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

The Photos app recognises 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

• Make sure your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch has the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.

• If you want your Memories to stay updated across your Apple devices, make sure that you're signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID across your devices, then turn on iCloud Photos.

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, such as Memory mixes or Browse. When you tap the Browse button, the music will continue to play while showing you all of the photos within the memory.

Memories are suggested automatically for you and will play continuously, but you can select a different suggestion, replay, favourite 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 button, 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 button, then tap the Filters button.

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 button, then tap the Music button.

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 button, then tap Play Memory Movie.

3. While the movie plays, tap the screen, then tap the More button.

4. Tap Add to Favourites.

5. Tap the Close button.

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 button.

3. Tap Create Photo Memory.

Save your favourite Memories

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

2. Tap the More button, then tap Add to Favourites.

To see your Favourite Memories, go to the For You tab, tap See All next to Memories, then tap Favourites. If you decide that you don’t want to save a memory any more, just tap the Favourite button again.

Share your favourite Memories

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

2. Tap the Share button, 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 personalise them even more. You can do things such as 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 button.

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 button, then tap Manage Photos.

3. Tick photos to add them or deselect the photos that 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 button.

2. Tap the More button, then tap Make Key Photo.

To hide a specific photo from a Memory:

1. Play the memory, then tap the Pause button.

2. Tap the More button, then tap Hide From Memory.

Change the length of a Memory

1. Play a Memory, then tap the screen.

2. Tap the More button, then tap Short, Medium or Long.

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

Learn more

Find out more about using Memories on your Mac.