Rediscovering Moments: How Retro's Rewind Feature Transforms the Way Friends Share Photos

The Problem Nobody Talks About: Photos That Disappear Into the Void

Every smartphone user faces the same paradox: we’re taking more photos than ever before, yet we rarely actually look at them. They sit in your camera roll like forgotten digital artifacts—sometimes for years. Retro, a photo-sharing app centered around close friends with approximately one million users, decided to tackle this overlooked problem head-on.

The spark for this approach came from an existing feature that showed users photos from the same week in prior years. But here’s where it got interesting: only long-time users could access this nostalgic experience. If you’d just joined Retro, you had no photo history to travel back through. “If you’re just starting out, you don’t really get to explore your memories in this way,” noted the platform’s co-founder, who spent over six years at Meta developing features like Instagram Stories and Facebook Dating before launching Retro in 2022 alongside CTO Ryan Olson.

Introducing “Rewind”: Your Personal Time Machine

Enter Rewind—a new function that lets you journey through your entire camera roll as if rewinding through time. Unlike traditional photo storage apps, Rewind transforms archival into an experience. Your memories remain completely confidential until you decide otherwise. Want to send a throwback to a friend? Simply tap the share icon. Prefer to keep scrolling? No one needs to know you’re viewing these moments.

The interface itself borrows inspiration from the classic iPod dial. Spin through your timeline with satisfying haptic feedback, or scroll backward and forward to browse through months and years at your own pace. You can hide photos you’d rather forget (yes, the ex pictures), tap a dice icon to jump to random memories, or press and hold any image to view it uncropped. When you do share a throwback, friends see a timestamp indicating it’s a memory—not current content.

Why This Matters in an Algorithm-Driven World

Social platforms have become increasingly crowded with AI-curated content and algorithm-driven recommendations. Yet despite this flood of endless feeds, one fundamental desire remains: people want genuine connections with their friends. They want to see what their close circle is actually capturing, not what an algorithm decides to show them.

Rewind represents a quiet rebellion against this trend. It acknowledges that the photos and videos you create deserve a dedicated space—one where they actually reach the people who matter most to you, on your terms.

The Numbers and the Vision

Currently, nearly half of Retro’s user base (45.7%) engages with the app on a daily basis. By introducing a feature that encourages users to revisit and share their own memories, the platform is poised to deepen engagement even further. Access Rewind either through the card at the end of your friends’ shared photo row or via the central tab in the bottom navigation bar.

Setting Themselves Apart

While the concept of rediscovering old photos isn’t new—Timehop pioneered this years ago, and Facebook’s “On This Day” feature followed suit—Retro’s approach carves out its own territory. Most users view Google Photos and Apple Photos as storage and organizational tools rather than social experiences. Meanwhile, Facebook’s own feed has progressively deprioritized friends’ content in favor of links and advertisements. Retro, by contrast, remains fundamentally built around close friends and intimate sharing—not broad distribution or algorithmic reach.

In a landscape where algorithm-driven platforms increasingly mediate our digital lives, Rewind offers something increasingly rare: a way to rediscover your own moments with complete control over who sees them. It’s less about discovery and more about reconnection.