ScreenJournal vs Microsoft Recall

Updated on 9 July 2026

Microsoft Recall gives one person on one Copilot+ PC a searchable memory of their own screen. ScreenJournal gives a manager visibility across a whole team: it reads on-screen work, writes a timeline of what each person did, then deletes the raw screen data. One is personal recall; the other is team work visibility.

They both read the screen, so they can sound like the same idea. They are built for opposite jobs. Recall is a feature of one person's operating system, designed so that only that person ever sees it.

ScreenJournal is an AI work visibility tool that reads on-screen work as it happens, turns it into a detailed timeline of what each person actually did, and then deletes the raw screen data. Timelines accumulate into a searchable chronicle of everyone's work history, and from them ScreenJournal generates timesheets and reports automatically and drafts standup summaries on request, answering questions about any of it in plain English.

What is Microsoft Recall?

Microsoft Recall is an opt-in Windows 11 feature, available only on Copilot+ PCs, that periodically saves snapshots of your screen, reads them with on-device OCR, and lets you search your own history in plain language. Microsoft describes all processing and storage as local to the device: snapshots are not sent to Microsoft or the cloud, are held in an encrypted store unlocked through Windows Hello, and are never shared with other users on the same PC or with IT administrators. Snapshots are taken every few seconds and when the active window changes. After security researchers criticised the original 2024 design, Microsoft delayed it and relaunched it as opt-in, removable, and gated behind biometric sign-in, with sensitive-information filtering on by default. It records no audio and stores no continuous video. It is a personal memory feature: there is a management layer that lets administrators allow, block or cap it, but no shared timeline and no aggregate team analytics.

How do Microsoft Recall and ScreenJournal compare?

Both read the screen, so the comparison comes down to who the record is for and what is kept.

Can Microsoft Recall give a manager team visibility?

No, and by design it cannot. Recall answers "what did I see on my own screen?"; ScreenJournal answers "what did my team do, and how do I help them do it better?". Recall is built so that a person, and only that person, can retrace their own steps on their own machine. Nobody else can see it: not other users of the PC, not an administrator, not Microsoft. That is the right design for a personal memory, and it is precisely why Recall cannot provide team visibility. There is no shared record, no cross-person view and no aggregate reporting, because those would break the promise Recall makes to the individual.

What happens to the raw screen data?

Recall keeps your snapshots so you can search them; ScreenJournal deletes the raw screen data and keeps only what it learned. Recall stores an encrypted timeline of screenshots on the device, filtered for some sensitive content and unlocked by Windows Hello. ScreenJournal takes the opposite approach: the screen is recorded only as short-lived video, the work is read from it, and the video is deleted immediately during processing, so what remains is the derived timeline text rather than a picture archive. On one machine, a well-encrypted local snapshot store is a reasonable design. Across a team, a store of everyone's screen snapshots is a store to secure and account for. ScreenJournal keeps a derived record instead, with no footage to breach. See derive and discard and the work timeline it produces.

Hardware, platforms and team scale

Recall runs on one class of device; ScreenJournal runs across the team's existing machines. Recall requires a Copilot+ PC with a neural processing unit, a recent build of Windows 11 and biometric sign-in, so it is unavailable to anyone on older Windows hardware, and to everyone on macOS. ScreenJournal is available for Windows and macOS, with Linux and mobile support coming soon, and it does not depend on any particular chip. More important than hardware is scope: Recall is a feature of one person's operating system, while ScreenJournal is a managed platform with roles, permissions, a role-normalised Effort Score, weekly AI reports and team dashboards, plus voice. For call-based roles it records and transcribes call and meeting audio and analyses it alongside the on-screen work. Unlike the raw screen data, that audio is retained as a business record, typically 12 months by default and adjustable where a client's compliance requires, with redaction and role-scoped, logged playback.

When is Microsoft Recall the right choice?

Recall is the right choice when your need is personal recall on your own Copilot+ PC.

• You have a Copilot+ PC and want to search your own recent screen history.
• Your need is personal: finding a document, a message or a page you saw earlier.
• You want everything to stay on your own device, visible to nobody else.
• You are not trying to manage or report on other people's work.

When is ScreenJournal the right choice?

ScreenJournal is the right choice when you need visibility across a team, not one person's private recall.

• You manage a team and need to see what people produced, across everyone.
• Your team is on mixed hardware, including macOS and older Windows PCs.
• You want timesheets, weekly reports and plain-English answers generated from the work itself.
• You run a call centre or outsourcing operation where voice is part of the work.
• You want a derived record and nothing to breach, rather than a store of everyone's screen snapshots.

Frequently asked questions

Is Microsoft Recall a team monitoring tool?

No. Recall is a personal memory feature for a single Copilot+ PC user. Microsoft designed it so snapshots stay on the device and are never shared with other users, IT administrators or Microsoft, which means it cannot give a manager visibility across a team. ScreenJournal is built for that: it reads a team's work, writes a timeline for each person and reports across everyone.

Can an IT administrator see an employee's Recall snapshots?

No. Microsoft states that administrators can allow or block Recall and cap its storage, but cannot view the snapshots on an employee's device. Recall is not a management or reporting tool. ScreenJournal, by contrast, is designed for managers, with roles, permissions and reporting, and with employee privacy controls such as redaction and personal-activity skipping built into that design.

Does ScreenJournal store screen snapshots the way Recall does?

No. Recall keeps encrypted snapshots of the screen on the device so the user can search them. ScreenJournal records the screen only as short-lived video, reads the work from it, and deletes that raw screen data immediately during processing, keeping only the derived timeline. There is no snapshot archive to store, index or breach.

Does ScreenJournal run on the same hardware as Recall?

No. Recall requires a Copilot+ PC with a neural processing unit and a recent build of Windows 11. ScreenJournal is available for Windows and macOS, with Linux and mobile support coming soon, and does not depend on a particular chip, so it runs across a team's existing machines.

Personal memory, or team visibility

Recall is a thoughtful piece of personal computing, and its privacy design is a real improvement on where it started. For remembering your own day on your own PC, it does the job. But personal recall and team work visibility are different things, and Recall is built, deliberately, so that only you can ever see it. ScreenJournal reads the work across your team, writes the timeline, deletes the raw screen data and gives you the timesheets, reports and answers a manager actually needs. For the wider market view, see ScreenJournal vs the alternatives.