Microsoft has officially retired Photosynth, after previously warning users in November to back up their data to prevent loss.
Photosynth was a service that dealt with creating panoramic images and storing them online, and it was the company's go-to destination after the mobile app was discontinued in 2015. The website provided the exact same functionality, and Microsoft encouraged a switch to the service in an effort to retain users, despite its decision to discontinue the smartphone apps.
Photosynth, however, quickly became an outdated product, and Microsoft decided to retire it, most likely due to declining user numbers. Parts of Photosynth have also been integrated into other Microsoft products, and Redmond says the service has also inspired a number of other photo services over the past nine years.
Users who didn't recover their panoramic photos from Photosynth before the shutdown can no longer do so, and Microsoft swears that a copy isn't saved because "these were yours and we had a license while the service was running." In other words, everything is gone now, so if you didn't save your files before the shutdown, there's no way to get them back.
Photosynth was launched in August 2008 by Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Michigan, who conceived the program with a Photo Tourism, research focused on analyzing photos and stitching them together to create the panoramas you imagine.
The service had been gradually improved with new features, including support for gigapixel panoramas, which was added by Microsoft in March 2010. However, the number of users has begun to decline in recent years with Microsoft transferring parts of the service to other products, it does not make much sense for the company to continue the service.
