Google Chat history in Timehop.

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Up until now, Timehop captures your outward and social self this day in history.  Everyday you get a digest of what you’ve shared online this day last year, the year before, and so forth.  It’s an online time capsule of what we signal or share to others every day.

Now, Timehop shows you your Gchat message history and my Timehop experience has became emotional in a way I didn’t expect. I thought it would be similar to the other content it normally shares: normal, shareable photos, links, and other fodder you find on Facebook and Twitter.  What I learned quickly is that your private messages were never public. There's an intimacy to an online conversation. And now you're reminded of the failed dinner plan you made three years ago, the exciting vacation plans you made two years ago, the casual conversation with an ex-girlfriend, a heart-to-heart with a sibling.

By integrating your chat history, it reminds of the permanence of our online activity.  "Yeah yeah yeah, what we do online is forever, I get it". Yes, BUT there has never been a platform to drudge up content hidden away in your inbox vault. It's fantastically eerie how every October 1st, I'll be reading this conversation. Again in 2017, and again in 2018-- like I’m an online version of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Luckily for us, conversations had in ‘Private Mode’ are lost to the ether. Having this new feature in Timehop has added a new layer to my everyday introspection. Definitely give it a go.

To set it up: