Is there a Deep Nostalgia API? What developers use instead (2026)
No: MyHeritage offers no public API for Deep Nostalgia or LiveMemory. Where the technology came from, D-ID's deprecated endpoint, and the APIs that animate old photos today.
AI & Technology Writer, Incarn
In short
No. MyHeritage® does not offer a public developer API for Deep Nostalgia® or for its newer LiveMemory feature: both live inside MyHeritage's website and apps. Deep Nostalgia launched in February 2021 with technology licensed from D-ID. D-ID's own API had a similar endpoint with a 'nostalgia' motion set, but its reference now marks that endpoint as deprecated. To animate old photos from code in 2026, developers use a general image-to-video API and build the pipeline themselves, or a vertical API such as Incarn's, one call per photo.
No, there is no public Deep Nostalgia API. MyHeritage® does not offer developers a way to call Deep Nostalgia® or LiveMemory from their own code. If you want old photos to move inside your app, you need another route. This page explains where the technology came from, what happened to the closest API, and what developers actually use in 2026.
Does MyHeritage offer an API for Deep Nostalgia or LiveMemory?
No. Both features are consumer products. They run inside the MyHeritage website and mobile apps, under MyHeritage's own plans, and neither is documented as a developer API.
MyHeritage has offered a developer API in the past, called Family Graph. It was about family tree data (people, relationships, events), not about photos or animation.
So a genealogy app, a memorial website or a printing service cannot "plug in" Deep Nostalgia. Any product that animates photos for its own users has to rely on a different provider.
Where does the Deep Nostalgia technology come from?
From D-ID, an Israeli company specialised in animated faces. MyHeritage announced Deep Nostalgia on 25 February 2021 and stated that the animation technology was licensed from D-ID. The feature went viral within days: a still portrait that blinks, smiles and turns its head.
MyHeritage later added LiveMemory, which turns a photo into a short video scene. According to MyHeritage, it launched in the mobile app in November 2024 and on the website in June 2025.
Can you get the same effect from D-ID's API?
Partly, and with a caveat. D-ID's public API has two families of endpoints:
- Talks: a photo that speaks. You send a face and a text or an audio file, and you get a talking-head video with lip-sync. This is D-ID's main product today, used for avatars and presenters.
- Animations ("Live Portrait"): a face that moves according to a preset "driver" video. D-ID's documentation lists several motion banks, including one called nostalgia, described as gentle and slow movements. This is the closest thing to the Deep Nostalgia® look that was ever exposed as an API.
The caveat: as of September 2026, D-ID's API reference marks the create-animation endpoint as deprecated. A deprecated endpoint can keep working for a while, but it is not something to build a new product on without confirming its future with D-ID first.
What do developers use instead?
Two families of solutions, and they don't solve the same problem.
General image-to-video APIs. Replicate, fal, Runway, Luma and Google Veo expose powerful video models that can animate any image. The catch is the work around the model: you write a motion prompt for each photo, you handle the queue and the polling, you force HD output, and you deal with the safety filters that often reject close-up portraits, especially sepia or black-and-white faces. Our comparison of the APIs to animate old photos goes through each of them.
A vertical API for old photos. Incarn exposes exactly the "old photo in, natural video out" case behind one endpoint. It validates the image, picks the model, retries on a backup model when a portrait is refused, and returns an HD video with no watermark.
curl -X POST https://api.incarn.co/v1/animations \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $INCARN_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"image_url":"https://your-app.com/great-grandmother.jpg","webhook_url":"https://your-app.com/incarn"}'
The response comes back at once with a job id and a processing status. The video arrives through GET /v1/animations/:id or a signed webhook, usually in under two minutes. The integration tutorial covers the whole flow in Node.js.
Deep Nostalgia and the alternatives, side by side
| Option | What it does | Developer API | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|
| MyHeritage® Deep Nostalgia® / LiveMemory | Animates photos inside MyHeritage | None public | MyHeritage plans |
| D-ID Talks | Talking photo, lip-sync from text or audio | Yes | Credits |
| D-ID Animations (Live Portrait) | Face moved by preset motions, incl. "nostalgia" | Yes, create endpoint marked deprecated | Credits |
| Replicate, fal, Runway, Luma, Veo | Any image to video, you build the pipeline | Yes | Usage-based |
| Incarn | Old photo to natural video, one call | Yes, REST and MCP | Prepaid, from €19/month excl. VAT |
Which one should you choose?
It depends on what you are building.
- A photo that talks (a narrator, an avatar reading a text): D-ID Talks.
- Full control over the model and the prompt, for a general video product: a general image-to-video API.
- Old family photos that come back to life inside your product, without maintaining a video pipeline: a vertical API. Incarn's plans are prepaid, with 25, 130 or 650 animations a month for €19, €69 or €249 excl. VAT, and the API returns a
402instead of billing you after the fact when credits run out.
You don't even need to write code to try it. The same service runs as an MCP server, so you can animate old photos from Claude and other MCP apps and look at real examples before paying for anything.
If you are a family rather than a developer, and simply looking for something like Deep Nostalgia®, our Deep Nostalgia alternatives and our LiveMemory review are the better starting points. To get an API key, everything starts on the developer page.
AI & Technology Writer, Incarn
Thomas covers AI and machine learning applications for creative tools. Former research engineer with a focus on computer vision and video generation.
Deep Nostalgia® and MyHeritage® are trademarks of MyHeritage Ltd. Incarn is not affiliated with MyHeritage. Comparisons (features, pricing) are provided for information only and reflect publicly available offerings at the time of publication; they are subject to change.