Watch how your work was made, like a video — introducing REFLO’s version player

If the features I’ve introduced so far were about stacking a record, protecting it, and keeping it light, today I want to talk about a feature for enjoying that stacked record in a completely different way: the version player.

In the app you enter it under names like Full preview, Auto-play, and Timeline full view. In this post I’ll call it the version player so it’s easier to read.

A moment almost everyone has had

You may have seen a timelapse on social media of a painter starting from a blank canvas and finishing a piece. Sketch, color, detail — scanning that process in a few seconds is strangely absorbing every time. It’s a different kind of feeling than looking only at the finished result.

And yet you’ve rarely seen that for your own work. No matter how much is stacked on the timeline, the way you check it is still click one moment, look, click another moment, look — over and over. The record is all there; there just wasn’t a way to see that record as one connected flow. When you wanted to scan “how I actually finished this piece,” there wasn’t a good way to do it.

That gap is why we built the version player

The records the timeline has stacked, the difference comparison modes point out between two moments. The features so far have all been focused on looking into a “specific moment” or comparing “two moments.” Then we realized there was no way to connect the in-betweens and show, as one flow, how it ran from the beginning to now.

Looking at records as loose pieces, one by one, and watching the flow those records make as they connect, are completely different experiences.

> Instead of looking at saved records one by one, could we watch them as if they were flowing?

That’s the question where the version player started.

What the version player is after

The goal is simple. Let you play the saves (versions) stacked on the timeline back-to-back, the way you watch a video. You don’t have to click moment by moment; with Auto-play you can watch the saved moments crossfade into the next.

On the History screen you can play while looking at file versions large in Full preview, or explore recent record flow full-screen with a slider and playback in Timeline full view.

If you want to watch oldest → newest like a timelapse, pick From oldest in the playback order. (When you open Full preview, the default is newest → oldest.)

What the version player looks like

1. The work process, played back with one play button

Saved versions play in order. From the first saved version (if the format can preview), the screen changes at each step and moves on to later records. If a blank canvas wasn’t saved on its own, it actually starts from the earliest save. If the format can’t make a preview, you may briefly see a gray placeholder.

You need two or more saves to use auto-play and export.

2. At the speed you want, for as long as you want

You can pick 0.5× · 1× · 2× · 4×. Space plays and pauses; ← → move to the previous or next version. There is no continuous rewind during playback; stop, pick the point you want with the previous button or the slider, then play again.

3. Not the whole thing — only the stretch you want

When you want a specific stretch rather than the whole piece of work, set the start with the full-screen slider or ← →, then turn on Auto-play. Milestones are useful as landmarks when you find that stretch, but there isn’t a dedicated “Play only milestone A–B” button yet.

Turn on Selected version only and you can also limit playback and the slider range to the one version you have selected now.

4. What was a record becomes a story you can show

A record that had only been stacking quietly becomes, through the version player, a story you can show someone. It’s useful when you want to show a client “what process this design went through to look like this,” or put the work process into a portfolio.

5. Export as MP4

You can save a silent MP4 in the same version order and speed as playback. Press Export MP4 from Full preview or the timeline full screen. ffmpeg needs to be installed on the Mac, and you need two or more versions. (There is a cap on how many versions you can export at once.)

What’s next

We’ll keep refining so that playback between different formats (PSD, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and so on) still feels seamless and natural. As we said in the cross-format support post, preview and playback can feel different by format, so we’re thinking about playback that fits each format.

Dedicated UX to play only between two milestone points, and expanding export quality and formats, are also on the list to follow.

Closing

The version player has a slightly different grain from the features I’ve introduced so far. It’s less a feature that keeps you safe or solves a problem, and more a feature that lets you enjoy the record you’ve been stacking. I wanted to make the moment when your quietly stacked work history comes alive again with one Auto-play.

Thank you for reading.