Ente Release Notes

With Ente Photos’ last release of 2025, we are introducing a new feature that will help build better habits for the upcoming year. And there are a bunch of improvements to make your experience better.

Here’s what’s new.

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Introducing Rituals

Build habits with your photos app using rituals

For many of us, photos aren’t just memories. We use them to stay consistent: workouts, meals, skincare, recovery and more.

Rituals lets you start a habit and track your progress through photos. Take a photo every day or start a new workout ritual. You can find rituals in the search tab.

Read about why we built this, and tell us what you think.

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Public links for everyone

Public Links are now available for all Ente customers

What good are photos if you can’t share your moments of joy with others?

We have now made public links available for all our customers, whether they are on a free or a paid plan.

Earlier, we had restricted links to only the paid plan in order to prevent abuse. With this update, we’re now opening it up for everyone.

For our customers on the free plan, there would still be some restrictions - a max device limit of 5. While this new restriction still helps us prevent abuse, every one can now share their photos and albums with loved ones.

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Tag people manually …

Everyone loves those end of year music recaps, where your past year unfolds as a collection of songs you almost forgot about. They are fun and playful, but usually come at the cost of handing over a lot of data.

Your listening history is just a tiny slice of your life. Your photos tell a much richer story. They carry the people you spent time with, the places you visited, the little moments. What would a yearly recap built from your photos look like, if it was joyful and still fully private? Last month we set out to answer that and created something we hoped would make people smile when they opened Ente Photos. That is how Ente Rewind 2025 was born.

Rewind card showing bottled memories summaryRewind card showing people highlightsRewind card showing places highlights

We decided to structure Ente Rewind as a sequence of cards, each one capturing a different facet of your 2025.

We start with a simple throwback. The first photos you took in 2025 set the tone, and it is surprisingly emotional to see again. From there, we move into some gentle stats about your year in pictures. How many memories you captured, and in what form. Which month was photo taking season for you? …

Ente Photos now comes with text recognition on both iOS and Android. Open any photo with text, tap the new text icon, and the app will surface the words it sees. Everything happens on your device, so nothing about that receipt, passport or love letter ever leaves your control.

For more information on how to use it, please check our docs.

Bringing OCR to mobile

For iOS, we could lean on Apple's excellent Vision framework. It ships with the OS and all of the work stays local, hence private. Most importantly, it actually works well. Using such a mature system API meant the iOS implementation was very straightforward.

Android is where we needed to build something new. Until now, most open-source implementations were aging Tesseract ports with lackluster accuracy. Google's ML Kit was the only available implementation with good results, but its dependence on Google Play Services and closed nature made it a non-starter for us.

We eventually found PaddleOCR. It was built for large-scale document ingestion, not consumer phones, but the models looked exactly like what we needed.

PaddleOCR provided the architecture we wanted to mirror, and RapidOCR confirmed conversion to ONNX was possible, so we rolled up our sleeves and brought PaddleOCR v5 over to ONNX Runtime on Android. …

We love travel photos, but sharing them has always felt a bit flat.

You come back from an amazing trip, create an album, and share the link with family and friends. They scroll through hundreds of photos in chronological order, but they never really get the full picture. Where exactly was that sunset? When did you go from the mountains to the beach? Which beach was that?

One of my colleagues' parents use a popular travel app to document their travels. They love how it shows their route on a map, creates a timeline of their journey, and even lets them print photo books afterward. We realized this kind of location-aware photo sharing was something Ente could offer while keeping your privacy intact.

That's when we decided to build the Trip layout.

Now when you share a public link of a trip album, you can choose the Trip layout. The viewers can see your photos plotted on an interactive map based on where they were taken, alongside a chronological timeline. Instead of just scrolling through photos, they can see how your trip unfolded.

Here's a trip of one of our engineers: Himalayas On Cycle - 1K KM to Leh. …

Ente, specifically the server side - both code, and infrastructure on which it runs - was audited by a team of 5 researchers from the German cybersecurity firm Cure53 over a period of 2 weeks as part of a CERN sponsored audit. No data integrity issues were found, and 12 of the 15 security related issues were fixed by the Ente team during the audit itself.

The audit covered all the apps - Photos, Auth, and the upcoming Locker - since the same code and infrastructure powers the entire platform. You can read Cure53's full report here. All changes are already in the latest Docker image.

CERN is a heavy user of Ente, and we are grateful for them both for being one of our earliest trendsetting customers, and for taking the initiative to improve the security of the open source ecosystem by sponsoring the audit.

We'd also like to thank Cure53 - working with them was a lot of fun!

We've added the ability to embed your public albums directly on your website.

