A private alternative to social media for your memories

Short answer: posting is sharing, not keeping. If years of your photos and stories live on social media, download them, choose what matters, and keep it in a place that is private by default, where the story and your voice sit next to the photo, and from which you can take everything out in a full export. Then share one part with the people who were there, if you want to.

Why posting is not keeping

Social media is good at what it was built for: showing a moment to many people at once. It was not built to keep that moment for you.

• An algorithm decides who sees it. Meta explains that on Facebook an AI system orders the posts in each person's Feed by predicting what they will find most relevant. It scores about 500 posts and shows the highest first. Your memory competes with everything else.
• It is made for an audience. You choose the photo that works for others, write the caption others will read, and leave out what only you would care about. The story that matters to you is often the part you did not post.
• Old posts are hard to find. Scrolling back ten years to a single summer is slow, and a memory you cannot find is a memory you do not see.
• Everything hangs on one account. Lose access, close the account, or stop using it, and the memories go with it. Some platforms also have rules for inactive accounts: Google, for example, says it reserves the right to delete a Google Account that has been inactive for at least two years, together with its content.

None of this makes social media bad. It just makes it a poor place for your only copy.

What a private place for your memories needs

1. Private by default. Nothing visible until you decide. No public profile.
2. The story next to the photo. Not a caption for others, but the story for you: who, where, and why it mattered.
3. Room for your voice. A recording carries laughter and tone that text cannot. See why voice memos are such a good way to keep memories.
4. A way to find a period again. By year, by chapter, by person, without scrolling.
5. A full export. You can leave with everything, in files you can open elsewhere.
6. You decide who sees what. One part for the friends who were there, another for family, the rest only for you.

Our comparison where to keep your own memories holds the usual options against this list: camera roll, Google Photos, iCloud, journal apps, notes and a memory box.

How to get your posts and photos back

Every big platform has an official way to download your own information. Do it once now, then once a year.

Facebook

Facebook lets you export a copy of your information through Accounts Center. On a computer: your profile picture, Settings and privacy, Settings, then in Accounts Center Your information and permissions, Export your information. You can choose which information to export, a date range, the format and the media quality. The HTML format gives a ZIP file with a page you can open in a browser and folders with your photos and videos; JSON is meant for moving to another service. When the export is ready, you have 4 days to download it.

Instagram

Instagram uses the same tool in Accounts Center: Your information and permissions, Export your information, Create export, choose the profile, then Export to device. Again you choose what to include, the date range, the format and the media quality, and again you have 4 days to download the export once it is ready.

Google Photos

Go to takeout.google.com, select Google Photos and create an export. Google notes that downloading your data does not delete it from Google's servers, and that for Google Photos you can schedule automatic exports for new and updated data.

iCloud Photos

On iCloud.com you can select and download up to 1,000 photos and videos at a time.

Then: sort before you move

An export is an archive, not a memory. Put it in one folder, then choose. Our free photo date tool tells you when a photo was taken, and the photo timeline shows your photos per year, so you can see which periods of your life you have and which are missing. Then gather the photos per chapter of your life, as in how to keep the memories of a friendship, a trip or a time in your life, and write the story that never made it into the caption.

The Memory Palace as one option

The Memory Palace is your own 3D memory palace: your photos, voice recordings and stories each get a room you can walk through. It is private by default, and you can invite family and friends into a room when you choose.

It is deliberately not a social platform. There is no public profile and nothing is shown to strangers. You decide which room someone may enter.

• A room per chapter. The photos you downloaded go on the walls of the room they belong to, with the story next to them.
• Your voice. Add a voice recording to a room.
• Share one room. Invite the friends who were there into that room only.
• No lock-in. A full export as a ZIP file on every plan, including the free plan with 1 GB. Keeper costs EUR 49 a year, Guardian EUR 79 a year.
• Practical. iPhone, iPad, Android and the browser, in five languages. Data is stored in the EU. Made by a small team in Leuven, Belgium.

Have a look at the app. Comparing more options? See the comparison of apps for family memories and sharing family photos privately.

Sources

• Meta Transparency Center, Facebook Feed AI system (how posts are ranked): transparency.meta.com/features/explaining-ranking/fb-feed
• Facebook Help Centre, export a copy of your Facebook information: facebook.com/help/212802592074644
• Instagram Help Centre, review and export a copy of your Instagram information: help.instagram.com/181231772500920
• Google Account Help, how to download your Google data (Google Takeout): support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190
• Google Account Help, inactive Google Account policy (accounts unused for 2 years may be deleted): support.google.com/accounts/answer/12418290
• Apple Support, download iCloud photos and videos (up to 1,000 at a time): support.apple.com/en-us/111762