Four Photo Apps That Can Help Preserve Old Memories

These photo apps can restore your old photos and preserve precious memories. 

We all have to  dust old photo albums with cherished memories of our youth. I can remember how my mother, while staying at my grandparents’ house, would open one of the old wooden cabinets and pull out a thick textbook like album. She would open it with all excitement to show us photos of our grandparents as young children  and the childhood photos of my brother and myself. 

Old photo albums are priceless possessions that help us walk down memory lane and get back to our golden past. However, there is a major problem that we all face with our old photo albums. These photos can start to deteriorate, get discoloured and even fade. Many of us move homes often and these albums may even get lost. But now we can prevent that and keep our cherished memories intact, thanks to technology by converting these images into digital formats.

Here are some apps to preserve your precious memories.

Colorize

This app allows you to turn your old black and white photos into coloured ones.  By simply placing your photo on a clear background, you can use the app to click a picture of the photo. Once you have done that, the app will do its magic and add colour to your picture. This app provides both  free and membership options. With the membership option you can colour an unlimited  number of photos.

This app is rated 4.7 stars on the app store. You can install it for free from Google Play Store and App store and can use it on Android and iOS. 

Links to download:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photomyne.colorize&hl=en_IN&gl=US

https://apps.apple.com/dk/app/colourise-colour-to-old-photos/id1464665765

Before photo:

After photo:

Google photoscan

This app allows you to digitize your old photos while maintaining their original features. This app is free to use. All you must do is place your old photo on a flat surface and then open the app and snap a picture of the photograph. After that the app will show four dots on the picture.  Hover your photo to each of the dots until the dots turn blue.  That’s all and you’ve successfully digitized your photo.

This app is rated 4.7 stars on the app store. Both iOS and Android users can use this app. 

Links to download: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos.scanner&hl=en_IN&gl=US

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/photoscan-by-google-photos/id1165525994

Video tutorial link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIlTztx-NM8

FamilySearch Memories

This app allows you to store your old photos and add more memories to them. Imagine you have a photo of your first birthday party. With this app you can store that photo along with a title to that photo .  You can even store an audio recording of yourself describing that precious moment for up to 5 minutes if you want your next of kin to experience that photo in detail. This app is free to download.

This app is rated 5 stars on the app store and is available for Android and iOS users. 

Links to download:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.familysearch.mobile.memories&hl=en_IN&gl=US

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/familysearch-tree/id885982973

Adobe scan

This is a free to use app which can be used to scan your images and store them in a pdf format rather than a jpeg. This app is very simple to use.  When you open the app, the camera option will open and then you can hold your phone over the photo. This app will click the photo and  will allow you to crop the edges.  It will then store the image as a pdf and give you the option to add more photos to the pdf if you want to. This app too is available for both Android and iOS users and can help you preserve your old photos well.

Links to download:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.scan.android&hl=en_IN&gl=US

https://apps.apple.com/in/app/adobe-scan-pdf-scanner-ocr/id1199564834

Video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nECxS0G11WE

Photo digitisation has now become a trend and these easy to use apps have made it convenient for older adults to try their hands on photo digitisation. This not only helps you relive your past but also can be a great post-retirement hobby.You can try out these apps and share your photo digitisation experience with us in the comments section below.