Rediscover Your Photo Timeline: How Retro's New "Rewind" Feature Brings Your Camera Roll Memories Back to Life

Your Photos Are Disappearing Into the Void—Retro Has a Solution

Here’s a sobering reality: you’re taking more photos than ever before, but when was the last time you actually looked back at them? Most of your camera roll sits dormant, forgotten moments gathering digital dust. That’s the problem Nathan Sharp, co-founder of Retro, kept running into—and it inspired a bold new feature called “Rewind.”

Retro, a photo-sharing app with roughly one million users focused on close friendships, just launched this memory-surfacing tool. And it’s reshaping how we think about our personal photo archives.

The Backstory: Why This Feature Matters More Than You’d Think

Sharp spent over six years at Meta working on Instagram Stories and Facebook Dating before launching Retro in 2022 alongside CTO Ryan Olson. He’s seen the full spectrum of how tech companies approach photos and memories.

The inspiration for Rewind came from observing a gap in the app’s existing functionality. Retro already had a feature letting users peek at photos from the same week a year ago—but only if you’d been using the platform long enough. Newer users? They got locked out of the nostalgia. “If you’re just starting out, you don’t really get to travel back through your memories in this way,” Sharp explained.

But here’s what struck him harder: in a world drowning in algorithm-driven feeds and AI-curated content, people still crave something raw and genuine. They want their phone’s retro camera roll moments to feel special—not lost to the algorithm.

Meet Rewind: Your Personal Time Machine

Rewind works like this: open it, and your phone gently vibrates as it cycles through older photos from your camera roll. Everything stays private until you decide otherwise. Want to send a throwback to a friend? Tap share. Want to skip that unflattering photo of your ex? Hide it. Feeling adventurous? Hit the dice icon to jump to a random moment.

The UI is inspired by the classic iPod dial—spin through months and years with haptic feedback on each new image. Press and hold to see photos uncropped. When you share, a timestamp gets added so your friends know it’s a throwback, not a fresh post.

One quirk: screenshots don’t appear in Rewind, but receipts, work whiteboards, and other “non-traditional” photos do show up—because Sharp recognizes these moments matter too.

Why Rewind Is Different From the Competition

Yes, we’ve seen memory features before. Timehop did it years ago. Facebook has “On This Day.” Google Photos and Apple Photos have their own memory functions.

But Sharp sees a crucial difference. Facebook’s feed has evolved into links, news, and ads—it’s no longer a friends-first experience. Apple and Google’s apps? Most people treat them as storage utilities, not social spaces. Retro isn’t trying to be a storage app. It’s trying to be a social app where your memories actually matter and reach the people you care about.

The Numbers Say It’s Working

Nearly 46% of Retro’s user base is active daily. With Rewind rolling out now, that engagement is expected to climb. The feature addresses a universal frustration: your retro camera moments deserve to live somewhere meaningful—not disappear into your phone’s storage.

The takeaway? In an age of infinite feeds and algorithmic chaos, the simple act of rediscovering your own memories with the people closest to you might be exactly what we need.