Microsoft Recall
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/develop/windows-integration/recall/
Windows-native screen-recording memory. Continuously indexes activity across apps, documents, browsing; timeline UI for revisiting work. Distinct from Copilot Memory.
Active · Verified 2026-10-29 · fresh as of 2026-10-29 · 42 cited facts, 3 with a third-party source · 3 recorded changes · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Type
- OS-level screen-recall timeline vendor fix
- Tier
- T1
- Created
- 2024 (announced May 2024; GA rollout April 2025) third-party fix
- Latest release
- not applicable — not OSS fix
- License
- not applicable — not OSS fix
- GitHub
- not applicable — no GitHub repo fix
- Funding
- not applicable — Microsoft Corporation ($3T+ public company) vendor fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-29 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- commercial vendor fix
Memory taxonomy
- storage
- file
- retrieval
- similarity
- persistence
- long-term
- update
- append-only
- unit
- episode
- governance
- user-controllable
- conflict
- overwrite
When to use
Optimised for: personal-knowledge-management UX + AI-augmented note-taking
Anti-fit: not for enterprise / programmatic use; not for compliance-regulated workloads
Pros & cons
Pros
Most aggressive ambient capture of any major OS — every screen seen is searchable, then queryable.
Cons
Drew significant privacy backlash on launch (May 2024); only Copilot+ PC hardware supported.
Claims & capabilities
Originally announced May 2024, retracted within weeks following security/privacy backlash. Re-released April 2025 to Windows Insiders Release Preview Channel with stronger encryption, biometric Windows Hello auth, opt-in default, automated content filtering of credit-card / banking / password fields. Brave, Signal, AdGuard added explicit Recall-blocking. Available on Copilot+ PCs only
Technical surface
- API surface
- not applicable — consumer feature, no public API
- Backend storage
- local SQLite (encrypted)
- Deployment
- On-device (snapshots stored locally on Copilot+ PCs)
- Embedding model
- locked (Microsoft on-device)
- Multi-tenancy
- not applicable — single user
- MCP
- searched not found
- A2A
- not supported
- OpenTelemetry
- no — consumer product
Compare Microsoft Recall with…
Alternatives to Microsoft Recall → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other personal ai / pkm / lifelogging memory in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Screenpipe T3
Local-first 24/7 screen and audio recorder that indexes what you see/hear and exposes it as context/memory to AI agents (MCP, API); open-source Rewind/Recall alternative. Y Combinator S26
- Amplenote T2
Tags + bidirectional links + task/calendar integration. "Task Score" priority matrix. AmpleAI plugin supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Ollama.
- Apple Notes + Apple Intelligence T1
Folder + tag hierarchy; iCloud sync. Writing Tools (proofread / rewrite / summarise) across all note content; audio transcription + AI summary; smart search; reminders from to-dos.
- Capacities T2
Object-graph (people, books, projects as typed objects); daily notes; bidirectional links. AI chat grounded in current note; AI property auto-fill; in-editor writing assistant; pattern-finding across objects.
- CORE (RedPlanet) T3
Always-on 'personal AI OS' that indexes email, meetings, GitHub, Linear, Slack and assistant chats into a temporal knowledge graph with fact classification and intent-driven retrieval, plus MCP integrations. reports 88.24% on LoCoMo (vendor claim)
- Craft AI T1
Hierarchical block-based documents + nested pages (no native graph). In-document AI assistant: summarise, rewrite, translate, Q&A over docs, proofread.
Sources (41 cited facts, 3 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is OS-level screen-recall timeline vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Windows-native screen-recording memory. Continuously indexes activity across apps, docum… vendor
- Claims / benefits Originally announced May 2024, retracted within weeks following security/privacy backlas… third-party
- Modalities text + image vendor
- Created 2024 (announced May 2024; GA rollout April 2025) third-party
- Mindshare 43 HN · 5 press third-party
- Funding not applicable — Microsoft Corporation ($3T+ public company) vendor
- Customers / scale not applicable — bundled Windows 11 Copilot+ PC feature; no separate customer list vendor
- Pricing Closed vendor
- Compliance Integrates with Microsoft Purview for enterprise compliance; on-device local storage; VB… vendor
- Data handling Opt-out available (on-device only; never transmitted to Microsoft); data stored locally … vendor
- Deployment On-device (snapshots stored locally on Copilot+ PCs) vendor
- HQ US vendor
- Founders / pedigree not applicable — Microsoft founded 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen vendor
- Memory volume / scale internal — undisclosed (screen capture snapshots) vendor
- Backend storage local SQLite (encrypted) vendor
- Encryption at-rest + in-transit (BitLocker, VBS enclave) vendor
- Embedding model locked (Microsoft on-device) vendor
- Consistency eventual vendor
- Versioning immutable append-log vendor
- Tombstoning GDPR right-to-erasure vendor
- Schema evolution schema locked vendor
- Namespace primitives per-user vendor
- Contradiction handling always append (no resolution) vendor
- Forgetting policy user-controlled forget vendor
- A2A support not supported vendor
- OTel no — consumer product vendor
- Webhooks / events no vendor
- Import / export proprietary only (local SQLite, encrypted) vendor
- Validated verticals consumer / individual (knowledge workers, students, researchers) vendor
- Time to running <10min (hosted SaaS sign-up or app download) vendor
- Anti-fit not for enterprise / programmatic use; not for compliance-regulated workloads vendor
- Optimised for personal-knowledge-management UX + AI-augmented note-taking vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure self-contained app; some require iCloud / Google Drive vendor
- Pros Most aggressive ambient capture of any major OS — every screen seen is searchable, then … vendor
- Cons Drew significant privacy backlash on launch (May 2024); only Copilot+ PC hardware suppor… vendor
- Project & sources Copilot+ PCs / Recall vendor
- architecture-deployment-locus local vendor
- licensing-bucket commercial vendor
- positioning-platform-vs-product product vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)
- 2026-10-29
- Homepage “https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/copilot-plus-pcs” → “https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/develop/windows-integration/recall/”
- 2026-10-23
- Compliance “Integrates with Microsoft Purview for enterprise compliance; on-device local storage; VBS Enclave + TPM encryption …” → “Integrates with Microsoft Purview for enterprise compliance; on-device local storage; VBS Enclave + TPM encryption” source
- 2026-10-22
- Deployment “On-prem” → “On-device (snapshots stored locally on Copilot+ PCs)” source