AI Alternatives

Rewind AI Alternatives for Private Memory

Rewind AI no longer exists as a standalone app: it rebranded to Limitless, then Meta acquired the company and disabled screen and audio capture on December 19, 2025. The strongest private Rewind AI alternative depends on your need. Screenpipe is the closest local-first screen recorder, while MemX is a private-by-architecture AI memory layer for the documents, voice notes, and chats you want to recall.

The Short Answer: Rewind AI Is Gone, So Pick by What You Actually Need

Rewind AI shut down. The company rebranded to Limitless in April 2024 and pivoted to a wearable pendant, then Meta acquired Limitless on December 5, 2025. Shortly after, on December 19, 2025, screen and audio capture in the Rewind Mac app were disabled, and users in regions including the EU and UK had to export their data before deletion.

That leaves two different jobs the old app handled, and no single tool covers both. If you want always-on screen recording with local search, Screenpipe is the closest source-available replacement. If you want a private place to capture and recall documents, voice notes, photos, and chats, an AI memory layer like MemX fits that angle. Match the alternative to the job, not to the brand name.

  • Rewind AI rebranded to Limitless, then was acquired by Meta on December 5, 2025.
  • Screen and audio capture stopped on December 19, 2025.
  • Screenpipe replaces the screen-recording use case; MemX serves the private recall and memory use case.

Why People Are Searching for a Rewind AI Alternative

Rewind built its reputation on a single promise: record everything on your Mac, keep it local, and let AI search it later. When Meta acquired the company, that promise changed. The standalone Mac app was sunset, pendant sales stopped, and remaining users were moved onto Meta's terms.

For privacy-minded users, an acquisition by a large advertising company is exactly the trigger to move. The reasons to find a replacement now are concrete, not hypothetical.

  • The original local-only Mac app is no longer functional.
  • Ownership shifted to Meta, changing the privacy posture users signed up for.
  • Data in several regions faced a hard export-or-delete deadline of December 19, 2025.
  • Pendant hardware sales were halted rather than continued.

Screenpipe: The Closest Local-First Screen Recorder

Screenpipe is the most direct successor to what Rewind originally did. It captures screen text and audio continuously, stores everything on your device, and lets you query any moment from your day. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. The code is source-available rather than MIT: it ships under the Screenpipe Commercial License, which is free for personal, non-commercial, educational, and research use, while commercial use requires a paid license. Older builds that were previously released under the MIT license remain MIT, but the current product is not MIT-licensed.

Because it is local-first, your capture data stays on your machine by default. You can self-host the source build for free for personal, non-commercial use. For the signed desktop app and team features, Screenpipe now sells subscriptions: Standard at $25 per month, Pro at $50 per seat per month, and Enterprise at $150 per seat per month. New lifetime purchases have been discontinued, though existing lifetime licenses remain valid. For users whose main goal was Rewind's around-the-clock screen memory, this is the obvious starting point.

  • Always-on screen capture with OCR and audio transcription.
  • Cross-platform: Mac, Windows, Linux.
  • Source-available under the Screenpipe Commercial License, free for personal and non-commercial use; commercial use requires a paid license.
  • Paid plans are subscription: Standard $25/mo, Pro $50/seat/mo, Enterprise $150/seat/mo; new lifetime licenses are no longer sold.
  • Local storage by default, so capture data stays on your device.

Limitless: The Official Successor, Now Inside Meta

Limitless is technically the continuation of the Rewind team's work, built around a wearable pendant plus a cloud-first service rather than a local Mac app. The pendant launched at $99 in April 2024, with an optional subscription on top: a free tier plus a Limitless Pro plan that was priced at around $19 per month billed annually before the acquisition.

After the Meta acquisition, the calculus changed for privacy-first users. The product is now cloud-centric and owned by Meta, which is a different model from the local-only app that drew people to Rewind in the first place. New pendant sales have stopped, and existing customers were moved onto Meta's terms. It is no longer a fit for anyone whose priority is keeping memory data out of a large platform's hands.

