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Photo privacy

Who can see your album, who can add to it, and the three layers — approval, automated screening, and reporting — that protect it.

Last reviewed 4 min read

On this page7 sections
  1. Who can see the album
  2. Who can add photos
  3. Three layers on every guest photo
  4. What's shown with a photo
  5. Removing photos and closing the album
  6. Common questions
  7. Related articles

Party photos are personal, so the album gives you two separate dials — who can see it and who can add to it — plus three layers of protection on everything that comes in. You're asked both during album setup — who can add in step 2, who can see in step 3 — and both live in the album's Set up section under Album settings, where you can change them at any time.

Who can see the album

  • Only our guests (the default) — the album is visible to you, your co-hosts, and guests who said yes. A guest opening the album signs in with the email they RSVP'd with (or the email on their attending guest-list entry), and the memories are theirs; anyone else sees a polite "This album is private" note instead of photos.
  • Anyone with the link — the album is open to whoever has the address, sign-in free. Choose this when you want effortless sharing with the wider family.

The setting protects the actual photo files, not just the album page. On an Only our guests album, a photo's direct link opens only for you, your co-hosts, and invited guests who are signed in — a stranger handed the link just gets a "not found". Switch to Anyone with the link and the photos become openly shareable, the same as the album itself.

Who can add photos

  • Any guest with the link (the default) — guests scan the QR sign and upload with no account, which is what makes the sign work for everyone at the table. You still approve every photo.
  • Invited guests only — uploading requires signing in with an email that's on your guest list. Use this for events where the link might travel further than the guest list.

These two dials are independent: a common setup is viewing set to Only our guests with uploads left open, so contributing stays effortless while viewing stays private.

Three layers on every guest photo

  1. Your approval. No guest photo is visible to anyone until you or a co-host approves it — the queue is covered in Managing and downloading photos.
  2. Automated screening. Every upload also passes through an automated image check; anything it flags is held out of the album for your review, even if it had just been approved.
  3. Guest reporting. Viewers can report a photo right from the album's full-size view — "Why are you reporting this?" — and the report goes to review, so a problem photo is caught even after approval.

On the upload page itself, guests see a clear notice that they should only share photos they took or have permission to share, including from anyone pictured.

What's shown with a photo

Approved photos display the sharer's name (whatever they typed, like Grandma Sue), their optional note as the caption, the date, and like counts from the day-of photo wall. Guests' email addresses and other contact details are never shown in the album.

Removing photos and closing the album

  • Remove any photo anytime from the Your photos step — it leaves the album immediately.
  • Reject anything in the review queue and it's removed for good — it never appears, and there's no undo.
  • Turn off the photo album in Album settings to take the whole wall down while keeping the photos saved for you. Guests can no longer see it or add to it, and you can still look through, review, and download your photos.
  • After the hosting window and its 90-day grace period end without renewal, photos are permanently deleted from our servers — the timeline is in Album hosting and renewal.

Common questions

Is the album private by default? Yes. New albums start as Only our guests; you choose during setup and can switch anytime.

A guest can't open the private album — what do I tell them? Have them sign in with the email their yes RSVP used. If they replied under a different address, make sure their guest entry carries that email and shows them as attending — or switch the album to Anyone with the link.

Can guests see photos I haven't approved? No. Waiting and rejected photos are invisible to guests everywhere — the album page and the photo files themselves.

Can guests download photos from the album? The album is a viewing page; the full-quality ZIP download is a host tool. Guests can, as with any web page, save individual images they can see — so the visibility dial is the real control.

Someone uploaded an inappropriate photo — what do I do? If it's still in the queue, reject it (that removes it for good). If you'd approved it, remove it from the Your photos step. Guests can also flag it via the report link, which brings it to review.

Do photo reports identify the reporter to other guests? No. Reports go to review with an optional contact email; nothing about the reporter is shown publicly.

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