#Recall
Your contacts app, rebuilt around memory.
Your contacts app,
rebuilt around memory.
Recall Contacts is an iPhone app that lets you find anyone in your contacts by what you remember — not how their name is spelled.
Tag people by context. #NYC #Eastwood #crazyhat. Search by hashtag and find them instantly. No spelling required.
Smart colour-coded groups. Swipe-to-tag for rapid organising. A dyslexic-friendly mode. Your tags sync back to Apple Contacts — your data stays yours.
Built by Paul Barbera, because he needed it himself.
Everything Recall does.
Search by #hashtag
Type what you remember — a place, a moment, a name fragment. Recall finds the person instantly.
Swipe to tag
Add a hashtag to any contact in one swipe. No forms. No typing. Just tag and go.
Smart groups
Every tag is a group. #NYC. #WORK. #rooftopbar. Contacts organise themselves around what you remember.
Parent Mode
Attach your kids' names directly to their profile. Sarah — [Luca, Ella]. You already know. You just need the reminder.
Super Tags
Five priority shortcuts built in: VIP, FAMILY, WORK, PARENTS, FRIENDS. Instant filter for the people who matter most.
Browse by last used
See who you were in touch with most recently. Your native contacts app can't do this. Recall can.
Swipe to review & delete
The same swipe that tags also lets you review and delete. The best way to finally clean up your address book.
Highly customisable
Turn features on or turn them all off. Build exactly the contacts app that fits how you work.
Find anyone by context
Remember the ramen bar but not the name? Search #ramen or #tokyo. Done.
Works with your existing contacts
Recall layers on top of your iPhone contacts. Nothing moves. Nothing breaks. Your data stays yours.
Private by design
No account required. No cloud sync. No data harvested. Everything stays on your device.
Works for every kind of mind
Recall was built because Paul is dyslexic and needed it. But context-first thinking isn't a disability — it's just how most people actually remember.
- Does Recall replace my iPhone contacts app?
- No. Recall layers on top of Apple Contacts. Your Phone app stays as is. Recall is for finding and organising.
- Do my tags sync across devices?
- Tags are stored locally, but Recall writes them back to the Apple Contacts notes field — so they sync via iCloud Contacts if enabled.
- What happens if I delete Recall?
- Your hashtags stay in Apple Contacts. Your data doesn't disappear.
- Is Recall really free?
- Yes. Free to download. No subscription. No account required.
- Is my contacts data private?
- Completely. Nothing leaves your device. Recall never connects to any external server.
- Is there an Android version?
- Currently iOS only. iPhone and iPad are supported. Mac Catalyst brings it to Mac.
How Recall Works
A real look at how Recall fits into daily life, how I use it, and why it actually works.
Articles
Every school pickup ends with someone saved as 'Jake Football Dad.' The native app was designed for a world without school runs. We built a QR code for that.
Read →You're at pickup. A parent waves at you. Their kid and yours have been in the same class for two years. You have absolutely no idea what their name is.
Read →I'm dyslexic. Names don't stick the way faces do. For most of my career as a photographer I quietly struggled. So I invented a workaround. Then I built an app.
Read →Keep in the loop
New features, tips, and occasional notes from Paul.
"I built this because I needed it. I remembered the face, the story, the city. The name was the only thing stopping me. My problem. Maybe yours too."
— Paul Barbera