Together with iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe, Apple Intelligence was launched in Dutch, equipped with various tools to simplify daily tasks. At the end of the year, Apple Intelligence allows you to effortlessly create a cinematic retrospective of the past year – one minute full of your most beautiful photos, videos and special moments.
Apple Intelligence brought a new feature to the Photos app: creating personalized cinematic memories. This Memory Movie feature uses artificial intelligence to analyze your photos, choose the most beautiful moments and merge them into a beautiful movie with music and effects.
Flashback movies in Photos
Flashback films are generated videos that allow you to decide which subject you want to see. Instead of the Photos app automatically choosing themes, you can type a description yourself and Apple Intelligence will do the rest. This is different from the standard Memories that the app has been creating automatically for years. With Flashback Movies you have complete control over what you want to see in your video.
After entering your desired requests, Apple’s artificial intelligence automatically searches for all photos and videos that match your description, arranges them in a logical order with a clear beginning, middle and end, and merges everything with selected music and subtle visual effects. The result is a cinematic film that feels as if you edited it yourself.
Conditions for retrospective films with AI
To create automatically generated Memory movies, Apple Intelligence must be enabled on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. In addition, your photos must be present in the Photos app and it must be indexed. This is usually a charging process that happens in the first few days of using the Photos app on a new iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Apple Intelligence can be used on an iPhone 15 Pro (Max), iPhone 16 (Plus), iPhone 16e or newer, all Macs and iPad models with an M-chip, iPad mini with A17 Pro or newer.
Create an annual retrospective with Apple Intelligence
The threshold for creating your own retrospective film is very low and anyone who has an iPhone, iPad or Mac with Apple Intelligence can generate these videos automatically.
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad
- Navigate to ‘Collections‘
- Tap ‘Looking back‘
- Choose ‘Create‘
In addition, you can also immediately tap on the first retrospective in the Collections overview. This contains the command ‘Type to create‘. On a Mac you can go to Photos ▸ Collections ▸ Memories ▸ click on ‘Type to create‘.
Type your description
This is the creative part. Type a description of the retrospective you want to create. Do you want a summary of your entire year? Then type something like: ‘My best moments of 2025‘ or ‘Holidays and special moments this year‘. You can also be more specific: ‘Family and friends in Australia” or ‘All adventures with my children in 2025‘. The more specific you are, the better Apple Intelligence can understand your intentions. You can locations mention, refer to to travel, name tags of people to use, seasons mention, or special occasions to describe.
Apple Intelligence does the work
Once you type in your description and tap/click enter, the magic happens. Apple Intelligence analyzes your entire photo library and searches for photos and videos that match your description. You will see keywords and keywords passing by at the bottom of the screen as the algorithm works.
The entire Flashback movie will be put together and start playing automatically when it’s finished. You get a fully crafted retrospective, complete with music from your Apple Music library (if you’re a subscriber) and subtle transitions between photos and videos.
Adjust the retrospective to your wishes
Apple Intelligence makes a great first draft, but you’re not limited to what the algorithm chooses. You can personalize your retrospective to a limited extent:
- Change music: Tap the musical note icon at the bottom of the screen while playing video. This will open the ‘Playback Mixes’ where you can scroll through different music options. Apple Intelligence automatically suggests music, but you can choose from your own Apple Music library.
- Adjust visual style: During playback, you can tap or click the musical note to open additional options. You can provide the entire retrospective with a specific filter via the Filter button (overlapping circles). Think of black and white, faded color, heat additions or other cinematic effects. This gives your Movie a completely different character.
- Change order: Tap the six-rectangle icon during playback to reorder photos
- Adjust title and add more photos: During playback, tap the three-dot menu to edit the title. If Apple Intelligence missed certain moments that you want in your retrospective, you can manually add them. You can do this while editing the title by tapping ‘Add photos’.
Create a retrospective without Apple Intelligence
Do you have an iPhone, iPad or Mac that doesn’t support Apple Intelligence? Then you can still create beautiful memories in the traditional way, just without the AI help and more manual work.
This way you can place your favorite photos and videos from the past year in an album. Then open the album and tap or click the play button at the top of the album to start the review. Then you can save it as a favorite (three dots) and change the title. Just like AI retrospectives, you can provide them with music, filters and adjust the order.