Comparison

Rewind vs TetherCam

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Rewind

Features
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Your photo library is full of moments worth seeing again. Rewind turns your existing photos and videos into a calm, swipeable memory stream. Rediscover forgotten moments, save favorites, organize albums, and leave personal notes for the memories that matter. WHAT YOU CAN DO β€’ Swipe through photos and videos from your library β€’ Revisit memories in a fresh, serendipitous order β€’ Like moments and organize favorites into albums β€’ Write notes and browse them on a personal timeline β€’ Add a soundtrack with built-in music or Apple Music β€’ Balance background music with the original sound of your videos β€’ Switch between English and Simplified Chinese β€’ Sync supported Rewind data with iCloud Your original photos and videos remain in your system photo library. Some features require Rewind Pro. Apple Music features require an active Apple Music subscription and availability in your region.

About

TetherCam

Features
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Your iPhone, instead of a webcam. TWO APPS, ONE CABLE TetherCam is two free apps. TetherCam for Mac is downloaded from tethercam.app; TetherCam for iPhone is this one. Install both, connect the phone to the Mac with the USB cable you already own, and the iPhone shows up as the camera "TetherCam" on the Mac, in the same camera picker as the built-in one. It works in every Mac app that lists system cameras: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, FaceTime, QuickTime Player, Safari, Chrome and the rest. Zoom and Microsoft Teams were verified on 10 September 2026. Nothing travels over Wi-Fi, nothing passes through a server, nothing is uploaded anywhere. There is no account, no pairing code and no discovery step. The cable is the whole path, which is why the picture stays stable in a crowded room where wireless cameras start to stutter. WHAT YOU NEED An iPhone with iOS 17 or newer, a Mac with macOS 14 or newer, and the USB cable that came with the phone. The free TetherCam Mac app asks once for approval of its camera extension in System Settings; after that the camera is simply there. THE HONEST LIMITS The Mac app carries the picture only. A Mac camera extension has no audio stream, so the sound stays with the Mac's own microphone. Audio over the cable exists, but only on the OBS path below. This iPhone app stays open in the foreground while it sends. The phone serves one receiver at a time. The Mac app and the OBS plugin are not used together; whichever connects second is told that the line is busy. ON THE PHONE Live preview from the moment you open the app, before anything is connected. A camera and lens picker for the wide, ultra wide and telephoto lenses or the front camera, switching the stream immediately. Automatic rotation that follows the horizon rather than the interface. Turn the phone and the picture stays level, because the orientation is resolved on the capture side. There is a manual angle override when you want to decide yourself. Hardware HEVC encoding, which keeps the phone cool and the latency low. A diagnostics panel that shows what is actually happening: listener state, connection, frames per second, bitrate and the measured levelling residual. FOR STREAMING AND RECORDING: OBS STUDIO The TetherCam plugin for OBS Studio is the pro path, also free and also at tethercam.app. It adds a source called TetherCam directly in OBS, finds the phone through the same cable, and it is the only path that brings the microphone of the phone across as well. PRIVACY No account, no analytics, no advertising, no purchases. The camera picture goes to your own Mac and nowhere else. Nothing is collected. TetherCam for iPhone is free and open source under the MIT licence at github.com/Kanevry/tethercam.

Screenshots

Rewind4 screens
TetherCam4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: TetherCam at none against Rewind's 3. TetherCam also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 6 weeks) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.1). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Rewind sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. TetherCam asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Rewind ships an update every 6 weeks, TetherCam daily. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 3 level
Rewind versus TetherCam: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRewindTetherCam
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksDaily β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS26.117.0 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size58 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer倏洋 秦Bernhard Goetzendorfer

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Rewind

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Membership$2.991 Month
  • εΉ΄εΊ¦δΌšε‘˜$5.991 Year
One-time1
  • Rewind Pro$12.99
None

TetherCam

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Rewind free?
Rewind is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is TetherCam free?
TetherCam is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Rewind or TetherCam have ads?
Neither Rewind nor TetherCam shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Rewind or TetherCam?
Rewind ships an update every 6 weeks, and TetherCam daily. Most recently, Rewind was updated on October 31, 2026 and TetherCam on November 6, 2026.

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