How an event album works
One shared album for a party, a trip or a surprise. Guests add photos from their phones, and nobody sees a single one until it opens at the time you choose.
4 minutes to read
An event album gathers the photos of one occasion in one place. You create the event and choose when its album opens. Guests scan a code with their phone and add photos, short videos and, if you want them, a few words: written, recorded, or left by phone from any phone. Until the moment you chose, nobody sees anything that was added: not the guests, and not you. Then the album opens for everyone at once.
In three steps
You create it
Open Events in the menu and press New event, or choose Event album at the top of the composer. Give the event a name, choose when the album opens and pick its size. Create and set up an event goes through every setting.
Guests add photos
Print the poster with its code, or send the link. Guests open it in the browser of their phone, with no app and no account, and take photos, pick them from their phone or record a short video. When the event takes messages, they can also leave a message by phone, from any phone, a landline too. Invite guests and add photos shows what a guest sees.
It opens for everyone
At the time you chose, the album opens on the same link for you and every guest. Everyone can look through it, play a slideshow and save the photos. When the album opens describes that moment.
A shared album or a surprise
When you create an event, What is it? offers two kinds. You can change the kind later, until the person a surprise is for has been told.
- Shared album
- Everyone adds, and everyone sees the album when it opens. For a wedding, a birthday, a trip or a company party.
- A surprise for someone
- Everyone adds in secret for one person, who gets the album when it opens. FuturePostman can tell them by email, or you show it to them yourself.
Who sees what, and when
| Who | Before the album opens | Once it is open |
|---|---|---|
| You, the host | How many photos, videos, guests and messages have come in. Not a single photo. | The whole album. You can take out a photo, a video or a message. |
| A guest | What they add during this visit, shown from their own phone, and how many are in the album so far. What they added on an earlier visit shows as a sealed frame. Nothing of anyone else. | The whole album, on the same link. |
| The person a surprise is for | Nothing, unless someone gives them the link. | The whole album, by the email FuturePostman sends if you chose that, or by the link you give them. |
What guests need
- A phone with a camera and a browser. There is nothing to install and no account to make.
- For a message by phone, any phone at all, unless only invited people can add. Call me on the guest page has us call the number a guest types, and the poster carries a number and the event code to dial. See Leave a message by phone.
- The link, or the code on the poster that leads to it. Whoever has the link can add to the album and can look at it once it is open, so think twice before you post it publicly. To let only the people you ask by email add, switch on Only invited people can add.
- Nothing else. A name and an email address are optional: the name is shown next to what the guest added, and the address is only used to tell them when the album opens, and again when messages that open later can be read.
What it costs
An album of up to 20 photos and videos is free. A larger album is one payment for the event: $19 for Party, $49 for Big event and $119 for Wedding. The Wedding album is the Big event album with one copy of the printed book included, the guestbook by phone, the table stickers and messages that can open on the first anniversary. There is no subscription, and it is not paid with credits. Album sizes and prices compares the four sizes.
How long the album stays
An opened album stays open for a number of days that depends on its size, and is then deleted with everything in it. You get an email 7 days before that day, so you can save what you want to keep. How long an album is kept has the details.
The printed book
Once a Party, Big event or Wedding album has opened, you can order a printed book of it from the album's page on the site. It is a square 8.5 inch (21.6 cm) hardcover in colour, with the photos in order, oldest first. The Wedding album includes one copy: extra copies, pages beyond the included count and faster shipping are paid.
The guestbook can be in it too. Written messages are printed with the guest's name, and every spoken message gets a small code next to it that a phone scans to play the message. The codes keep working after the album has closed.
You choose the cover photo, can leave photos out and see a preview of every page before you pay. You pay once per order, together with the address it goes to, and more copies cost less per copy. The price is shown on the album's page.
Read next
- Create and set up an eventEvery setting of a new event: its kind, name and opening time, a surprise for one person, messages from the guests, the size of the album and the people you ask by email.
- Invite guests and add photosShare the code and the link of an event, ask people by email, put a live screen on the TV, and see what guests can add from their phones and what they see.
- When the album opensWhat you and your guests see when an event album opens: the cover, the photo wall, the slideshow, saving and downloading, the messages, and the emails that say it is open.
- Album sizes and pricesThe four sizes of an event album side by side: how many photos and videos each holds, how long a video can be, how far ahead it can open, how long it stays and what it costs.