Rewind app wants your Mac to record every moment of your life

Rewind.ai

Rewind claims to offer a way for Mac users to keep track of everything they've seen, said, or heard through their desktop, a history that could then be searched for references in the future.

The Mac has Spotlight for searching for documents and terms, with Siri offering a similar facility, but it is largely limited to text. A startup claims it can go much further, by recording everything that happens on a Mac and allowing users to search it.

Rewind, from Dan Siroker and Brett Bejcek aims to do that by building a search engine "for your life." Recording everything that happens on-screen, users can quickly go back in time to check what was shown or said to them.

The recording facility also does more than images, as it will also take note of things said in a meeting, such as Zoom or a FaceTime call. It will create a transcript of what was said or displayed in the call, which can then be searched.

While typical screen recording can result in a hefty recording size that is difficult to store long-term, the system instead uses compression to crush the recording data down. It is claimed that 10.5GB of recording data could be shrunk to occupy 2.8MB of space.

Rewind takes advantage of the Apple Silicon SoC, with it apparently using "virtually every part," according to the app's website. It also supposedly doesn't tax system resources while recording, minimizing its impact.

The app is also claimed to be highly private as it can store the data of recordings on the Mac itself, rather than on cloud servers. Its creators also claim it won't be selling user data or "do advertising" with it.

For the moment, the app is free with a subscription planned. It is also currently available in a limited beta, with no indication of when it will formally release.