Ever wonder what you were doing exactly one year ago? Or how about what you said on Twitter or Facebook last year? Instagram? What were you saying in text messages? There's an easy way to find out.
Take a trip in a virtual time machine each morning when you wake up by using Timehop.
Timehop will curate your Facebook status updates, your tweets, your Foursquare check-ins, your Instagram photos, and even your text conversations from one year ago, package them together in an entertaining e-mail, and send it to you each morning.
You can get started by visiting the Timehop Web site and logging in using your Facebook account. From there, by visiting the settings page you can link your Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram accounts. You can view when you'll receive your next e-mail on the settings page, next to the list of services.
Keep in mind, however, Twitter's API only returns your last 3,200 tweets. If you've sent more than that in the last year, your tweets won't appear in the daily e-mail. Timehop states there's a workaround coming soon to eliminate the issue.
The services mentioned above were more than enough to give you an idea of what you were doing a year ago, but not for Timehop. Today, Timehop rolled out a new feature that allows users to sync the text messages from their smartphone (Android and iPhone only) to Timehop. In return, Timehop will include your text messages from a year ago in the e-mail you receive each morning. It's an intriguing way of being reminded of who you were talking to, and what you were saying, exactly one year ago. Follow the instructions included on the settings page to get your device synced and the service set up.
The new feature leaves me with some questions, though. For example -- what if you're the kind of person who sends a few hundred texts a day? How does that look in an e-mail? Is it a never-ending mess of emojis and lols?
Update, 2:45 p.m. PT I reached out to Timehop regarding the new feature and received some screenshots and an explanation of how the new feature will work. Conversations will be in individual threads, with the e-mail displaying the first five messages of each thread. If you want to read more, you'll have to click on a link to view the rest of the conversation on the Timehop site.
I have used Timehop, formerly 4squareand7yearsago, more or less from when it emerged from a Foursquare hack day last year. With the name change, and continued addition of new services, my appreciation for the diary we are all creating by using social networks continues to grow. Being reminded what you were doing last year, to the exact day, oftentimes ends up putting a smile your face. Go out, make some memories, and let Timehop remind you about them next year.