Durpin

FEATURES

Recaps

A short film of each month you shared in, the cutout way where the phone can cut subjects out, and saving or sharing it as a video.

Since build 1

Each month you shared shots in gets a recap: a short film of that month, on the You tab under Recaps, and on the 1st of the next month a notification opens it. Friends can watch yours from your profile.

How it plays

It opens on a title card: the month, its stamp, and who you shot with. Where the phone can cut subjects out of photos (Android with Google Play services, iPhone on iOS 17 and later), each photo's subject is cut out on the phone while the title card shows ("Getting it ready, 5 of 6"; kept, so the next time is instant). Then for each shot in turn its cutout pops in where it sits in the photo, over the photo before it, and the whole photo appears around it, on the beat of Durpin's own track. The date stamp holds still in the corner and only its digits change. The sound button turns the music off; the pictures go on in time.

With Reduce Motion, on a phone that can't cut subjects out, or a month with no clear subjects, it plays the classic way instead: each shot in turn, slowly pushing in, with a faint film gate weave.

Clips in a recap

Since build 16 every clip in a recap plays (Bishal: no limit), for a moment of it: the exact frame at the moment pops in as a cutout, the clip appears around it, plays on its own for 1.5 seconds, then half a second more, dimmed, under the next shot's cutout. At most 2 seconds of a clip play. Its own sound plays under the music, which goes down to about a third while it plays and comes back as it goes; the music's switch turns off only the music.

Which moment: when your clip uploads, the phone measures it (how sharp, how much moves, how much the camera shakes, how loud) and picks the 2 seconds that look best, preferring ones with a clear subject to cut out. It's kept with the clip, so every recap and everyone watching gets the same moment. A clip from before build 16 gets its moment the first time it's in a recap. To pick it yourself, open the clip, More, Recap moment: slide the 2 second window along the clip, "Use these 2 seconds". It plays round and round with its sound while you choose.

Each clip is downloaded once to the phone's cache the first time a recap with it plays (about 10 MB; the phone may clear the cache, and then it's fetched again). With little room left on the phone, or on a build that can't read a clip's frames, a clip shows as a still, cut out from its poster like a photo.

Save video and Share

On your own recaps, Save video puts the recap in your photos as an MP4 and Share opens the share sheet with it. The video is made on your phone (Durpin's server never makes videos), 1080 by 1920, with "Making video 42%" and Cancel while it's made.

Since build 15, on Android and iPhone, the video is the cutout recap you watched: the title card for two seconds, then the cutouts on the beat, each photo at full size, the stamp as on screen. Save video and Share wait while the cutouts are still being made, so the video can't come out the wrong recap. Wherever the recap plays the classic way, the video is the classic recap.

What you hear is what you get: with the music on, the cutout video has Durpin's track from the first frame, looping under it and fading out over the last shot, as in the player; turn the music off first and the video is silent, on the same beat, for putting your own song on ("Saved to Photos, without music"). The classic video has no sound. Since build 16 the clips play in the video too, frame for frame as in the player, with their own sound at the same levels: under the music, or alone when the music is off.

Before it starts, Durpin checks there's room: with less than about 150 MB free it says "There isn't room on your phone for the video." and makes nothing. On Android the video goes on being made while you're in another app. An iPhone stops making video when Durpin goes to the background, so there it stops cleanly and says "Keep Durpin open while the video is made. Try again." When a recap ends as you come back to the app, nothing breaks (until build 15 its music player could be called after it was let go).

Trying it