TimeStamp Camera
Capture photos and videos with date, time, location, and customizable overlays — baked straight into the file. Designed for site logs, deliveries, travel journals, fitness sessions, work reports, and anything where where and when matter as much as what.
Install & launch
- Open the App Store on your iPhone or iPad.
- Search for TimeStamp Camera and tap Get.
- Open the app once installation completes.
- Walk through the onboarding screens — they explain what each feature does and ask for the permissions the camera needs to do its job.
iOS 17 or later is required. The app supports both iPhone and iPad in portrait and landscape.
Permissions
On the Permissions step in onboarding, tap Continue at the bottom of the screen. iOS will then show a system prompt for each permission, one at a time:
| Permission | What it's for | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Camera | Capturing photos and videos with the live overlay. | Yes |
| Microphone | Recording audio while capturing video. | For video |
| Location | Stamping photos with address and GPS coordinates, rendering the mini‑map. | Optional |
| Photos | Saving stamped photos and videos into your iOS Photos library. | Optional |
You can change any of these later in iOS Settings → TimeStamp Camera. The app uses each one only as described in its system prompt — see Privacy for details.
Your first stamped shot
- Open the Camera tab.
- You'll see the live preview with the current template's overlay floating on top — the date, time, address, and coordinates update in real time.
- If the overlay looks good, tap the white shutter button. The flash effect tells you the photo was taken.
- Tap the small thumbnail at the bottom‑left to jump straight into the gallery.
If the overlay isn't where you'd like it, tap Standard at the bottom of the screen to pick a different template, or open Templates to fully customize one.
Camera screen tour
Top bar
- Flash — auto / on / off (only shown if your device has a flash).
- Torch — toggles the LED for video recording (rear camera only).
- Timestamp — quick mute the date/time line of the overlay.
- Location — quick mute the address/coordinates lines.
- Eye — show/hide the entire overlay in the live preview and the saved file.
Bottom bar
- Template chip — tap to pick from your installed templates.
- Mode selector — switch between Photo and Video.
- Shutter button — tap to capture; in video mode, tap to start/stop recording.
- Camera switch — front ↔ rear.
- Gallery thumbnail — most recent capture, tap to open.
Photo & video modes
The selector in the bottom bar swaps between two modes:
- Photo — captures the full sensor frame (4:3 on iPhone). The shutter is white. Tap once to capture.
- Video — records H.264/HEVC at 720p, 1080p, or 4K. The shutter turns red. Tap to start, tap again to stop. A timer appears in the top bar.
The overlay is baked into every video frame using a Core Image-based composer, so timestamp text ticks up second-by-second through the recording.
Focus & zoom
- Tap the preview to set the auto-focus and auto-exposure point.
- Pinch to zoom — zooms up to 8× on supported devices.
Flash & torch
Flash is the quick burst that fires when you take a photo. Torch is the constant light used during video. Both rely on your device's LED — front-camera shots and the iPad simulator don't have one and the buttons hide automatically.
Grid & level
Open Settings → Capture and toggle Show grid for a rule-of-thirds grid, or Show level for a Core-Motion-driven horizon line. Both are display-only — they don't get baked into the saved file.
Orientation
The app supports portrait and landscape on both iPhone and iPad. The overlay anchors to whichever corner you've chosen for the active template, regardless of how the device is held. If you turn the device, the camera reconfigures the capture rotation in the background so the saved file is right-side-up.
Pick a template
The Templates tab lists eight built-in templates, plus any you've created or duplicated:
| Template | Best for | Default corner |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Everyday shots — date, time, address, GPS. | Bottom-left |
| Construction Log | Site progress with a "Site progress" note + accuracy. | Bottom-left |
| Delivery Proof | Drop-off shots with "Delivered ✓" note. | Top-left |
| Travel Journal | Long date, time zone, weather slot. | Bottom-right |
| Work Report | Minimal: date and inspection note only. | Top-right |
| Event Memory | Centered date and address. | Center |
| Fitness Run | GPS, altitude, accuracy in neon green. | Bottom-left |
| Pro Brand | Watermark + address (Pro template). | Bottom-right |
Tap a template to make it active — the camera live preview updates immediately. Swipe a row to Edit, Duplicate, or Delete. Built-in templates can't be deleted but you can duplicate one and customize the copy.
