Use Memories in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

The Photos app recognizes significant people, places, and events in your library, then presents them in curated collections called Memories. You can also create your own Memories, and share them with friends and family.

Before you begin

Explore your Memories

  1. Open Photos and tap the For You tab.

  2. Tap See All to scroll through your memories. Or tap a memory to start playing it, then tap the memory again to see options, like Memory mixesNo alt supplied for Image or BrowseNo alt supplied for Image. When you tap the Browse buttonNo alt supplied for Image, the music will continue to play while showing you all of the photos within the memory.

Memories are automatically suggested for you and will continuously play, but you can select a different suggestion, replay, favorite, or share the memory you just watched.

Change the Memory mix

Memory mixes are curated combinations of photographic looks and corresponding songs that you can apply to a memory. For each memory, you can choose between multiple Memory mixes, or select your own look and song from Apple Music. Here's how:

  1. Open Photos and tap the For You Tab.

  2. Tap a memory to play it.

  3. Tap the screen, tap the Memory mixes buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then swipe left to scroll through the different mixes.

  4. Tap the screen again to apply the Memory mix.

Change the Memory look

  1. Open Photos and tap the For You Tab.

  2. Tap a memory to play it.

  3. Tap the screen, tap the Memory mixes buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then tap the Filters buttonNo alt supplied for Image.

  4. Select a look from the Memory Looks list, then tap Done.

Change the memory music

In iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 or later, you can change the music for your memories by choosing from soundtracks or suggested songs. If you're an Apple Music subscriber, you can also access the Apple Music library and view suggested songs based on your preferences or songs played at the time the memory was made. Here's how to change the music:

  1. Open Photos and tap the For You tab.

  2. Tap a memory to play it.

  3. Tap the Memory mixes buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then tap the Music buttonNo alt supplied for Image.

  4. Select a song from the list, or search for a specific song, then tap Done.

Create your own memories

To create your own Memories from an album, or a specific month or day:

  1. Go to the Albums tab and select the album. Or go to the Library tab and tap Months or Days.

  2. Tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then tap Play Memory Movie.

  3. While the movie plays, tap the screen, then tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image.

  4. Tap Add to Favorites.

  5. Tap the Close buttonNo alt supplied for Image.

To add someone from your People album to your Memories:

  1. Go to the Albums tab, then tap the People album.

  2. Tap the thumbnail of the person, then tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image.

  3. Tap Create Photo Memory.

Save your favorite memories

  1. Go to the For You tab, then select a memory.

  2. Tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then tap Add to Favorites.

To see your Favorite Memories, go to the For You tab, tap See All next to Memories, then tap Favorites. If you decide that you don't want to save a memory anymore, just tap the Favorite buttonNo alt supplied for Image again.

Share your favorite memories

  1. Play a Memory movie, then tap the screen to show the editing and sharing options.

  2. Tap the Share buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then choose how you want to share.

When you share a memory, the music is shared with it. If a certain song isn't shareable, you'll be prompted to choose a song that can be shared with the memory.

Edit your memories

You can make some changes to your Memories to personalize them even more. You can do things like change the title, add and remove photos from a memory, and depending on the number of photos in a memory, you can change the length of a memory.

Change the title

  1. Go to the memory, tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image.

  2. Tap Edit Title, then tap Save.

Add and remove photos within a memory

  1. Play a memory, then tap the screen.

  2. Tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then tap Manage Photos.

  3. Check photos to add them or deselect the photos you want to remove.

  4. Tap Done.

To make a photo the key photo for a memory:

  1. Play the memory, then tap the Pause buttonNo alt supplied for Image.

  2. Tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then tap Make Key Photo.

To hide a specific photo from a memory:

  1. Play the memory, then tap the Pause buttonNo alt supplied for Image.

  2. Tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then tap Hide From Memory.

Change the length of a memory

  1. Play a memory, then tap the screen.

  2. Tap the More buttonNo alt supplied for Image, then tap Short, Medium, or Long.

Depending on how many photos you have in the memory, you might see only Short and Medium length options.

Learn more

Learn more about using Memories on your Mac.

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