How to make a year-in-photos recap from your iPhone camera roll
Every December your feed fills with year-in-review posts, and your own camera roll holds thousands of photos that would make a better one. Here is how to turn it into a recap people actually watch, by hand or automatically.
Option 1: do it by hand
You can make a good recap with nothing but the Photos app and a video editor. It takes an evening, and it works best if you are ruthless.
- Open the Favorites album and the Years view in Photos. Favorites are the photos you already judged worth keeping.
- Scroll the year month by month and note the 20 to 40 photos you would show a friend. Screenshot them into a new album so they sit in one place.
- Cut the near-duplicates. If you took six shots of the same dinner, keep the one with the best faces.
- Put them in a video editor or a slideshow and set a short, fixed duration per photo.
- Add one song and trim the photos to its beat.
The cost is time. The Photos app does not tell you which day had the most photos, how far you travelled or who you photographed most, so those stories stay buried unless you go looking.
What makes a recap people actually watch
- Short. Under 30 seconds for video, and a handful of cards for a photo post. People stop at the second screen of anything long.
- One idea per card. A map, a person, a number. If a card needs a caption to explain it, it is too busy.
- Faces and places first. People look longest at photos with people they know and places they recognise.
- A real number or two. Photos taken, your longest streak and your busiest day are more interesting than a generic caption.
- Cut to the beat. When photos change on the beat of the song, even an ordinary set feels edited.
- The right shape. Use 9:16 for Stories, Reels and TikTok, and 1:1 square for feed posts and messages.
- A strong first frame. Open with your best photo, not a title card.
Option 2: let an app find the stories
This is what Recapped is for. It reads your photo library on your iPhone and builds 15 story cards from it: your photo of the year, your year in numbers, the people and pets you photographed most, a map of your places, your busiest day, your longest streak, themes like food or concerts, your longest trip, and your first and last photo as instant-film frames. It also cuts a 30-second video of about 90 photos to a 120 BPM beat, with a 15-second version for Instagram Stories.
Everything is analysed on the phone with Apple's on-device frameworks, so your photos are not uploaded anywhere. The first run takes about 30 seconds for a typical library, and later launches are instant. Cards come in 9:16 and 1:1, and Save all turns them into one photo post.
A simple way to start
- Decide the format first: a 30-second video, a photo post of 5 to 10 cards, or both.
- Pick your photo of the year. Our photo of the year guide covers how.
- Add two or three stats that surprised you, such as your busiest day.
- Post it with one line of text and tag the people in it.
Recapped is $4.99 once, with no subscription. The photo of the year, your numbers, your people, your pets and the first 5 seconds of the video are free to try. Get it on the App Store.