Recording a memory: a voice, and what was said
Tell a memory out loud, or add a recording someone kept — a voicemail, a story on tape. Up to ten minutes recorded, fifteen chosen. Whoever can see the memory can listen.
A memory can carry a voice: yours, telling the story the way you would at the kitchen table, or theirs — a voicemail you kept, a message on an old phone, a story someone taped years ago.
Recording, or choosing a recording
In the memory form, beside Photos & video:
- Record your voice opens the recorder. Choose Start recording, tell it, and choose Stop. Listen back to hear it, Record again for another go, or Use this recording. The screen stays awake while you record. The first time, your browser or phone asks whether Beyond Their Time may use the microphone.
- Or choose a recording adds a file you already have: an M4A, MP3 or WAV.
| Up to | |
|---|---|
| Recorded in the app | 10 minutes — One minute left shows at nine |
| A recording you choose | 15 minutes, and 50 MB |
A recording uploads while you write, like a photo, and counts toward the same room your account has for photos and videos. If your browser won't let the page use the microphone, you can allow it in the browser's settings — or choose a recording instead.
What was said
Under each recording there is a place for What was said. Write it down and people can read the words as well as hear them, and the page's search finds them. It's optional; whoever added the recording can write it down or change it later, from the memory's page.
On an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, the app can write down what was said for you — on the device itself, only when you ask for it, in the language you choose. Nothing is sent anywhere to be written down. On Android (13 or later), the phone asks you to allow the microphone the first time — Android won't write down a recording without it, even one you chose — but it only listens to the recording. Read it through before you save: the words are the speaker's, and a phone can mishear. Beyond Their Time never writes words for anyone — no summaries, and never a voice made to sound like someone.
Who can hear it
Whoever can see the memory can listen to its recordings — the same people, under the same rules. A memory that's only for the people on the page keeps its recordings with them, and where the page reviews what others add, a recording waits with its memory.
A memory shared by link carries its recordings and what was said (see Sharing one memory). Anyone who can hear a recording can choose Save recording for the file itself.
In Download a copy
Download a copy includes every recording as its own file, beside the photos, and the page that comes with it plays them, with what was said written underneath.
What a recording isn't
Recordings belong to memories. Notes, letters, things passed down and In Their Words stay words and pictures. Nobody is named in a recording — people are named in photos and videos.