  • Wearable pendant plus cloud service, not a local Mac app.
  • Pendant launched at $99, with a Limitless Pro plan around $19/mo billed annually before the acquisition.
  • Now owned by Meta, with a cloud-first data model and new sales halted.

MemX: A Private-by-Architecture AI Memory Layer

MemX is an AI memory app from Neural Forge Technologies. It is not a screen recorder and it does not replace a chat assistant. Instead, it acts as an external memory layer: you capture documents, photos, voice notes, and chat exports, and then ask plain-language questions to recall them. For the Rewind use case that was really about private recall rather than screen capture, this is the relevant fit.

MemX is private by architecture. Data is encrypted at rest with AES-256, master keys are managed in Google Cloud KMS, and per-user key isolation means your content is decrypted only when you search your own data. To be precise about what that means: MemX is not end-to-end encrypted and is not zero-knowledge, because content is briefly processed server-side to answer questions. The honest framing is per-user isolation, encryption at rest, and key management, not a claim that no one but you can ever access the data.

  • An AI memory layer for documents, photos, voice notes, and chats, not a screen recorder.
  • Private by architecture: AES-256 encryption at rest, Google Cloud KMS, per-user key isolation.
  • Natural-language recall across everything you have saved.
  • Not end-to-end encrypted and not zero-knowledge: content is processed server-side to answer queries.

How to Choose Your Rewind AI Alternative

The right pick comes down to one question: did you value Rewind for capturing your screen, or for being able to recall what mattered later? Those are separate needs, and they point to different tools.

Use the breakdown below to match your priority to a replacement. There is no harm in pairing a screen recorder for capture with a memory layer for the documents and notes you deliberately want to keep.

  • Want local around-the-clock screen recording: choose Screenpipe.
  • Want the official pendant lineage and accept a cloud, Meta-owned model: Limitless is the successor, though new sales have stopped.
  • Want a private AI memory layer for docs, voice, photos, and chats: choose MemX.
  • Want offline-only and source-available above all: choose Screenpipe self-hosted for personal use.

Key takeaways

  • Rewind AI no longer exists as a standalone app: it rebranded to Limitless and Meta disabled its screen and audio capture on December 19, 2025.
  • Screenpipe is the closest local-first replacement for Rewind's around-the-clock screen recording on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and its code is source-available under the Screenpipe Commercial License, free for personal and non-commercial use.
  • Screenpipe's paid plans are subscription only (Standard $25/mo, Pro $50/seat/mo, Enterprise $150/seat/mo); new lifetime licenses are no longer sold, though existing ones remain valid.
  • Limitless is the official successor but is now cloud-first and Meta-owned with new sales halted, which changes the privacy trade-off.
  • MemX is a private-by-architecture AI memory layer for documents, voice notes, photos, and chats, suited to the recall use case rather than screen capture.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Rewind rebranded to Limitless, and after Meta acquired the company on December 5, 2025, the Rewind Mac app's screen and audio capture were disabled on December 19, 2025. Users in some regions had to export data before deletion. The original standalone app is no longer functional.
It depends on your need. Screenpipe is the best private, local-first option for always-on screen recording. For private recall of documents, voice notes, photos, and chats, MemX is an AI memory layer that is private by architecture with per-user isolation and encryption at rest.
Screenpipe is source-available, not MIT-licensed. The current code ships under the Screenpipe Commercial License, which is free for personal, non-commercial, educational, and research use, so you can self-host it for free for those purposes. Commercial use needs a paid license, and the signed app and team features are sold as subscriptions starting at $25 per month.
No. MemX is not a screen recorder and does not capture everything on your computer. It is an AI memory layer where you save documents, photos, voice notes, and chat exports, then ask plain-language questions to recall them. For around-the-clock screen capture, Screenpipe is the closer match.
No. MemX is private by architecture, not end-to-end encrypted or zero-knowledge. It uses AES-256 encryption at rest, Google Cloud KMS for key management, and per-user key isolation. Content is briefly processed server-side to answer your questions, so it is not a zero-knowledge system.

Looking for a private alternative?

MemX is an AI memory app: store anything, skip the folders, and find it again by asking in plain English. Private by architecture, with per-user isolation and encryption at rest.

Try MemX Free