Invite guests and add photos
Share 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.
9 minutes to read
Everything you need to bring guests in is on the page of the event: open Events in the menu and press Manage on the event. The card Invite your guests holds the code and the link.
Share the code and the link
- Print the poster
- Prints one page with the name of the event, the code, Scan to add your photos and the day the album opens. When the event takes messages and anyone can add, it also carries No smartphone? Call with our number and the event code, for guests who would rather leave a message by phone. Put it on the tables or by the door.
- By phone
- When the event takes messages and anyone can add, the card shows the number and the event code guests dial to leave a message by phone. See Leave a message by phone.
- Copy link
- Copies the link the code leads to, for a message or a group chat. Whoever has it can add, and can look at the album once it is open.
- Open the guest page
- Opens the page your guests see. You can add photos there yourself, unless only invited people can add.
- Show on a screen
- Opens the live screen in a new tab, for a TV or a projector. See The live screen.
Ask people by email
Under People you asked, press Ask more people, type or paste the addresses and press Send invitations. Each person gets an email with a link of their own, and what they add carries their name. Until they give a name themselves, it is read from the email address, when the address reads like a name. You can ask up to 300 people for one event.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not sent yet | The email is still on its way out, or it could not be sent. If it stays like this, press Send again. |
| Not opened yet | The email went out, and the person has not opened their link yet. |
| Opened their link | The person has been on the page with their own link. |
Next to each person the list shows how much they added. Copy their link gives you the personal link to send another way. Remove stops that link from working, and what the person added stays in the album. Guests who came by the shared link instead are counted below the list.
The live screen
Show on a screen opens a page made for a TV or a projector at the party. It needs no sign-in, so you can open its address on any computer. Press Full screen, or the F key, and the browser fills the screen. The page asks the device to keep the screen on, where the browser allows that.
- While the album is sealed, the screen shows the code with Scan to add your photos, how many photos, videos, guests and sealed messages have come in, a line each time someone adds something, and the time left until the album opens.
- At the opening moment it counts down, and then plays the photos of the album one after the other, with a code to see the album on a phone.
- For a surprise, it shows who it is for and how many people are in on it. When the album opens, a show plays: the name, the names of everyone who added something, the photos with the messages between them, and at the end a wall of all the photos.
What a guest does
Scan the code
With the camera of the phone. The page opens in the browser with the name of the event and when the album opens.
Add photos and videos
Take a photo opens the camera, Add from your phone picks several photos and videos at once, and Record a video films one. The page says how long a video may be.
Keep the page open
The page shows each photo as it goes in, and says Keep this page open until everything is sent. When it says Everything is sent. You can close this page now., everything has arrived.
Leave a name, if you like
After the first photo or message, Want to know when it opens? asks for Your name and Your email, both optional. The name is shown next to what you added. With Tell me when it opens you get an email when the album opens, and a second one when messages open later.
A guest sees what they add during this visit, from their own phone, and how many photos and videos are in the album so far. When they come back on the same phone and browser, what they added before shows as sealed frames: nothing comes back from FuturePostman before the album opens.
Messages for later
When the host offers messages, the page has Say something. A guest can Write a message of up to 600 characters or Record a voice message of up to 30 seconds, and sends it with Seal it. One phone can leave 3 messages. A sealed message cannot be read again, not even by the guest who wrote it, until the messages open.
Messages are taken until they open. With Open a year later, guests can still leave one after the photos have opened, from the album page.
Leave a message by phone
A message can also be spoken on the phone, from any phone, a landline too. It suits guests who would rather talk, guests without a smartphone, and a grandparent far away who should have their say. There are three ways in.
- Call me
- Under A few words for later, the part Or leave it by phone has a box for a number. Type it with its country code, your own number or someone else's, and press Call me. We call that number straight away: pick up and speak after the tone.
- The link that dials
- Below it, the page shows Or call with our number and the event code. On a phone, pressing it dials the number and keys the code by itself.
- The number on the poster
- The poster and the host's card carry the number and the event code. Anyone can dial the number from any phone, key the code and press the pound key (#).
When we call, the call says Hello. This is FuturePostman, calling for the album of and the name of the event. When a guest dials in, the call asks for the event code and names the event once the code is right. Then it says Say your name, then your message, after the tone. Press any key when you are done. The name goes into the recording, so the hosts hear who is speaking when the message opens.
A message by phone can be up to 2 minutes long. Pressing any key ends it, and so does 8 seconds of silence. The call then says thank you, tells the guest the message is sealed, and says goodbye.
- A message by phone counts like a written or recorded one. With Call me it counts for the guest page that asked for the call. When someone dials in, the phone number is the guest, so one phone can leave 3 messages.
- Call me calls at most 2 times a day for one guest page, and at most 2 times a day to one number.
- A wrong code can be keyed again. After 3 wrong codes the call says goodbye: check the code on the poster and call again.
- The hosts see only the last digits of the number, to tell callers apart. Nobody else sees it.
- A caller whose number is withheld can still leave a message.
- The event code works only while the album takes messages. Once the messages open it stops working, and it is not given to another event straight away. Nothing about calling in shows when the event takes no messages, or once the messages have opened.
An album with Only invited people can add has no phone line. A message by phone comes from anyone who has the code, so such an album gives no event code, the guest page offers no Call me, and the poster and the host's card show no number. The people you invited leave their messages written or recorded, on their own page.
What one phone can add
| Limit | How much |
|---|---|
| Photos and videos from one phone | 50 |
| The largest photo | 40 MB. The album keeps it at a smaller size, as a JPEG. |
| The largest video | 100 MB, as MP4 or MOV |
| The longest video | 10 seconds on Try it, 30 seconds on Party, 60 seconds on Big event, 60 seconds on Wedding |
| The longest message by phone | 2 minutes |
| Phones in one album | 3,000 |
If something does not go in
| The page says | What it means |
|---|---|
| This file is too large. | The photo is larger than 40 MB, or the video larger than 100 MB. |
| This video is too long. | The video is longer than the album allows. The message names the longest length. |
| You have added as many as one guest can. | This phone has added 50 photos and videos. |
| This album is full. Nothing more can be added. | The album has reached its limit. The host can move it to a larger size, see When an album is full. |
| That was a lot at once. Wait a few minutes and try again. | Many uploads in a short time. Wait, then press Try again. |
| No connection. It is sent as soon as you try again. | The phone lost its connection. Press Try again once it is back. |
| That number cannot be called. Check the country code. | Call me cannot reach the number as typed. Type it again with its country code, such as +44 for the UK. |
| That phone has been called enough for today. | Call me has called for this guest page, or to this number, as often as it does in a day. Try again later, or dial the number on the poster. |
| This album is by invitation. Ask the person who made it for your own link. | Only invited people can add. The shared link shows the album once it opens. |
| This album is closed | The link is wrong, or the album has reached its last day and is being deleted. |
Read next
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.