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#Recall

You remember the context. Recall finds the name.

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VIP FAMILY WORK PARENTS #NYC #2024 #PHOTOGRAPHER #TOKYO

Designed for brains like ours.
Works for every brain.

Recall Contacts is an iPhone contacts app built for anyone who remembers the person — but blanks on the name.

Instead of searching by spelling, you tag people the way your brain already works: #NYC #Eastwood #crazyhat. Search by hashtag. Find them instantly.

It started with Paul Barbera — photographer, dyslexic, ADHD — after 25 years of knowing exactly who someone was but having no way to find them. He built the workaround he needed. Turns out, it works brilliantly for everyone.

App Screenshots
Finally, a contacts app that works like memory.

A workaround that became an app.

25 years as a photographer. 4,000+ contacts. And I couldn't spell half their names.

I'm dyslexic, and pretty sure I have ADHD. Names don't stick the way faces do. For most of my career I quietly struggled to find people — not because I forgot them, but because I couldn't spell them.

So I invented a workaround: hashtags. Instead of a name I'd misspell and never find again, I'd tag people by context — #NYC #Eastwood #crazyhat. My brain runs on context, not convention. It worked.

With Jason at Laan Labs and Claude Code, Recall is finally that app.

— Paul Barbera, creator of Recall Contacts
Read the full story

For years, I quietly struggled to remember names. Not people — never people. Just the letters supposed to pin them down.

I'm a photographer. 25 years of meeting people — shoots, events, studios, industry rooms — and for most of that time, blanking on names. I'm dyslexic, and pretty sure I have ADHD. Names don't stick the way faces do.

So I invented a workaround: hashtags. Instead of a name I'd misspell and never find again, I'd tag people by context — #NYC #Eastwood #crazyhat. My brain runs on context, not convention. It worked.

But getting data in and back out again was always slow and clunky. For years I thought: this should be an app. Something that works the way memory actually works — not how apps expect you to remember.

With Jason at Laan Labs and Claude Code, Recall is finally that app. A contacts app built by someone who needed it. Built for everyone whose brain works the same way.

Made by one of us. Built for brains like ours.

The problem

You remember the context.
You just can't spell the name.

You know exactly who they are. Where you met them. What they do. The name is the only thing your contacts app needs — and the one thing you can't give it. Recall is built for that gap.

01

Search by #hashtag

Tag anyone with context. Search #tokyo, #2023, #designer and find them instantly — no spelling required.

02

Smart groups

VIP, Family, Work, Parents — colour-coded groups that filter your world instantly.

03

Swipe to tag

Tinder-style tagging. Swipe right to save, left to revisit later. Organise hundreds of contacts in minutes.

04

Built for neurodivergent minds

Dyslexic-friendly mode. Designed around how you actually think — not how apps expect you to remember.

See it in action

Find anyone, instantly

VIP #TOKYO #PHOTOGRAPHER
Aanya Kim
#TOKYO #PHOTOGRAPHER #2023 #VIP
Ruangsak A.
#TOKYO #ARTIST #2022

"I built this because I needed it — 25 years of faces, half the names. My problem. Maybe yours too."

— Paul Barbera, creator of Recall Contacts
How it works

See Recall in action

Watch how Recall Contacts lets you find anyone by hashtag, context, or group — no spelling required.

App demo

The app, up close.

A closer look at how Recall works inside the app — searching, tagging, and finding contacts the way your brain already works.

Get early updates

New features, tips for dyslexic and neurodivergent users, and occasional notes from Paul.