Cameras & photo · photo recovery app
Mail Memories
Pulls old photos out of Gmail locally, letting you pick images rather than a full data dump; a free 50-photo trial and low price win praise, though critics suspect vibecoding.
Summarized from 20 comments.
Pulls old photos out of Gmail locally, letting you pick images rather than a full data dump; a free 50-photo trial and low price win praise, though critics suspect vibecoding.
- recommend
- 11
- criticize
- 5
- months recommended
- 1 of 13
Why people love it
Runs locally with no cloud · 3
I figured people would feel significantly more comfortable having a sensitive tool like this run entirely on their own hardware
Jul 2026 · commentI wanted a utility that handles the protocol mess locally, avoids downloading gigabytes of metadata, skips the cloud
Jul 2026 · comment100% local, no cloud, no subscriptions, no AI.
Jul 2026 · commentFinds forgotten and lost photos · 3
It's a cute idea for the main topic - I saw some pictures I'd forgotten about for 20 years so that was fun.
Jul 2026 · commentI found photos of my niece I thought were lost forever.
Jul 2026 · commentI already have $29 worth of nostalgia out of it
Jul 2026 · commentPick images, not all-or-nothing dump · 2
a focused app that helps you actually find and recover old photos could still be useful
Jul 2026 · commentlets you get the images you want instead of an all-or-nothing data dump
Jul 2026 · commentOne-time price feels fair · 2
the price is low enough here to “one and done and forget it” here.
Jul 2026 · commentI already have $29 worth of nostalgia out of it
Jul 2026 · comment
What people warn about
Website and app look vibecoded · 3
The website is clearly AI-written (along with the text), and the screenshot also looks quite like the styles that LLMs love
Jul 2026 · commentThe website is clearly vibecoded, and that makes me assume the app is also vibecoded.
Jul 2026 · commenthe vibe-coded a super simple
Jul 2026 · comment
Long-term owners
It's a cute idea for the main topic - I saw some pictures I'd forgotten about for 20 years so that was fun.
Jul 2026 · comment
Every quote
The 19 most detailed of 20 comments. Each links to the original.
I figured people would feel significantly more comfortable having a sensitive tool like this run entirely on their own hardware
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
The website is clearly AI-written (along with the text), and the screenshot also looks quite like the styles that LLMs love
Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
I wanted a utility that handles the protocol mess locally, avoids downloading gigabytes of metadata, skips the cloud
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
It's a cute idea for the main topic - I saw some pictures I'd forgotten about for 20 years so that was fun.
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
a focused app that helps you actually find and recover old photos could still be useful
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
lets you get the images you want instead of an all-or-nothing data dump
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
the price is low enough here to “one and done and forget it” here.
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
I found photos of my niece I thought were lost forever.
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
I already have $29 worth of nostalgia out of it
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
100% local, no cloud, no subscriptions, no AI.
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
The website is clearly vibecoded, and that makes me assume the app is also vibecoded.
Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
he vibe-coded a super simple
Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
You can download your 50 oldest photos for free (no credit card required) just to see what's in there.
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
it streams the files straight to your hard drive so you can avoid this
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
Now, if it were $2.99, I probably would have just paid you.
Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
cool idea, hope that it gains the deserved visibility
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
All you did was throw together a frontend, package it into Electron, paywall it
Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
you should sign your binary so you don't have a UAC popup
Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
because of all of this GMail filter business, it's not
Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail”
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