Embedded Ente album example

If you have an active Ente subscription, you can now showcase your photo albums anywhere on the web. Just create a public link to your album, and you'll get an embed code that you can drop into your site. The embedded album works just like the regular viewer - people can browse thumbnails, view full-size images, and even watch videos, all without leaving your website.

This is useful in many ways. Photographers can showcase their portfolio directly on their own website. Event organizers can embed photos from conferences or gatherings on event pages. Artists can display their artwork gallery on their personal site.

The embed automatically updates when you add or remove photos from your album. If you've password-protected your album, that works too - visitors will need to enter the password before viewing.

It's simple to customize the size of the embed to fit your layout, and it works responsively across different screen sizes.

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If you already have an Ente account, try embedding an album on your site. And if you don't already have an Ente account, what are you waiting for!?

At Ente Photos, everything is end-to-end encrypted. This means a lot of the smart computations that would typically happen on servers instead run on your device. With limited compute available, we're constantly finding ways to do things more efficiently.

Recently, we've decided to bring Rust into our mobile apps to unlock performance gains, paving the way for exciting new features. Our first step? Integrating a vector database in Rust that enabled us to add a "similar images" detection feature, making it easier for users to clean up their photo libraries.

We already offered deduplication of same files using file hashes, but now we can easily find visually close images too.

Example of same and closely similar images

Why Rust?

This marks the first time we've added Rust code to our mobile photos app. It's part of a larger push to (re)write performance-critical code in Rust. We write Rust code and automatically generate bindings that our Dart code can use through Flutter Rust Bridge.

The benefits are twofold:

1. Rust gives us fine-grained control over memory and performance, and it compiles to native code that runs blazingly fast on mobile devices. …

A user recently notified us of an issue causing a video to not be decrypted. We have identified a potential issue and are rolling out a fix, while continuing to investigate. We'll update this document as we have more details.

Details

Since the initial report, we have been combing through the code that deals with uploads to find where the issue might lie.

1. In the web or desktop code, we haven't found any issue so far. Still, we've added some more assertions just as an extra safety check.

2. We found a scenario with partial chunked reads, however based on the evidence it seems unlikely that this was the cause in practice. In any case, we've reworked that code, and have also added extra logging.

3. In the mobile code, we found a potential issue in the auto-resumable multipart background upload functionality that was recently enabled. Based on our current information, this seems to be the most likely candidate. We have added a fix, and we're rolling it as I write this.

The issue in not reproducible, however based on the circumstantial evidence - large video recently uploaded from mobile in a manner which would go through this recently enabled code path - we do think the last case is the reason. So the next section explains case 3 in more detail.

Safeguards against concurrent multipart upload resumptions …

A tech product is quite similar to the ship of Theseus. You keep replacing decaying old parts that no longer work as well as you would want. And sometimes you need to add new mechanisms to keep up with the demand. Over a period of time, what started as a simple system built to test waters evolves into a behemoth that can take on the best ship out there.

Our latest release is about replacing something old, while also adding something new.

Custom layouts

Some of you might know that the team has been working on rewriting the home gallery - both to improve performance and to enable new features. This latest update marks the first release of that project.

Custom gallery views on Ente Photos

While there are a bunch of performance improvements, the most visible aspect is the ability to group your photos as you like - day, week, month of year. Together with grid size configuration, this allows you to customise your gallery view exactly like you want.

Another outcome of this project is

Quick(er) scroll

The scroll bar on the gallery has been redesigned as well. We have introduced yearly markers for a quick jump across the timeline, while also adding haptics for better feedback. We are also expecting a smoother scroll experience as a result of this.

Quick scroll bar on Ente Photos …

One of our big goals for Photos this year, apart from adding new capabilities and features, was to improve the experience of using the app. Since v1.0, we have been spending a lot of time on this - improving performance, making workflows easier, reducing moments of irritation and creating moments of serendipity.

Our latest release is a reflection of our efforts towards this goal.

Birthday Memories and Notifications

Birthday notifications on Ente Photos

Your photos are a celebration of life. With that in mind, we have also introduced a new memory for all the birthdays you have saved on Ente. On the saved date, we will generate a collection of photos for you to browse through and share. And an opt-out notification to remind you of the birthday as well. The more people you save and add birthdays to, the better the experience gets for you and your loved ones.

Memories Experience

The act of looking at old photos, and reminiscing is a very joyous experience. Which is why we are incredibly bullish on memories - how to surface the right photos at the right time. We have put in a lot of effort in this direction so far this year - from building out smart memories, connecting widgets with memories, to on this day memory and notifications. However, the visual appearance of the feature did not match the emotions we were trying to evoke.

Memories on Ente Photos …

The first major version of Ente Photos launched just a few weeks ago.

We've since been working heads down to make Ente Photos one of the best photo apps in the world. Here are some of the improvements we've shipped in this release.

