Recall in Windows 11: What it is and how it works

Accurate searches with the intelligence of Recall in Windows 11

The magic of Windows Recall lies in its ability to understand the content and context of what you are looking for. You can search using keywords, phrases or even natural language, and Recall will understand your intentions. For example, if you search for "picture of a black leather jacket I saw on a website," Recall will show you exactly that moment, not because of keywords in the file name or metadata, but because it understands the object in the image.

Recall captures your activities in Windows 11

Recall works by taking screenshots of every activity on your computer every few seconds. These snapshots are stored locally and analyzed with AI to understand their content, including images and text. Although it is currently optimized for certain languages ​​such as English, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish, Microsoft plans to expand this support in the future.

Access and organize your files with ease

When you open the Recall app and use search or timeline, the feature will understand your intent and show you the most relevant results. Selecting a snapshot will activate the screenray, a feature that allows you to interact with the different captured elements. You will be able to open the content source application, copy text from a message or anything on the screen, delete the snapshot, and access other actions through the context menu.

Smart storage with AI in Windows 11

Because snapshots are stored locally, Recall requires some available space that is automatically reserved by the system. The default amount varies depending on the storage capacity of your device, but you can adjust it in the “Recall and snapshots” settings.

Recall uses the necessary NPU (Neural Processing Unit) to analyze the captures with several smaller, multi-modal language models, such as Screen Region Detector, Optical Character Recognizer, Natural Language Analyzer, and Image Encoder. All these models are integrated and run simultaneously in Windows 11 thanks to the new "Windows Copilot Runtime", which provides the infrastructure to continually update and maintain the quality of the models.

Keep your data safe with Recall's advanced privacy features

All Recall processing happens on the device, so no data is uploaded to the cloud. However, sometimes it connects to the Internet to download and install updates. By default, Recall does not save information about certain activities, such as using Chromium-based browsers in incognito mode or DRM-containing content. You can still set filters to exclude specific websites or apps.

It is important to note that Recall does not perform content moderation, so sensitive information such as passwords and bank account numbers may appear in searches. To mitigate this security risk, it is advisable to exclude websites and applications that may display this type of data. Additionally, although the "Windows Semantic Index" database is maintained locally, it will only be private if you take the proper precautions, as Recall does not include strong security protection once someone is logged into the account.

Accessible Future: Windows Recall Requirements and Availability

Windows Recall will be one of the new features released with the Windows 11 2024 Update (version 24H2). However, it will initially only be available for Copilot Plus PCs running Qualcomm Snapdragon X-series processors, as the feature requires an NPU running at 40+ TOPS, a minimum of 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD.

Although the feature will be limited at first, it will continue to improve over time. Windows Recall promises to revolutionize the way we interact with our digital memories, making finding anything we've seen or done on our computers easier than ever.