How to choose a photo sharing app for your event: 10 questions to ask

Search for a way to collect guests' photos and you will find a long list of services that promise the same thing: guests scan a QR code, the photos land in one album. The differences only show up on the night, or a month later when you try to get the photos out. Ask these ten questions first, whichever service you end up using.

1. Do guests really need nothing installed?

“No app” should mean a guest points their phone camera at the code and is taking photos within seconds, on iPhone and Android, without making an account. Test it yourself on the oldest phone you can find. Every extra step, a download, a password, an email confirmation, loses guests, and the older ones go first.

2. Can you check photos before they go on a screen?

If photos will be shown to the room, you want the option to approve each one first, from your phone, during the event. For anything involving children, a school or a workplace, treat this as essential rather than nice to have.

3. Does it cope with bad signal?

Venues are often in basements, barns and paddocks. Ask what happens when a guest takes a photo with one bar of signal: does it fail with an error, or wait on the phone and send itself later? The second is the difference between losing the speeches and keeping them.

4. Photos only, or video too?

The best moments at most events are speeches, first dances and surprises, and they are videos. Check that guests can share video, and how long a clip can be.

5. Is there a live photo wall, and what does it need?

A screen showing photos as they arrive is the thing that gets everyone else sharing. Ask what it runs on. A wall that works in any web browser means a smart TV, a laptop on a projector or a venue's existing screen will do. See how to run a photo wall without a TV.

6. Who can see the album, and can a forwarded link be misused?

Album links get forwarded to whole families and group chats. The safest setup keeps viewing and uploading separate: the album link can only view and download, and uploading only happens through the event's own QR code.

7. Are photos scanned for faces?

Some services run facial recognition so guests can find photos of themselves. Useful for some events, unwelcome at others, and a real concern for schools. Ask directly, and get a straight yes or no.

8. How long are the photos kept, and how do you get them out?

Find out when the album is deleted, and whether you can download everything in one go at full quality, not one photo at a time. A backup straight to your own cloud storage is even better.

9. Can people who are not there watch?

Grandparents overseas, a colleague at home, a friend in hospital: a live wall that works as a web link lets them watch the event happen. See sharing an event live with family who can't be there.

10. Will a real person help if something goes wrong?

On the night you will not have time to read a help centre. Ask who answers if the code does not scan an hour before the ceremony, and how.

GuestCam's answers, for comparison: no app or account for guests, approval before anything is shown (always on for schools), photos wait on the phone when signal drops, photos and videos, a live wall in any web browser, a view-only album link separate from the upload QR code, no facial recognition unless the host switches on finding people by face (it runs on GuestCam's own server, and never for schools), a ZIP download and Google Drive backup, deletion one month after the event, and you deal directly with the person who built it. See how GuestCam works.