For years, re.photos has lived in the browser. From today it also lives in your pocket:
the re.photos app is available for Android and iOS, free of charge.
What you can do with it
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Explore the collection. Browse, view and comment on compilations just as you do on the website, as a list or on the map, and slide between then and now with your thumb.
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Two live aids in the camera. When you shoot the present-day photo, an edge overlay draws the contours of the historical photo over your live view, and an assistant gives directional hints toward the spot the original was taken from.
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Create compilations from scratch, right on your phone. The alignment is handled by our AI, same as on the website.
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Work from templates. Pick an image template somebody else has prepared and supply the missing present-day photo.
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Your usual account. Log in with the credentials you already use here. Everything you upload appears on the website as well.
The app speaks English, German and French, and it is free with no ads.
Why this matters for rephotography
The hardest part of a good rephotograph has always been standing in exactly the right spot. Until now that meant a printout, a phone in your other hand, or a lot of guesswork. With the contours of the original drawn over your live view and an assistant nudging you toward the original vantage point, alignment happens where it belongs: on location, not afterward at the computer.
A thank you
The app was realized with the generous support of the Sievert Stiftung, whose funding made a proper mobile version possible in the first place. re.photos started as a research project at the University of Osnabrück and has been carried by this community ever since. Thank you for every pair you have contributed.
Please rate the app
This is the one thing you can do for us today that costs almost nothing. Store ratings decide whether re.photos appears at all when someone searches for rephotography, and a brand-new app starts with none. Thirty seconds, a few stars, and a sentence about what you use it for:
If you have been rephotographing with us for years, a line about that carries real weight with someone deciding whether to install.
We would like your feedback too
This is version 1.1. If something is broken, please tell us here rather than in a store review, where we cannot reply properly or ship you a fix. Reply to this topic with:
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your device and OS version,
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what you were doing,
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what you expected and what happened instead.
Bug reports, rough edges, celebrations and feature wishes are all welcome.
Happy rephotographing and thanks for being a part of this community!