Edit a template
Open Templates, swipe a row left, tap the pencil. Or use the Edit button in the "Selected" section at the top.
The preview at the top of the editor stays pinned to the screen while you scroll, so every change you make is reflected immediately. Sections cover:
- Identity — Name, Category, Theme (Dark / Light / Translucent / Neon / Minimal / Classic), and corner Position.
- Date & Time — Six pre-built date formats plus a Custom pattern, 12/24-hour time, optional seconds and milliseconds, optional time zone abbreviation.
- Location — Toggle address, coordinates, altitude, accuracy, mini-map (Pro).
- Watermark — Text watermark and an optional logo image (Pro).
- Style — Font picker (compares typefaces in their own font), font size, opacity, padding, corner radius.
Date & time format
Pick from YYYY-MM-DD, MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, long form (May 4, 2026), short (5/4/26), or day-month (04 May 2026). Choose Custom to enter your own DateFormatter pattern (e.g. EEE d MMM → Mon 4 May).
Time appears separately — toggle 12/24-hour, seconds, and milliseconds. To force a specific time zone for every photo, use Settings → Time zone; otherwise the app uses the device's current zone.
Location & mini‑map
Each template controls four location pieces independently:
- Address — reverse-geocoded street, city, country.
- Coordinates — latitude/longitude in degrees with 5 decimal places.
- Altitude — meters above sea level (when available from GPS).
- Accuracy — horizontal radius (e.g. ±5 m).
The Live mini-map (Pro) renders a small MapKit snapshot of the exact spot, with a red pin at the photo's coordinates. It scales with the overlay size and bakes into both photos and videos. You can change the map style (Standard / Satellite / Hybrid) per template.
If the camera has no GPS fix yet (e.g. indoors or just opened), the app uses the most recent cached location. Empty location is rendered as blank lines — never as fake values.
Custom fonts
Settings → Custom Fonts (Pro) lets you import any .ttf, .otf, or .ttc file:
- Import from Files — pick fonts already in iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or any Files-app provider.
- Import via Wi-Fi — start a temporary HTTP server on your local network. Open the URL on your laptop, drag a font into the page, and it installs on the phone.
Imported fonts are immediately available in any template's Font picker (sorted "Built-in" → "Imported"). Each row in the picker is rendered in its own typeface so you can compare them visually.
Custom logo
In a template editor's Watermark section, tap Choose next to "Logo image" (Pro). Pick a logo from your photo library — PNG with transparency works best — and adjust its size with the slider. The logo is placed inline alongside the timestamp text and appears in both the live preview and saved files.
Smart templates
Settings → Smart Templates auto-picks a template based on time of day when you open the camera:
- 5 AM – 9 AM → Fitness Run
- 9 AM – 5 PM → Work Report
- 5 PM – 9 PM → Travel Journal
- Otherwise → Event Memory
Useful if your usage pattern follows a routine. Disabled by default.
Gallery
The Gallery tab shows every capture as a square thumbnail, newest first.
- Filter chips — All / Photos / Videos / Favorites / Located.
- Sort menu — Newest first / Oldest first.
- Search bar — searches address, note, and tags.
- Long-press a cell for Favorite or Delete.
- Tap a cell to open the Edit Overlay screen.
Edit overlay
Opening any saved photo or video lands you in Edit Overlay, with the live preview pinned at the top.
- Position picker — choose a different corner, or drag the overlay anywhere on the preview to free-position it.
- Theme, Show toggles, Style sliders — same controls as in the template editor, but applied per-photo.
- Custom note — overrides the template's note for this photo.
- Undo / Redo — buttons at the top of the controls; up to 30 steps.
Re‑render & save copy
Tap Re‑render & Save Copy to bake your new settings into a fresh file. The original capture is untouched; a new copy appears in the gallery with the new overlay.
Re-render needs the un-stamped original of the photo or video to avoid stacking overlays on top of each other. Make sure Settings → Capture → Save originals (no overlay) is on (it's on by default for new installs). Re-rendering an item with no original on disk will refuse with a banner explaining why.
The dragged position is converted from preview points to image pixels and baked into the new file, so it comes out at exactly the spot you positioned.
