Compose pages by hand
Choose a few photos and arrange them, instead of letting an algorithm pick and lay out an album.
memory book app
A memory book app for iPhone & iPad
Somewhere for the photos worth keeping.
free to download · iPhone & iPad ✎
Most photos are stored and never seen again. A memory book is the opposite: a small number of pictures, chosen deliberately, arranged on pages with the details you would otherwise forget written next to them. Nooka makes those books and gives them a shelf to sit on.
What is a memory book?
A memory book is a curated book of photos and mementoes about one person, trip, or period — closer to a scrapbook than to a photo album, because pages are composed by hand and annotated. Nooka is a memory book app for iPhone and iPad.
made in nooka
Memory books made in Nooka
Pages built from ordinary camera-roll photos, with the details written in by hand.
why nooka
A book, not a folder.
Write in what you'll forget
Names, dates, places, and the small details that fade. Handwriting them keeps them attached to the picture.
One book per person or period
A year, a trip, a grandparent, a child's first school. Books keep separate things separate.
Books live on a shelf
Finished books sit on a shelf you styled, so you browse them the way you would a real one.
step by step
How to make a memory book
The hard part is choosing. Everything else takes an evening, and a book of twenty good pages beats one of two hundred.
Decide what the book is about
One person, one trip, one year. A memory book with no boundary turns into the camera roll it was meant to replace.
Choose far fewer photos than you want to
Aim for two or three per page. If two photos say the same thing, keep the better one.
Build a page around one anchor
Place the strongest photo large and slightly off-centre, then arrange smaller cutouts around it.
Write the details in
Names, the date, where it was, what somebody said. This is the part you will be glad of in ten years, and the part albums never capture.
Add pages over time
A memory book does not have to be finished in one sitting. Add a page whenever something belongs in it.
Give it a cover and shelve it
Design the cover and spine so you recognise the book on the shelf, then style the shelf around it.
Memory book vs photo album
A photo album stores; a memory book curates. An album's job is to hold everything, which is why nobody sits down to look through one.
A memory book holds a fraction of the photos and adds what the photos cannot carry: who was there, what the day was like, what somebody said in the car on the way home.
That annotation is the whole value. Photos age well on their own for about five years, and after that the context is what you have lost.
What to put in a memory book
The obvious photos, but fewer of them. Then the unobvious ones: the meal, the hotel corridor, the receipt, the handwriting on a card.
Words are the part people skip. A single line per page — a date, a name, one specific detail — does more for the book in ten years than another photo would.
Mementoes photographed flat also work: tickets, a note, a child's drawing. Photographing paper is the digital equivalent of gluing it in.
Memory books as gifts
A book about one person, made from photos they have never seen, is a better gift than the photos themselves.
Nooka does not print or ship albums, so the practical route is exporting the finished pages as images and sending them, or using any print service you like with those exports.
If you are making it for someone specific, write to them on the pages rather than about them. It changes how the book reads.
Nooka is for you if
- You have thousands of photos and nothing you'd sit down and look through
- You want the names, dates, and details recorded alongside the pictures
- You'd rather curate a small book than store a large album
- You want separate books per person, trip, or year
Look elsewhere if
- You want a printed, bound book posted to you — Nooka exports images only
- You want automatic albums assembled for you
- You need Android or a web browser
perfect for
Memory booksFamily & kids memoriesTravel booksYear in reviewGifts & keepsakes
questions
Memory book app FAQ
What is a memory book app?+
An app for turning a small, chosen set of photos into composed pages and gathering those pages into a book, with room to write in the names, dates, and details a photo album leaves out.
How is a memory book different from a photo album?+
An album stores everything automatically. A memory book holds far fewer photos, arranged by hand, with written context beside them — which is why people actually reopen one.
Can I print a memory book from Nooka?+
You can export each page as an image and print those yourself or through any print service. Nooka does not print or ship physical books.
How much does the memory book app cost?+
The app is free to download, and the free tier covers a guided first page, one book, one canvas, and one photo per page. Nooka Pro removes those limits and adds cutouts, background removal, layer editing, and iCloud Backup. Current prices are on the pricing page.
How many pages can a book have?+
As many as you want — add and insert pages whenever something belongs in the book. Books grow over months rather than being finished in one sitting.
Can I make a memory book as a gift?+
Yes. Build the book, then export the pages as images to send or print. Writing to the person on the pages rather than about them makes it read better.
Will my memory books be safe?+
They are stored on your device. Turn on iCloud Backup, part of Nooka Pro, so a book can be restored if you move to a new iPhone or iPad.
Can I keep books about different people?+
Yes. Each is its own book with its own cover and spine, all sitting on a shelf you designed, so they never run together.
Do I need to be good at design?+
No. One large photo, two small ones, and a handwritten line is a good page. The books that work best are the ones with the most written on them, not the best laid out.
Full plan details are on the Nooka pricing page, and more help lives on support.