This website unearths YouTube’s lost and forgotten iPhone clips

People loved uploading videos from their iPhone Camera Roll directly to YouTube. | Image: The Verge

The “IMG_0001” website features a frame with an old TV static effect and a floating retro Panasonic remote that you can click to start watching random YouTube videos from over a decade ago that were recorded and uploaded from devices such as 2010’s iPhone 4.

Riley Walz, a tech worker who helped stage a fake steakhouse restaurant in Manhattan last year, built the site. He credits this blog by Ben Wallace for the idea and says the iPhone is the reason the project is possible.

As described on the site, there was a novel (at the time) “Send to YouTube” feature on iPhones between 2009 and 2012 that let you upload recordings directly from your iPhone for anyone to see — which often aren’t accompanied by any text descriptions.