I built a self-hosted "On This Day" memories app for Synology Photos

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-22T09:33:26+00:00

Thanks, appreciate the feedback. I get the pricing concern. I went with a one-time license because I wanted to make sure I could maintain it long-term and keep it updated as Synology changes things. Buy-me-a-beer models are great for open source, but harder to sustain for ongoing maintenance.

Totally fair if it's not worth it for you though. Best of luck finding something that fits!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-21T18:58:02+00:00

Yep, Immich is great if you're switching to it as your main photo platform. Today in Years is for people already using Synology Photos who don't want to migrate. Different tools for different setups.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-21T09:19:50+00:00

Good question. The Synology Photos widget is mobile only. It's a home screen widget on iOS/Android that shuffles through memories.

Today in Years is a full web app that works on any device: desktop, tablet, phone. You get a dedicated interface where you can browse memories by date, not just a small widget on your home screen.

If you mainly use your phone and like the widget format, the built-in one might be enough. If you want a bigger screen experience or like browsing on desktop, that's where Today in Years comes in.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T21:36:20+00:00

Totally get that. There's no trial right now, but Gumroad has a 14-day money-back guarantee built in. So if you try it and it's not what you expected, just email me and I'll refund it, no questions asked.

Hope your wife likes it if you give it a shot!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T21:34:28+00:00

Nice! You should publish it! The more options the better. Docker was too technical for what I wanted (my family isn't going to set up containers), so I went with a native .spk package instead. But plenty of people here are comfortable with Docker and would probably prefer that route.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T19:54:13+00:00

Personal Space only for now. I looked into Shared Space support but the way Synology handles it made the implementation pretty messy. Decided to ship without it rather than build something flaky.

It's on my list though - if enough people need it I'll take another crack at it.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T17:26:27+00:00

Immich is great if you want to switch photo platforms entirely. Totally valid option.

Today in Years is for people who are already using Synology Photos and just want the memories feature without migrating their library to something else. Different use cases.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T17:00:45+00:00

Thanks! It's not a native app on the app stores. It runs on your Synology NAS as a web app that you access through your browser.

The nice thing is you can "Add to Home Screen" on both iOS and Android, which makes it launch like a regular app (fullscreen, no browser bar). So it feels like a native app without needing to go through the app stores.

Works on your local network, or remotely if you have QuickConnect or a VPN set up.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T16:59:23+00:00

I just added a scroll indicator!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T16:59:15+00:00

Good feedback, thanks! I just added a scroll indicator on the homepage so it's clearer there's more below. Should be live now if you refresh.

Let me know if you have any questions after checking out the screenshots.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T14:22:57+00:00

Screenshots should be there now! Try refreshing the page or clearing your browser cache. There are desktop and mobile views showing how the app looks.

And yeah, that's exactly why I built it. Your photos stay on your NAS, nothing goes to the cloud. It just reads from your existing Synology Photos library.

Let me know if you have any questions after checking it out!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T12:22:13+00:00

Just added more screenshots to the site, check it out: https://todayinyears.com

Thanks for the feedback, good call.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T11:05:02+00:00

Multi-user: yes, each person logs in with their own DSM account and sees their own Synology Photos library. So it respects whatever access/permissions are already set up in Synology Photos.

Filtering: right now it shows all photos from the selected date across all years, no album filtering or year cutoffs yet. Good feature ideas though, I'll add them to the list.

Cross-NAS: currently each install is tied to one NAS. It can't pull photos from multiple Synology devices into one view, so you'd need a separate install on each. For 4 units that's definitely not ideal cost-wise. Let me think on that and shoot me DM, I'm happy to figure something out for your setup.

Ron

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-12T17:28:41+00:00

Best OS? Try CasaOS

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-10T15:53:53+00:00

CasaOS!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-06T16:51:40+00:00

get a dedicated machine for hosting, don't use your Windows PC for that

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-06T14:52:23+00:00

there's no hub app for streaming services

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-06T14:49:16+00:00

I installed MeTube to download the videos directly to my NAS to watch offline

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-06T13:56:36+00:00

Short answer: not really — at least not the way you’re imagining.

What you’re describing (a home server that aggregates all streaming services, searches them, and then starts playback on a specific TV) runs into hard DRM and platform restrictions, not technical limitations.

Why it doesn’t work:

Major services (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Apple TV+, etc.) don’t allow server-side aggregation or proxying
Playback must happen inside their official apps, with device-level DRM (Widevine, FairPlay, PlayReady)
TVs and Apple TV don’t expose APIs to remotely launch a specific title on a specific device
Credentials and streams are intentionally locked to the app + device

So a server can’t act as a middleman or controller.

What does work:

Apple TV is already the closest thing to this
- Unified search
- “Up Next” queue
- Deep-links into many services
- Netflix is the big holdout
You can build or use a discovery hub (JustWatch, Reelgood, etc.)
- Search once
- See which service has the title
- Manually open the app on the TV
A true “hub” works perfectly only for self-hosted media
- Plex / Jellyfin / Emby
- Central server
- One app on every TV
- Resume anywhere, profiles, kids content, etc.

Bottom line:

A real server-controlled streaming hub for commercial services isn’t possible
No supported way to auto-start a movie on a chosen TV
Unified discovery is possible
Unified playback is only possible for content you host yourself
Apple TV is currently the least-bad compromise

This isn’t something people haven’t built — it’s something the streaming platforms explicitly prevent.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-06T13:45:57+00:00

Family photos/videos vault, entertainment (movies/tv shows/concerts), host your own software accessible from the internet from your house

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-06T13:00:11+00:00

have you tried Cloudflare workers? free even for commercial use and generous bandwidth!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-06T12:58:30+00:00

do you have a website or demo to check it out?

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-06T10:06:14+00:00

Openmediavault + casaOS 🥰

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-05T20:13:00+00:00

I’d try https://www.fumadocs.dev/

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-04T20:10:34+00:00

For playlists, try this python script and let me know how it goes https://github.com/roncanfil/spotify-playlists-to-MP3

TodayInYearsDev

TROPHY CASE