Cassette App: Turn Videos into Retro VHS Home Movies

Rediscovering Memories: The Cassette App Brings VHS Nostalgia to Your iPhone

Do you find yourself yearning for the familiar feeling of watching home videos as they were enjoyed in the VHS era, yet all your personal footage resides on your iPhone? While AirPlay offers a connection to the television, it doesn’t quite replicate the original experience. This very challenge motivated developer Devin Davies to conceive of Cassette, a novel iOS application.

A Retro Interface for Modern Videos

The app functions by allowing users to virtually “load” tapes displayed on the screen. Videos are organized by year, each represented by a sticker resembling handwritten labels affixed to a VHS tape’s cover.

Once a tape is selected, your videos play sequentially, offering a passive viewing experience.

This approach provides a fresh way to revisit media stored on your device, content that often remains unwatched after its initial capture.

Inspired by a Shared Longing

The genesis of Cassette can be traced back to a conversation with Charlie Chapman, a fellow app developer and senior advocate at RevenueCat – a platform focused on in-app purchase and subscription management for mobile applications. Chapman expressed his dissatisfaction with the current home movie viewing experience.

He voiced a desire for a seamless way to stream videos to a TV, allowing them to play automatically in succession.

Davies, previously recognized for his award-winning recipe app, Crouton, embraced the concept. He adapted Cassette from a custom slideshow application originally created for Apple TV, and subsequently shared a preliminary version with his colleagues.

“The entire group experienced a deeply emotional connection, spending the night reliving cherished memories of their children’s growth,” Chapman shared with TechCrunch. “I’ve rarely witnessed such a strong alignment between a product and its audience.”

Simple Design, Powerful Impact

The app boasts an intuitive design, presenting users with rows of authentically rendered VHS tapes. Selecting a tape simulates loading it into a TV icon at the top of the iPhone screen, initiating playback.

AirPlay functionality allows mirroring to a television for an immersive, big-screen experience.

Videos are accompanied by displayed location data, date, and timestamp information, presented in a retro pixel font reminiscent of classic VHS displays. Even for those unfamiliar with VHS tapes, the format evokes a sense of nostalgia, potentially due to the frequent referencing of home movies in contemporary film and television during emotionally resonant scenes.

Ongoing Development and Refinements

Currently, the app is addressing certain challenges.

Downloaded online videos, such as TikToks or Reels, may appear alongside personal recordings. Davies has confirmed that screen recordings are already being filtered, and efforts are underway to identify and exclude TikTok videos as well.

Supporting the Project

To facilitate continued development, Cassette offers an optional premium subscription, “ColorPlus.” This allows users to manually choose a VHS tape, rather than relying on random playback. The subscription is priced at $0.99 monthly or $5.99 annually. A one-time Lifetime unlock is also available for $7.99, providing substantial support for this independent project.

The application is available for free download on both iPhone and iPad.