Microsoft Launches "Recall" Feature: Capturing Screenshots Every Second for AI Analysis to Let You Revisit Any Moment

At the recently concluded press conference, Microsoft announced the launch of the "Recall" feature for Windows 11. This innovative feature memorizes the various windows or files that users have opened, allowing for a swift return to those specific moments when needed.

How Recall Works:

Once activated, Copilot+PC takes screenshots of the screen content every few seconds. These captured contents are encrypted and saved locally on the device, after which AI performs an analysis locally.

In practical use, users can navigate through a timeline of their recent activities, such as web pages they've viewed. The AI analyzes this information locally, enabling users to search for specific keywords to return to a particular moment.

Additionally, Recall allows users to access the original screenshots saved at that time. As the feature is enhanced, it will also be able to open actual source documents, websites, or emails in the form of screenshots.

This essentially represents another form of timeline, similar to the one supported by Windows 10, which allowed cross-device synchronization but was removed in later updates.

Privacy and Security Measures:

Taking screenshots of the screen raises significant privacy concerns. However, Microsoft has implemented a logical approach to address this issue. Screenshots are encrypted and saved locally, making them inaccessible through direct file viewing, and data processing is carried out locally without being uploaded to the cloud.

Users can specify which applications or content should not be processed by Recall. If specified, Copilot AI will automatically ignore this content, ensuring it does not appear on the timeline.

Furthermore, all data processed by Recall will not be uploaded to the cloud for training Copilot AI's machine learning models, allowing users to use this feature without worrying about privacy leaks.

Microsoft also emphasizes that the Copilot AI Recall feature will automatically exclude certain content on the screen, so users don't need to worry about sensitive content being captured and displayed on the timeline.

Device Compatibility:

Currently, only devices equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon NPU chips are supported by this feature, namely Copilot+PCs released by OEM manufacturers. Devices with NPU chips from Intel and AMD are not yet supported, although future support is anticipated.

After enabling Recall, the feature will save about three months' worth of screenshots, requiring approximately 25GB of disk storage space. Of course, extensive PC use will result in more screenshots and greater storage space usage.

Language Optimization:

The feature has been optimized for English, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish, with plans to support more languages in the future.

Additional Note:

This feature shares a similar working principle with Windrecoder, an open-source software recently introduced by Lan Dian Web, which also processes content through scheduled screenshots and OCR recognition.