Use the live gallery at the party

What it does in the room

The wall shows contributions as they arrive, cycling through them without anyone touching it. A guest who watches their own photo come up on a screen tends to send a second one, and the people beside them ask what it is. That is the mechanism, and it does more for participation than any sign.

It is a display surface, not a control surface. Nothing you do on the wall changes the album.

1. Switch it on for the event. It is off by default, even on a plan that includes it.
2. Open it on the screen. The Live tab opens the wall. Any browser on any screen or projector will do.
3. Leave the code in the corner. It turns the screen into a second invitation for anyone who has not scanned.

Which plans include it

Celebrate and Grand. It is not available on the free tier or on Essential, and on the plans that do include it, it starts switched off — so a plan alone does not put anything on a screen.

Check that before the party rather than while somebody is holding an HDMI cable.

What you can set

The display style, whether the code stays in the corner, what caption sits under a picture, and how fast it moves. The defaults work for a party without adjustment; the ones worth a thought are the caption and the code, because both are decisions about what the room sees.

Changing any of them during the party is safe. The wall reads the setting and carries on.

Name and time as a caption only shows a name when the guest signed. Otherwise it shows the time alone.

The wall and the review queue

If your event reviews contributions first, nothing reaches the wall before you approve it. That pairing is the reason review-first exists: a screen in a public room is where an unwanted picture costs the most.

Without review, a contribution reaches the wall as soon as it is prepared. On a projector, that is a few seconds after the guest taps send.

The practical side

The wall runs in a browser, so it needs a device that stays awake and a connection that stays up. A laptop with sleep disabled is more reliable than a tablet, and a wired connection is more reliable than the venue Wi-Fi everyone else is also using.

Test it in the room before guests arrive, at the brightness the room will actually have.

Where to put the screen

Where people already stand still: behind a bar, beside the seating, near the entrance to the dance floor. A projector in an empty corner adds nothing, and a screen nobody faces is a screen nobody scans the code from.

If you only have 1 spot, put it where the queue forms. Waiting time is when people reach for their phones.