How Daylapse works

1. Reminders and capture

Each profile has a reminder at the time you choose, daily at 9:00 by default. The notification opens the camera for that profile, and while at least an hour of the period is left it offers "Remind me in 1 hour". If Android doesn't allow exact alarms, Daylapse tells you and still reminds you, less precisely.

The camera offers front and back, and ultra-wide or telephoto lenses when your phone makes them available to apps, with flash off, on or auto. The alignment guide lays one of your last five photos over the preview at 35% strength by default, adjustable from 10% to 80%; it is mirrored with the front camera's preview and never goes into the saved photo. A volume key takes the photo, a self-timer waits 3 or 10 seconds, and a grid helps you level the shot. After each photo, "Photo saved" offers Add note.

2. How photos are filed

Every photo goes into a period: a calendar day, a calendar week starting on the weekday you created the profile, or a fixed block of 2 to 12 hours, in your phone's current time zone. A period can hold several photos. A missed period stays an empty slot, and the streak counts periods in a row, not photos.

Change the schedule any time: the new one starts when the current period ends. Photos added from the gallery go into the period they were taken in and count like a capture; photos taken before the series began can start the series earlier, and those earlier empty days are not counted as missed.

3. How photos are stored

Daylapse saves each photo upright, at most 1,920 pixels on its long side, compressed to about half a megabyte, with a small thumbnail beside it. Camera metadata such as location is not kept. One photo a day for a year stays under about 200 MB; Settings shows how much space each profile uses.

4. Looking back

The timeline groups every photo by month, with a jump to any month and a note marker on noted photos. Home shows On this day, the earliest photo from this date in an earlier year, and milestones at 10, 50, 100, 250 and 500 photos, then every 500, and on each yearly anniversary. Compare shows any two photos.

5. Preview and video export

From two photos, the flipbook plays the series at 4, 8, 15 or 30 photos per second. For a video you choose 10, 30 or 60 seconds; Daylapse picks a whole rate of 1 to 30 photos per second and shows the real length first. A year of daily photos makes 12.2, 30.4 or 60.8 seconds.

The video is square 1080 × 1080, portrait 1080 × 1920 or landscape 1920 × 1080, as an H.264 MP4. Optional finishing touches, each off until you turn it on: a date stamp, a 2-second title card, a 1.5-second hold on the last photo, crossfades (at 10 photos per second or slower) and note captions. Export runs as a foreground task with a progress notification and a Cancel button, so it keeps going if you leave the screen. On Android 10 and later the video is saved to Movies/Daylapse; on Android 8 and 9 you choose where to save it.

6. Archive and restore

Archive export saves one profile or all of them as a zip file or a folder, wherever you choose, with notes included. Restore from archive reads either back and shows what will return before anything is written. Restore only adds: photos already on the phone stay as they are, and nothing is overwritten.

Restore adds photos to the matching profile on this phone; it can't merge into a different one. If it's cancelled or fails before the final step, nothing changes; once it starts putting photos in place it can't be cancelled. An empty default profile "Me" is replaced by the archived profile. An archive made by a newer version of Daylapse is refused until you update the app. No storage permission is needed: Android's file picker hands over only what you choose.

7. Privacy and app lock

Daylapse has no internet permission, so Android itself stops it from sending anything. There's no account, no ads and no analytics, and Android backup is off. Optional app lock asks for your fingerprint, face or screen lock through Android's own prompt; Daylapse never sees that data. While it's on, Recents and screenshots show nothing.

Show in gallery, off by default, also saves a copy of each photo in Pictures/Daylapse, where other apps that can see your photos can read it. The Daylapse privacy policy lists everything the app stores and every permission it holds.

8. Inputs and limits

• Video length: You pick 10, 30 or 60 seconds as a target. Each photo plays for an equal share at a whole rate of 1 to 30 photos per second, so the real length can differ: a year of daily photos gives 12.2, 30.4 or 60.8 seconds. Daylapse shows the length before it starts.
• Long series: Above 1,800 photos, every length setting gives the same video at 30 photos per second, longer than 60 seconds.
• Preview: Preview needs at least two photos and plays at 4, 8, 15 or 30 photos per second.
• Crossfade: Crossfade works at 10 photos per second or slower. At faster rates it is left out.
• Finishing touches: The title card adds 2 seconds and the last-photo hold 1.5 seconds.
• Video size: Square 1080 × 1080, portrait 1080 × 1920 or landscape 1920 × 1080, H.264 MP4. If a phone's encoder refuses that size, Daylapse makes a 720p video instead. A photo that can't be read is skipped.
• Where the video goes: On Android 10 and later the video is saved to Movies/Daylapse. On Android 8 and 9 you choose where to save it.
• Photo storage: Each photo is stored upright, at most 1,920 pixels on its long side, and compressed to about half a megabyte, so one photo a day for a year stays under about 200 MB. Extra photos add to that.
• Location data: Daylapse re-encodes every photo, so camera metadata such as location is not kept.
• Alignment: The alignment guide is a faint overlay you line up by eye. Daylapse doesn't detect faces or shift photos to align them.
• Cameras: Ultra-wide, telephoto and other lenses appear only when your phone makes them available to apps.
• Reminders: On Android 14 and later, exact alarms are off unless you allow them; Daylapse then reminds you less precisely and says so. "Remind me in 1 hour" appears only while at least an hour of the period is left.
• Periods: Daily periods are calendar days in your phone's current time zone; weekly periods start on the weekday you created the profile; every-N-hours periods are fixed blocks.
• No cloud backup: Android backup is off and there is no cloud copy. If you lose the phone without an archive, the photos are gone. Deleting a profile can't be undone.
• Archive: An archive is an ordinary zip file or folder: anyone who has the file can open the photos.
• Restore: Restore adds photos to the matching profile on this phone; it can't merge into a different one. If it's cancelled or fails before the final step, nothing changes; once it starts putting photos in place it can't be cancelled. An empty default profile "Me" is replaced by the archived profile.
• Archive version: An archive made by a newer version of Daylapse is refused until you update the app.
• Show in gallery: Copies made before you reinstall Daylapse can't be removed or renamed by the app. On Android 8 and 9, renaming a profile leaves its copies in the old folder.
• App storage on older Android: On Android 10 and earlier, apps you have given storage access may be able to read Daylapse's photo folder. On Android 11 and later, other apps can't.
• Widget: The widget shows the profile's latest photo on your home screen. With app lock on, it shows the profile's initial instead.
• App lock: App lock needs a screen lock on the phone and locks again after more than a minute away.
• Device, language: Android 8.0 or later, phones. English only.
• Uninstall: Uninstalling Daylapse deletes the photos inside it. Exported videos, archives and gallery copies stay.