Your memories stay yours.

Your First Cut is made on your iPhone. AI Director and temporary sharing only begin when you choose them.

Effective September 18, 2026

Photos, videos and memory grouping

With your Photos permission, Memories reads accessible photos and videos, capture dates, durations and embedded locations to find meaningful moments and build a film. Detection and grouping happen on your device. Memories uses Apple’s system geocoder to turn one representative coordinate into a place name. Your originals remain in Apple Photos unless you explicitly select cut moments in Cleanup, accept Memories’ warning and confirm Apple’s system deletion prompt. With iCloud Photos, a confirmed deletion can affect your other synced devices.

On-device visual intelligence

Apple Vision analyzes small photo thumbnails and a bounded sample of video frames on your iPhone for screenshots, document-like images, people, scenery, food and visual quality. Memories also compares sampled video frames to choose a useful source window and avoid static or abrupt sections. Recognized text itself is not retained. Moments left out of an automatic cut remain available under More Moments and can be restored.

AI Director

Your complete First Cut is created on-device without cloud AI. Only after you choose AI Director, select a creative direction and explicitly continue may selected reduced-resolution JPEG previews pass through Memories’ secure backend to OpenAI. Selected videos are represented by small sampled-frame contact sheets and broad editing cues; the original video files and audio are not uploaded. Memories removes metadata such as EXIF, GPS, filenames, exact capture dates and stable Apple Photos identifiers. OpenAI returns an editing plan that Memories validates and applies locally without changing your originals.

Storage and temporary share links

AI previews and edit plans are not intentionally stored by Memories. A finished render may remain temporarily on your iPhone for up to 24 hours so you can return after a background export. If you explicitly create a share link, the finished exported video—not your Photo Library or original moments—is uploaded to a private Supabase Storage bucket and linked to your Memories account. Viewers receive only a short-lived playback address after presenting the private share token. You can download the linked video again while it remains active. The cloud video and link expire automatically after seven days. Saving to Photos is the only permanent copy Memories offers.

Purchases

Apple processes payments. RevenueCat receives an anonymous app user identifier and Story Pass purchase status so Memories can unlock one full HD export. RevenueCat does not receive your photos, previews, films, titles or location data. Story Pass is a consumable whose memory unlock is retained on the purchasing device.

Identity, tracking and your choices

Memories sends temporary request identifiers instead of Apple Photos identifiers and does not use your images for advertising or cross-app tracking. You can create, edit and save a video without an account. An account is requested when you choose Create share link. You can remove an active link before it expires, delete your shared videos and links, or delete your account. Every AI edit begins with an explicit sharing decision; declining sends nothing. Revoking Photos access in iOS Settings stops future library access.

Changes and contact

We may update this policy when Memories changes. Material changes will be reflected here and in the app. For privacy questions or deletion help, email [email protected].