Recall — Quick start
Recall is a desktop app that turns your Overwatch post-match screenshots into a personal match history you can browse, filter, and chart. It runs locally — no account, no upload, no telemetry.
This guide gets you from zero to your first parsed match in about five minutes on Windows.
1. Download Recall
Grab recall-{version}-windows-amd64-installer.exe from the
GitHub Releases page.
Pick the newest version at the top.
2. Run the installer
Double-click the .exe you downloaded:
- Accept the license (Apache 2.0).
- Click Install and let it finish.
- The first time you launch it, Windows SmartScreen will say "Windows protected your PC." That's expected — the app isn't signed with the expensive corporate-grade certificate SmartScreen expects. Click More info → Run anyway. You'll only need to approve it once per version.
Detailed Windows-specific steps (verifying the download, server binary, data paths) are in the full Windows install guide.
3. Install Tesseract OCR
Recall uses Tesseract, a free open-source OCR engine, to read your screenshots.
Download the Windows 5.x installer from UB-Mannheim's page:
tesseract-ocr-w64-setup-5.x.x.exe— look for the newest 5.x in the list.
Run it with the default options. The default install path is
C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe, which Recall
auto-detects on first launch.
Use Tesseract 5.x, not 3.x or 4.x. Older versions misread the Overwatch post-match font. Recall warns you if it detects an unsupported version.
4. Point Recall at your Overwatch screenshots
Launch Recall. On first run it tries to auto-detect your Overwatch screenshots folder. If the Detect button finds it, you're done with setup.
Otherwise, set it manually:
- Go to Settings → Directories → Screenshots Folder.
- Click Change Folder….
- Pick
Documents\Overwatch\ScreenShots\Overwatch\(typicallyC:\Users\<you>\Documents\Overwatch\ScreenShots\Overwatch\).
5. Capture matches in Overwatch
Press F12 at the end of every match — once on each of these post-match screens:
| Screen | Required? | What it provides |
|---|---|---|
| SUMMARY | ✅ Yes | Map, result, score, heroes played |
| TEAMS scoreboard | ✅ Yes | Your eliminations / assists / deaths / damage / healing / mitigation |
| PERSONAL | ✅ Yes (one per hero you played) | Detailed hero-specific stats |
| RANK | ⭕ Optional (competitive only) | SR change + rank tier |
Overwatch's default screenshot key is F12, but you can rebind it in Options → Controls → General → Take Screenshot.
6. Parse the screenshots
Back in Recall:
- Watch Folder (recommended): flip on Parse → Watch Folder. Recall auto-runs the parser ~60 seconds after the last new screenshot lands. Set it once and forget it.
- Manual: click Parse → Run Parse to scan the folder on-demand. The button shows a count of new screenshots (e.g. Run Parse · 5).
Parsed matches show up on the Matches tab. Click a card to expand for damage / healing / per-hero stats.
That's it. You're using Recall.
What to read next
- How it works — the parse pipeline + what each screenshot type contributes.
- Settings reference — every Recall setting explained, with screenshots.
- Filtering and grouping — slice your match history by hero, map, role, date, etc.
- Unknown screenshots — what to do when a screenshot didn't match a known map.
Getting help
- Bug reports and feature requests — issue templates for both, plus how to attach a screenshot that misparsed.