
Show HN: Memos – Search engine for your screenshots and photos - gsundeep
https://memos.org/hn
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kemayo
Apps like this are an interesting outgrowth of Apple's recent-ish API
improvements. It's (fairly) easy on iOS to do bulk on-device OCR now, because
the Vision framework[1] natively supports it in a fancy hardware-accelerated
manner.

[1]:
[https://developer.apple.com/documentation/vision/detecting_o...](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/vision/detecting_objects_in_still_images)

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rkagerer
Love your Privacy Policy:

 _→ Memos does not transmit any images or associated metadata.

→ All processing is done on your device_

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VvR-Ox
I don't want to be an ass but: We've been told that too many times.

If it's not open source I won't trust my private images to an app.

Great idea though!

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ikurei
How are you gonna ensure the binary uploaded to the app store has the exact
same code that is on the public repo?

OSS is not the solution.

The only solution is that your OS protects you, giving you tools to see what
apps are doing what, and allowing you to finely adjust permissions and access.

You could completely trust this app if you could ban it from accessing the
internet.

~~~
jaster
I understand your point, but to add to the discussion:

With android, you can use the F-Droid app store, which have "source builds".
Source builds are apps built (and signed) by F-Droid, so you only need to
trust the F-Droid team instead of each OSS app developer (and you can use
alternative repositories if you don't).

So OSS _can_ be the solution.

Sadly such solution is not available on the locked-down iOS ecosystem...

~~~
jbit
Adding to this:

f-droid also encourages reproducible builds:
[https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Reproducible_Builds/](https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Reproducible_Builds/)

This means you can verify the APK on the f-droid store matches what's in
github by building it yourself and comparing the signatures.

And if you want to do this, f-droid has an automated way:
[https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Verification_Server/](https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Verification_Server/)
Of course, you still have to trust the verification server source code, but
that runs locally on your hardware and is auditable.

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adg29
$4.99 upfront to try the app, which has a rating of 3.9/5

Tempted to try it but think the use cases I have for OCR are covered by Google
Photos.

Perhaps if Memos offered a freemium version with in app purchases I would
slowly build a case for unlocking all the functionality it offers.

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pacomerh
Many of the reviewers claim its super slow at indexing, I wonder if its still
true for the newest version

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gsundeep
We’ve sped up processing by an order of magnitude over the last few updates.

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Terretta
Keep It has OCR and search for screenshots, etc., “but” also gets them out of
your photos.

[https://reinventedsoftware.com/keepit/](https://reinventedsoftware.com/keepit/)

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denkmoon
This is really cool, but is it really only for iOS? I have about 6 years worth
of screenshot that I would love to be able to text search, but they are files
on a Linux box rather than iOS.

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ftufek
You could try Google Photos, it can now search text in images:
[https://9to5google.com/2019/08/22/google-photos-text-
search/](https://9to5google.com/2019/08/22/google-photos-text-search/).

Disclaimer: I work at Google, though not on this product.

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crispinb
Google Photos was a great product before Google Drive removed local photo
sync. It's still fine for people with an online-first/only workflow
(Chromebook users?), but is a sad shadow of its former self for 'traditional'
PC users.

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pgt
I am buying this IMMEDIATELY. Do I need to go through each photo to have them
indexed, or does it OCR in bulk based on wherever it detects text?

Feature request: can it also add tags for every day recognized objects with
filter composition? E.g. "person lake".

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pgt
OK, I bought it. Some UI feedback. I got stuck at the "Select Photos" screen.
I pressed Next and nothing happens, so I assumed it had crashed or was
processing with no user feedback. Turns out you have to select from the list
options, so a checkbox appears. It's not obvious at all these are checkbox
lists. Please use the built-in toggle controls in iOS!

~~~
pgt
Argh, additionally you can only select one at a time of "All Photos",
"Screenshots" and "None". Don't use checkboxes for this - this is what radio
fields are for. Better yet, just index everything at once and let me deselect
what I don't want indexed.

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pgt
Now it's asking me about iCloud Photos. I don't know, man. Just start
indexing, then tell me how much data it will use to process the cloud stuff
later. Now I have anxiety about saying "Yes Include iCloud Photos" or "No
exclude iCloud Photos" because I don't know if I'll be able to change my mind
later. And I'm worried when I leave the office it will use up all my prepaid
data, so I'm just going to say Exclude.

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shaneprrlt
Bravo! I hear people talking about a web based version which would be cool, I
have so many photos I've taken of my drivers license, license plate, random
addresses, contacts, etc. Always a hassle scrolling back months worth of
photos or retaking just to get the same info again. Bookmarking is really
cool! I think having a "Save Contact" quick action would be a really great
added feature, but quick email/call is great as well! Well done, mate!

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escapologybb
Oh man, I really wish this was available on my Mac and not just mobile. I'm
quadriplegic and cannot hold my camera to take pictures, but if I could get my
PA to snap pictures throughout the day and then have my Mac process them with
an application like this on my iMac… Seriously, my life would be 17.25M
percent easier. Seriously.

If the dev is reading this, any chance of a port? There may be some chocolate
in it for you!

(Also cash, totally willing to pay cash :-))

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seltzered_
There’s prizmo, screenotate, onenote, Evernote...

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rick_e
lol at comments "Google Photos does this" You missed the point: Privacy (⌐■_■)

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jszymborski
Will this work for handwritten notes? I was just today taking a photos of my
notes with the hope of one day OCR'ing it.

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gsundeep
It works reasonably well, but it’s largely dependent on your specific
handwriting. Send us an email (team@memos.org) for a promo code if you’d like
to give it a try.

