InstantRecall App Review: Never Forget Anyone Again

InstantRecall is an app that lives up to its name. If you struggle to remember important details about the people you meet, this app is your friend. The app uses your contacts and can also (optionally) integrate with your Google+ friends list.

That's just the starting point though. When you talk to someone, the app displays a notification, which lets you save any important notes regarding the caller. This sounds like a small thing, but it's a pretty important feature, because normally most of us won't sit and fill out details for all our contacts one by one. On the other hand, when a notification nudges you to add a few details about the person you just talked to, then it isn't a big deal and over time, it means that the app can fill up with details about the people you know.

So, for example, you just met someone for the very first time, and they happened to mention which college they went to, or the vacation they are planning to take next week, you can file these things under their name. Usually, most people would just forget about these details, but InstantRecall lets you tag contacts with notes across Achievements, Education, Events, Health, Relationships, and other categories.

Now the next time you are about to meet this person, you can quickly refresh your memory with all the relevant information you need. When you click on the contacts, it displays the profile summary and all the notes associated with the contact. Just casually slip in a reference to the individual's college or ask them about their vacation, and trust us, they will be extremely impressed by your memory.

Perhaps the best feature of the app is the voice mode that lets you search for notes without typing. You can look for notes or tags, so if for example you meet a friend at a party, you could open the app and see notes related to the friend, including - say - their favourite drink. If you're too lazy to search through the notes, you can also just use voice mode and say something like "Ankit's food" to see the relevant note, or simply say "Ankit notes" when you are on your way to meet Ankit, and the app will play back all it knows about Ankit.

InstantRecall also comes with a widget that lets you quickly enter notes. The app also supports smartwatches. With your Android Wear watch, just say "Add a note to Ankit," to add notes for that contact.

We wish the app could do more though - while the app can invoke your favourite dialler or messaging app, we wish InstantRecall itself was also able to function as a dialler. If that were the case, then you'd be able to see notes about a person even when you were calling them, or they were calling you, for that little bit of extra recall. Another time when we called up our bank to get the due date of my credit card bill payment, post the call, we added the note and saved it. The app could have played a greater role if it had the ability to send a reminder.

InstantRecall is currently available in beta on Android as a free download where you can save up to 200 notes. For Rs. 99 per year - a "limited time India-only" offer you can unlock unlimited notes, and custom fields for contacts.