Microsoft Recall
Screenshot history tool in Productivity & writing
People who recommend Microsoft Recall say it runs on device and is useful for finding past activity. Critics object to screenshots of everything and to weak storage security.
People who recommend Microsoft Recall say it runs on device and is useful for finding past activity. Critics object to screenshots of everything and to weak storage security.
54 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 39
- approval share
- 28%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good idea that brings value
“The idea of Recall is good, but we can't trust Microsoft.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Signal leaders warn agentic AI is an insecure, unreliable surveillance risk” “when I do need it, it brings a lot of value”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Stop wasting tokens and re explaining your project between sessions” Backlash seen as overblown
“going beyond the ragebait headlines and looking at the actual offering and its privacy policy and security documentation makes it look a lot more reasonable”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Claude Code is suddenly everywhere inside Microsoft” “Much of the outrage over Recall seemed excessive to me as well.”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “State of the Windows: What is going on with Windows 11?” Processes data on device, nothing leaves
“At least recall was on device. It was only that the storage was not secure enough.”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “OpenAI reinvents Recall except everything is stored remotely” “Nothing leaves your machine.”
Comment from 23 Apr 2026 in “Recall – Local-first semantic search over Gmail, Drive, Canvas, Notion, and more”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Screenshots every few seconds
“Recall takes a screenshot of your screen every few seconds, OCRs the text, and does semantic analysis of the context and actions.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Signal leaders warn agentic AI is an insecure, unreliable surveillance risk” “Screenshotting every few seconds is unacceptable even if it stays on the device per se.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “LinkedIn Is Fingerprinting the Browser Extensions” “Taking screenshots of every windows user's desktop every few seconds.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Claude Code is suddenly everywhere inside Microsoft” Data sent to cloud or phoned home
“the backlash was more against everything being sent to a cloud server where Microsoft can see everything you do”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: I run a vision model on every screenshot, locally, on a 4GB GPU” “Microsoft Recall had been observing everything on people's entire SCREENS and phoning home much of it”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “Codex scraped the ICM website and discovered 2026 Fields Medal winner list” “I don't think it's wise for them to want stuff like Recall (data exfiltration)”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “VS Code deactivates IntelliCode in favor of the paid Copilot” Distrust of Microsoft
“The idea of Recall is good, but we can't trust Microsoft.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Signal leaders warn agentic AI is an insecure, unreliable surveillance risk” “there's a snowball's chance in hell that I would trust Microsoft to not spy on me”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Claude Code is suddenly everywhere inside Microsoft” “Microsoft Recall is a non-starter for me, even though they made it "better".”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account” Opt-out and deployed everywhere
“The problem with Recall was that it was opt-out and deployed everywhere”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “OpenAI reinvents Recall except everything is stored remotely” “Don't be fooled into thinking that Recall like crap will not be part of all future Microsoft OS's.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft is walking back Windows 11's AI overload”
What people said
40 of the 55 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's tightly integrated with Pi”
“The agent, instead of guessing or hallucinating, will be able to successfully recall the precise decisions, and whether the actions are permitted or not.”
“Yea were they not paying attention during the Microsoft Recall debacle?”
“a simple utility which helps me create, update/attach skills and finally search it across sessions”
“Microsoft Recall had been observing everything on people's entire SCREENS and phoning home much of it”
“when I do need it, it brings a lot of value”
“the backlash was more against everything being sent to a cloud server where Microsoft can see everything you do”
“Considering the massive backlash it caused, it showed the exact opposite.”
“Shoving shitty products down customers throat was a bad idea from the start.”
“checkout what i built if you might like it?”
“nearly impossible to avoid 'services' you realy do not want but will keep popping up regardless of your wishes”
“Nothing leaves your machine.”
“At least recall was on device. It was only that the storage was not secure enough.”
“The problem with Recall was that it was opt-out and deployed everywhere”
“Isn't this exactly why Microsoft had to recall 'Recall'?”
“Microsoft, famously, tried this and the backlash was immediate and intense.”
“Slop vibe-coded 17 hours ago on a day-old GitHub account?”
“Microsoft Recall is a non-starter for me, even though they made it "better".”
“building the North Korean computer surveillance system with "Recall" comes pretty close”
“Recall trying to store screenshots in an insecure database”
“The continual recall/ai push from Microsoft has not helped at all and is pretty gross.”
“an even worse version of MS Recall maybe”
“it is actually what people want”
“Screenshotting every few seconds is unacceptable even if it stays on the device per se.”
“you could try recall ... They summarize youtube videos, but you get the transcript”
“going beyond the ragebait headlines and looking at the actual offering and its privacy policy and security documentation makes it look a lot more reasonable”
“Don't be fooled into thinking that Recall like crap will not be part of all future Microsoft OS's.”
“there's a snowball's chance in hell that I would trust Microsoft to not spy on me”
“Taking screenshots of every windows user's desktop every few seconds.”
“Recall is a bloated waste of time that completely misses the point.”
“Much of the outrage over Recall seemed excessive to me as well.”
“save all your keystrokes and regular screen captures with "Recall"”
“Stored locally.. until it's uploaded by OneDrive or Windows Backup?”
“Recall takes a screenshot of your screen every few seconds, OCRs the text, and does semantic analysis of the context and actions.”
“The idea of Recall is good, but we can't trust Microsoft.”
“government-mandated surveillance functionality like Microsoft is doing with Recall”
“Microsoft Recall making devs play with the idea of obfuscating OS-level access to their (privacy-sensitive) apps”
“So, the new AI features like recall don’t exist?”
“I don't think it's wise for them to want stuff like Recall (data exfiltration)”
“A desktop app that runs 100% locally.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.