This switch decides when the album opens for a guest: right after they give a name or confirm an email, or only once they've added something themselves.
- Dashboard
- Your event
- Settings
- Who can get in
- A photo first
It's step 4 of the door, A photo first, the last thing a guest meets before the album.
Off (the default)
A guest who joins sees the full album as soon as they've given a name, or confirmed their email when an email first is on. There's no extra step: once they're past the door, everything you and your other guests have shared is right there.
On
Flip the switch on and Partyreel asks you to confirm with Ask for a photo before the album?. It spells out the trade: guests will see a preview of 9 photos and add one of their own before the album opens, and if uploads are closed or the album has hit its cap, it opens anyway rather than holding anyone at a step they can't finish. Leave it open backs out; Ask for a photo goes ahead, and it's saved at once. Turning it back off is instant and needs no confirmation.
While uploads are paused the switch rests, folded into one quiet line: nobody can add a photo then, so it asks for none, and it opens again when uploads do.
A guest reaches this step the same way they always would, by giving a name or confirming an email first; this switch only adds what happens next. Once they've added a single photo or video, they're in, and nothing you do to it afterward (hiding it, removing it) ever closes the album on them. Their own delete is different: if they remove their last upload, the album closes to them again until they add another, and the confirmation tells them so before they delete.
Which to choose
- On when you want every guest holding a phone to actually use it: a wedding or a big party where "I'll upload it later" usually means never.
- Off for a quieter event, or one where some guests are only there to look: grandparents at a birthday, a work event with a mix of contributors and spectators.
The Who can get in row in Settings says your combination in one sentence, such as "Anyone with the link, after confirming an email and adding a photo", and each of its underlined words changes that part in place.
This isn't a password
A photo first doesn't stop anyone with the link from joining, on or off; it only changes when they see everything. To limit who can get in at all, make the album Private and pick its gate: see who can see your event.