Timehop

I’m the type of person who is very prone to nostalgia. I even wrote a blog post about it last month. I like to look back at my past experiences and reflect on them. But this can sometimes get out of hand. When I’m up late and can’t sleep, I find myself spending hours looking through old Facebook posts. This probably isn’t the most healthy method of handling my nostalgia. Fortunately, I’ve found a better way.

A year ago, I was sick on Spring Break. Two years ago, I was introduced to the fantastic television show Community during an all-day TV marathon with a friend. And three years ago, I made myself some cheese dip and bragged about it online. How do I know all of this? Because of Timehop, an awesome app that helps me manage my nostalgia.

Timehop is an iPhone app (with an Android version coming soon) based on the idea that every day is the anniversary of something, however small. Every day, Timehop will tell you what you did a year ago, two years ago, etc., as far back as it can go. It’ll show you statuses you posted, conversations you had with others, photos you shared, and places you went. It’s a quick and easy way to look back at where you were on this date in the past.

Setting up Timehop is simple. All you have to do is sign into social media accounts in the app, and they’ll do the rest for you. Timehop currently supports Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Foursqure. It will also sync photos from your phone’s Camera Roll, your iPhoto library, and your Dropbox account, if you like. Although this might not cover everything you do online, it does serve to give you a pretty good snapshot of what you were up to a year ago.

The interface is really simple. Just open up the app, and it will give you a stream of your posts for that day, starting with a year ago and going backwards. At the bottom, they usually share a significant news event from that day and an inspiring quote from the app’s dinosaur mascot, Abe (pictured above). I usually start my day with Timehop. It gives me a chance to have my daily dose of nostalgia and also gives me some context for the day ahead.

But Timehop doesn’t just show you what you did. It tries to make the remembering process a social one. You can share anything from your day’s Timehop to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, with a simple tap. And Timehop is currently working on a new feature called Throwback that allows you to pick one post from your Timehop per day and share it with all of your friends who have Timehop. It really does make the app more fun when you share it with others and start remembering together.

The people who make Timehop are really cool. They keep users updated on Twitter when things go wrong or when they need people to beta test new features. They interact with users who contact them, and they definitely add some humor to the app through Abe. And most importantly, they are constantly and diligently working to make the app better based on user feedback. That’s something that really sets Timehop apart from other apps.

I’ve been using Timehop for over a year, and I’ve had a great experience with it. I love being able to look back at cool stuff I did in the past, and it helps me keep my nostalgia in check. I shared Timehop with my friends, and they love it, too. We all use it everyday, and we often share some of our past posts with each other for fun. Give Timehop a try and get your friends onboard. Let’s make every day worth remembering.

Timehop is available for free on the iOS App Store and is coming soon to Android.