What Spohad Means: Ukrainian for “Memory”
What does Spohad mean? It is the Ukrainian word spohad, a memory. Where the name comes from, what one spohad is, and how a frame earns value stars.
What does Spohad mean? It is the Ukrainian word “спогад,” a memory. It is read “SPO-had,” written in Latin letters, and, like a name, not translated. And it is more than a pretty word: it describes exactly what the app does. Spohad does not sort files. It helps you remember.
Where does the name come from?
The author of the app is from Ukraine. He simply liked how the word sounded. Then it turned out to hit the point: every frame on your phone is someone’s memory. An app that shows you your frames is, at heart, an app of memories. How it came about, the author tells in Why I built Spohad.
Why you don’t know what comes next
Memories come in all kinds. Warm ones and not so warm. Funny, awkward, sad.
In an ordinary gallery there is often no need to look: everything is obvious, the latest shots at the top, the rest somewhere below. You open it only when you are looking for something.
In Spohad the feed is put together from different years and different folders, and you do not know what comes next. That is the whole charm. Here is the cat that is no longer in that apartment. Here is the cake from your son’s tenth birthday. Here is a receipt for a fridge that is still under warranty. Every frame is a memory and an emotion. If they mean something to you, the frame stays and gets its place. If they no longer mean anything, one swipe and you can let it go.
Looking back helps you remember; captioning creates a memory
When you scroll the feed, you remember. And when you do something with a frame, you create a memory. You give it a name. Write a couple of words about what was happening. Add tags. Mark it with a heart. Put it in the right folder.
It takes seconds: the name, description and tag lines are right on the card, and you can dictate the words with the keyboard microphone. How to find what you captioned in seconds is in How to find a photo on your iPhone fast.
What are value stars?
For each of these actions the frame earns a value star:
- a name,
- a description,
- tags,
- a like,
- a move to its own place.
The maximum is five stars. Stars are never added by themselves or “just because.” They appear only when you have done something with the frame yourself. That is why the value is honest: it shows how much attention you gave that frame.
Why “value” and not “rating”?
A rating is a grade, like at school: an A, a C. You grade other people’s work. Value is how much something of your own means to you. You do not grade a memory. You look after it.
Where the value is stored
Not locked away inside the app. The name becomes the real file name. The description, tags and stars are written to a small file next to the original, in the open XMP format that other photo programs understand too. The photo itself does not change by a single byte.
If you ever delete Spohad, your names, descriptions, tags and stars stay right next to your files.
One spohad, one star
Inside the app the word works as a unit too. One spohad is one value star that you have given your frame. As many spohads as you create in an evening, that many times you have truly looked at your life.
Not “sorted a hundred photos.” But “created a hundred memories.”
A word that changes
And a little secret to finish. Open the site’s home page and tap the word Spohad at the top. Letter by letter it turns into a word in your language (“Спогад,” “Memory,” “Erinnerung”), holds for a couple of seconds, and turns back. The app does the same: you can tap the word in the header of the screens. It is not advertising and not a hint. Just a gift for those who notice.
On the same home page you can scroll the feed right in your browser. And if you want to see what an evening with such a feed is like, read Scroll your life instead of social media.