Batch process
Gallery → ⋯ → Batch process… (Pro). Pick a template and any number of photos from your iOS Photos library; the app reads each photo's EXIF date and GPS, applies the overlay, and saves a stamped copy back into the in-app gallery.
Useful for stamping vacation photos retroactively, or producing a consistent template across an existing library.
Capture
- Default mode — the mode the camera opens in.
- Photo quality — Standard (speed-prioritized JPEG), High (balanced JPEG), Max (HEIF where supported, quality-prioritized).
- Video quality — 720p / 1080p / 4K.
- Save originals (no overlay) — keeps the un-stamped original alongside each capture (required for re-rendering). On by default.
- Auto-save to Photos — also writes a copy into the iOS Photos library.
- Show grid / Show level — overlays for composition.
Privacy & EXIF
- Embed EXIF metadata — writes capture date, GPS, and software tag into the JPEG. Standard EXIF that any photo viewer can read.
- Hide GPS in EXIF — when on, location is still shown in the visible overlay but stripped from the file's EXIF. Useful for sharing photos without leaking precise coordinates.
Time zone
Default is Automatic — the device's current zone. To force every overlay to a specific zone (e.g. always render UTC for site logs), pick the zone name from the picker.
Appearance
Theme follows the system by default. Override to Light or Dark per-app. Haptics and Capture sound control the shutter feedback.
What's in Pro
- No Ads — banner ads on Gallery / Templates / Settings tabs disappear; capture interstitials don't fire.
- Batch process existing photos — apply a template across a library import.
- Live mini-map in the overlay — MapKit snapshot with pin, baked into photos and videos.
- Custom fonts — Files-app and Wi-Fi import for any .ttf/.otf/.ttc.
- Custom logo & branded watermarks — image-based watermark in the overlay.
Purchase & restore
Settings → Upgrade to Pro opens the paywall. Three tiers:
- Monthly — auto-renews each month.
- Yearly — best value, auto-renews each year.
- Lifetime — one-time purchase, never expires.
Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled in iOS Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. To restore a previous purchase on a new device or after reinstall, tap Restore Purchases on the paywall or in Settings.
Troubleshooting
The overlay isn't showing on my saved photo.
Make sure the eye toggle in the top bar is set to "show overlay". If the eye is crossed out, the overlay is muted in both the preview and the saved file.
Re-render produces two timestamps.
Re-render works only if an un-stamped original was saved at capture time. Open Settings → Capture and turn on Save originals (no overlay) before capturing. New installs have it on by default; older saves may not have an original file. The re-render will refuse with a banner in that case.
Address shows up empty.
Reverse geocoding needs internet access. If you're offline at the moment of capture, the latitude/longitude lines still bake but the address line will be blank. Tap Location in iOS Settings to confirm permission is granted.
The mini-map is blank.
Mini-map requires GPS and is a Pro feature. Confirm Location permission and that the template has Show mini-map enabled. The first capture in a new place takes ~1-2 seconds extra to render.
Front-camera photos look upside down.
Should be fixed in the latest version. If it persists, force-quit the app and reopen — the camera reconfigures rotation on relaunch. Send a sample to support if it happens consistently.
Capture feels slow.
Disable mini-map for faster captures (it's cached after the first render in a location). Lower video quality from 4K to 1080p. Heavy templates with logo + map + many text lines render slower.
Custom font shows the system font instead.
Re-import the font file. Some .otf files don't include a PostScript name in the way iOS expects; converting to .ttf usually fixes it. Make sure the template's Font picker shows your import as the active selection.
Privacy
TimeStamp Camera processes everything on-device. Photos and videos never leave your phone unless you explicitly share them. Reverse geocoding hits Apple's MapKit service, which doesn't track app users individually. Location data shown in the overlay is yours alone.
If you grant App Tracking Transparency, the AdMob ad SDK personalizes ads using your device's advertising identifier. Decline ATT and you'll still see ads, just non-personalized. Pro removes ads entirely.
Full text: Privacy Policy · Terms of Service.
Contact support
Email support@vidanimate.co with a description of what you tried, the device model, iOS version, and (if relevant) a screenshot of the issue. We typically reply within one business day.