Mail Memories
A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail
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Hey HN, I’m the creator of Mail Memories. Like many of you, I've had my Gmail address for more than 20 years. A few years ago, I got curious and wanted to see what photos were buried deep in my account. I ended up finding lots of "lost" pictures of old friends, family members, and a ridiculous number of vintage memes.I originally built and launched this as a SaaS, but even with code and policies in place that kept users' photos private, I figured everyone would feel more comfortable with a desktop app.So, I threw out the server architecture and completely rewrote it as a 100% local desktop app for Mac and Windows.How it works now: The app connects directly to Google's server from your computer, processes everything entirely on your system, and saves photos straight to your hard drive.You can download your 50 oldest photos for free (no credit card required) just to see what's in there. If you want to download all the pictures in your account, it's a one-time payment of $29. No subscriptions.If you have an old, pre-2010 Gmail account, definitely give it a spin. You'll be surprised at what you find deep in your archive.I'd love to hear your feedback on the layout, scanning performance, or anything else.TL;DR: I turned my SaaS into a local desktop app (Mac/Windows) that recovers decades of forgotten photos from your Gmail. 100% local, no cloud, no subscriptions, no AI.
HN · launched Jul 2, 2026 · 103 upvotes (top 8%) · 0 views
Niche: photo editing and management software · 189 launches, 32 in the last 7 days ▲ +10% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Vertical SaaS
- B2C
- Not AI
- Commercial product
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 189 launches in photo editing and management software →
Could you build this?
Yes An Electron or Tauri desktop utility that uses IMAP or the Gmail API to iterate messages, filter by image MIME types, and download attachments locally is standard UI and script work.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: IPFS for backup, Arweave for permanent backup, Google Takeout, Shell scripts for email extraction, Free tools chained together
Concerns raised: Price too high at $30 (users suggested $3-5), Gmail-specific despite being IMAP-based, Backup as evidence less legally strong than original, Doubles storage usage on Google Drive/Gmail quota, Image fingerprinting less sophisticated than claimed
Feature requests: Support other email providers beyond Gmail, Jurisdiction/location specificity for legal use cases, Open source under MIT license
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 307 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #31 of 308 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 242 days after the earliest competitor.
- Mboxreader · hn · 2026-07-24 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- Avec · hn · 2026-04-15 · 22 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- mailtrim · hn · 2026-04-05 · 34 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Jmail · hn · 2025-12-20 · 1557 upvotes · similarity 0.44
- Benefit of Understanding Gmail Accounts · ph · 2026-09-27 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- KeepMemo: memory note journal · ph · 2026-10-18 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- BAREmail · hn · 2026-04-08 · 44 upvotes · similarity 0.42
- ThreadTrim for Gmail · ph · 2026-09-27 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.42
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