On this day

Celebrations make some days special, serendipity the rest. Being able to savor some of these moments is what life is about.

Notification of memories from a particular day on Ente Photos

Ente Photos will now remind you of your memories at the start of every day. We'll sift through your photos (locally on device) and notify you if there are ones you might want to revisit.

We understand not everyone likes notifications, so you can opt-out from Settings.

Powerful widgets

v1 made it possible to access your memories on your home screen. This update takes this feature a few steps ahead by introducing different types of widgets.

• People – ground yourself with memories of your favorite people
• Albums – quickly access your favorite album(s)
• Memories – relive auto curated moments

Powerful homescreen widgets on Ente Photos

You can configure who and what you'd like to pin to your home screen from Settings.

Sharing

Photo sharing is a beautiful problem we've started working on – there's so much to do! You will now start seeing some changes, that will make photo sharing better, starting with...

Favorites …

As a programmer, it's a bit embarrassing to admit that it took us 40,000+ commits to release the first major version – v1 – of a photos app.

The story began in 2020, when we had to choose between privacy and convenience while storing our photos. We felt the need to engineer an experience that brought together the best of both worlds, for ourselves.

v1 was the arbitrary checkpoint we had in mind, where we could tell the world that our work was mature enough for them.

Over the last 5 years, we have poured our hearts into building a beautiful, end-to-end encrypted photos app, and here we are.

v1

The video is a teaser, here are more details on what's packed into v1.

Privacy

End-to-end encryption – so only you can see your photos.

This was the foundation on top of which we built Ente, to guarantee that we respect the privacy and sanctity of your data with technology rather than policy.

Simplicity

This is what took us so long to get here.

While starting Ente, our vision of a "minimum viable product" included features like face recognition and search. Delivering these features with end-to-end encryption turned out to be harder than we thought.

It took us multiple years to deliver ente.com/ml, but deliver we did.

Search

Searching on Ente Photos

You can now search for people, objects, scenes and more in your photos. …

We have drastically simplified the getting started steps to lower the barrier to entry for people trying to self host Ente.

1. Run this command in your terminal

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ente/ente/main/server/quickstart.sh)"

2. Once the server is up, open http://localhost:3000 in your browser

That's it, there is no step 3.

Screenshot of the browser running self hosted Ente web app

Tip: The verification code will be visible in the server logs.

Details

The quickstart.sh script does not install anything on your system, and does not have any dependencies except a recent version of Docker.

It creates a new directory named my-ente and inside it starts a new Docker compose cluster running Ente's server, DB, S3 and the web app (running on localhost:3000).

To stop the cluster, simply Ctrl-C to end the process.

To start it again, you can go back to the same directory (cd my-ente) and docker compose up

Next steps

Learn more about self hosting Ente at ente.com/help/self-hosting/.

If you like the progress we're making, spread the word.

We made one last stop before hitting v1.0, to ship some major improvements.

Light mode on Desktop

Desktop had been brooding in dark mode since forever, so we took some time out to put a fresh coat of paint. While repainting, we also improved the way we present information, making the app simpler to navigate.

Light mode on Ente's desktop app

Now since Ente is end-to-end encrypted, we have no access to your photos and have to generate thumbnails on your devices. Performing this operation reliably is a fairly complex challenge and this release introduces a robust thumbnail generator.

Importing from Google Photos is another common use case our desktop app serves. Stitching together your data Google breaks is a cat-and-mouse game we've gotten better at. This release includes a bunch of improvements that will provide a hassle free migration from Google Photos.

Album deep links

Links to albums (like this one) will now open on our mobile apps instead of your browser.

Deep links for Albums …

Ente Legacy

I grew up in a home full of photos.

My dad's Minolta witnessed some of the best bits of my childhood. While I remain shy of the camera, I'm grateful for all that he captured. On the rare occasions I flip through his albums, they ground me to my roots.

30 years later, my daughter is growing up around phones clicking even more photos. While her very best moments go uncaptured, the rest end up on Ente. I hope she'll be grateful for some of these memories, we are.

This cross-generational aspect to photos is something I've begun to appreciate since becoming a parent. Posterity has become a stronger theme - I want my family to have access to my albums when I'm not around.

To solve these personal needs we've built a feature, that we believe will be useful to more customers in the long run.

Legacy

Legacy introduces account inheritance to Ente.

You can add trusted contacts, who can request to recover your account. If you do not reject their request within the stipulated time period, they will have an option to reset your password and access your account.

All of this, end-to-end encrypted.

Screenshots from Ente Legacy

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This is an important step in Ente's journey towards posterity. We as a company have to outlive our people. Ente is our legacy.

Thank you for being a part.

