Set a timer before you shoot. Watch the ring empty in real time. When it runs out, the photo deletes itself — permanently, on your iPhone, with nothing left behind.
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Every capture carries the colour of its own lifespan. Short timers burn hot, long ones run cool, and anything you keep forever stays calm.
The ring around the shutter previews the lifespan your next capture will get.
Four built-in timers, plus your own presets — ten seconds or a full year.
Each thumbnail wears a ring that drains in real time, next to a live countdown.
Open anything and see exactly how long it has left, ticking down as you look.
Six colours and custom covers, so you always know where a capture landed.
Pick a folder once and every capture goes there until you change your mind.
Build the durations your work actually needs, then reorder them to taste.
Counted by what you have let go of, not by what you are hoarding.
Set a default timer, lock the gallery behind Face ID, and clear everything at once.
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Every feature is designed around one principle: your media, your control, zero permanence.
Each capture holds the colour of its own lifespan from the moment you shoot it. A decay ring on every thumbnail empties in real time beside a live countdown — and when the timer ends, it flares once and dissolves.
Thirty seconds, five minutes, one hour and 24 hours are built in. Pro adds Keep Forever plus custom presets of any length up to a year — and they follow your device language, correctly pluralised.
Every file is encrypted at rest with its own 256-bit key, anchored in your device’s Secure Enclave. When a capture expires, iOS destroys that key and whatever remains on the flash is cryptographically useless.
Captures are excluded from iCloud and iTunes backups, so a photo can’t outlive its own timer inside a backup somewhere. No trash, no Recently Deleted, no second copy anywhere.
Give each folder one of six colours and a cover image of your choosing. Assign a default and shoot straight into it — the camera always shows which folder you’re in.
Press and hold any item in the gallery to extend its timer, change its expiry, move it to a folder, share it, save it to Photos or delete it — without entering select mode.
HEIC photos and MOV video capture through a native SwiftUI interface. HDR support, configurable frame rate, front and rear cameras, and silent recording when you want it.
Lock the gallery behind Face ID or Touch ID, so a handed-over phone doesn’t become a handed-over library. Your biometric data is handled entirely by iOS.
No servers, no accounts, no analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising identifiers, no third-party SDKs. Photo Library access is Add Only — the app cannot read the photos you already have.
From capture to complete erasure — designed to be intuitive and irreversible.
Pick a duration — 30s, 5m, 1h, 24h, or your own presets with Pro. The shutter ring shows its colour.
Take a photo or record a video. Shoot straight into a folder if you want it filed on the way in.
Every thumbnail counts down in real time. Long-press to extend, move, share or save before it goes.
Time runs out, the encryption key is destroyed, and the capture flares once and dissolves.
Core ephemeral functionality is free. A one-time Pro upgrade unlocks power features — no subscriptions, ever.
Take control of your media with Ephemeral Trace. Questions? We're here to help.