. Here is exactly what it does with it.
The sorting is your phone's work
Reading dates and working out what belongs to today runs on the device, with no connection needed.
Nothing sold, nothing tracked
Nothing is sold, nothing is used for advertising, and there is no tracking of any kind.
Your originals stay put
Your original files never leave your phone. Screenshots, receipts, documents and anything you have hidden are never uploaded at all.
Memorylens does keep a record of each photograph: when it was taken, how big it is, whether it is a screenshot, a quality score. With Keep it also saves a reduced copy of each memory, about 1600 pixels wide, so a day survives a lost or replaced phone. The privacy policy lists every field, why it is there, and how to erase all of it.
Questions, answered.
What does Memorylens actually do?
It shows you the photographs you took on today's date, in every year before this one. Open it in the morning and you get one day, all the way back, as far as your camera roll goes. Tomorrow it is tomorrow's date, and so on.
What does it keep out?
Screenshots, which are detected exactly rather than guessed at. Bursts, which collapse to the one frame worth keeping. Receipts, documents and photographs of a laptop screen, which get scored and dropped. Photographs with people in them rank higher, because those are the ones you stop on.
Do my photographs get uploaded?
Your original files never leave your phone. Memorylens stores a short record of each photograph: when it was taken, how big it is, whether it is a screenshot, how many faces are in it, and a quality score. With Keep it also saves a reduced copy of each memory, around 1600 pixels wide, built up gradually over wifi, so a day survives a lost or replaced phone.
Screenshots, receipts, documents, near-identical burst shots and anything you have hidden are never uploaded. The privacy policy has the full list.
What is Keep, and what does it cost?
The daily memory is free, every year of it. Keep adds one thing: a copy of each memory saved as it surfaces, so the day is still here even if the photograph has left your phone. It is 19.99 euro a year, and it renews unless you cancel. A copy is about 1600 pixels wide, right for looking at and sharing, not a replacement for your original.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no email address and no password. Your data is tied to a random identifier, and there is no way to sign in as you.
Which devices does it run on?
Memorylens is an iPhone app and needs iOS 18 or later. There is no iPad or Mac version.
What if it shows me something I would rather not see?
Hide it, with one tap, and it never comes back, in that year or any other. A memories app surfaces hard days as readily as good ones, so hiding is permanent by design and takes one gesture rather than a trip into settings.
Today already happened.
Go back and look.
Free on the App Store for iPhone. One day, all the way back, every morning.