After a year in beta, Ente's machine learning is live for all.

You can search for people, places and a lot more; while retaining absolute privacy of your memories. Here's a demo.

We have zero knowledge of your photos or search queries. This level of privacy is made possible by Ente's machine learning that runs locally on your devices.

Any data that's derived from your photos is stored and synced across all your devices end-to-end encrypted. Your search queries are also processed locally on device. This is in stark contrast to most services, where your data is processed centrally on their servers.

Multiple years of research and development have gone into delivering what we believe is a novel approach to running computer vision models on the edge. Along the way, we've overcome quite a few challenges.

We've published a whitepaper documenting the underlying novelties at ente.com/ML.

More information on using this feature within our apps is available here.

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Now we look forward to using this as a foundation to surface your best moments.

If you've thoughts on what makes a memory meaningful, let us know!

It's been a few months since our last major update for Auth, and we're very happy about all the love that it has received so far.

From LinusTechTips picking Auth as the best 2FA app to CERN's recommendation, we're grateful to be at the receiving end of praise.

We are now here to showcase v4.0, that comes with some major improvements.

Changelog

Here are the highlights of what has been added since v3.0.

Sharing

Screenshot of Auth's share feature

You can now easily share specific codes with your team, with temporary links that are end-to-end encrypted.

These links will be valid only for the duration that you've chosen. Ente will pre-compute the codes for this duration, and share those within the link, end-to-end encrypted.

Your 2FA secret / seed phrase is not shared, and remains secure on your device.

Notes

Illustration of the Notes feature within Auth

Auth now supports notes within codes.

You can attach any text (upto a maximum of 500 characters), to provide more information about your accounts.

Like with everything else, your notes are preserved end-to-end encrypted.

Trash and recover

Illustration of Auth's Trash and Recover features

You can now trash codes that you don't need. …

In this age, our smartphones have become treasure troves of memories. But how often have you hesitated to show someone a photo, fearing they might swipe too far and stumble upon something private? We understand this concern and that's why we're excited to introduce our latest feature: Guest View.

What is Guest view?

Guest view is a feature designed to give you complete control over which photos you show. It allows you to select specific photos or videos to show others, without the risk of them accessing your entire gallery.

How to use Guest view

Using Guest view is simple and intuitive:

Ente's Guest view interface for multiple photo selection

1. From your gallery, select the photos or videos you want to show.
2. Tap the "Guest view" option in the selection options.
3. Hand your device to your guest – they can now swipe through only the selected items.
4. To exit Guest view, authentication is required, ensuring your privacy.

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Ente's Guest view interface for single photo swipe lock

You can also enable Guest view for a single photo or video from the photo viewer.

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Ente launched 3+ years ago, without a free plan.

Our pricing was structured such that Ente could run on its own as a sustainable business over subscriptions.

We knew this model would get in the way of widespread adoption, but we wanted to thwart existential risks and were comfortable playing the long game.

Time has passed, quickly, and today we make our subscription plans more mainstream.

Introducing,

5GB forever free

Starting today, all free users will have access to 5 GB of storage, forever.

This means, you can rely on Ente to store and share your most precious memories without worries. All you've to do is use Ente once a year to keep your account active.

Our business has grown to a point where this makes for a sensible marketing spend and we believe this will make Ente more accessible.

Affordable subscriptions

Thanks to you, along with our business, our infrastructure has scaled. This has helped us negotiate better prices with our underlying storage providers.

So we're passing on the savings, by recaliberating our pricing models.

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We feel this is a fair price to pay for privacy, reliability and support, and we hope these changes will make it easier for you to recommend Ente.

If you're still on the fence, please note that you can

• Share your subscription with 5 family members, and
• Refer a friend to earn 10 GB of storage

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Hello!

This release marks one of our final pitstops as we inch closer to the coveted v1.0.

While we are fiddling with minor versions, the improvements we've shipped are major, and this post shares the highlights.

Video editor

Visualization of Ente's video editor

We've introduced a video editor to our mobile app that will help you trim, crop and rotate your videos. The editor works completely offline, and is built to help you accomplish your routine editing tasks.

Security keys

Screenshot of passkeys on Ente

You can now secure your Ente accounts with passkeys and hardware keys. Head over to Settings > Security to get started. Please be mindful that passkeys are yet to gain widespread adoption, so save your recovery key if you haven't already!

You can read more about passkeys and how to use them within Ente here.

Link previews

Screenshot of passkeys on Ente

This release also brings a friendly way to share photos.

Since Ente's album links are end-to-end encrypted, other apps could not generate previews for these shared links. So we've added beautiful previews, that are created on the client, to give a better vibe while you are sharing with your friends.

Select the photos you wish to share and click on "Send link" to see the magic!

Widgets …