An email first, explained

This one switch decides whether an upload's email is confirmed. On, every guest confirms an email before they're in. Off, a guest types a display name instead, and it rides on their photos wearing a small mark reading Unverified.

1. Dashboard
2. Your event
3. Settings
4. Who can get in
5. An email first

It's step 3 of the door, An email first, and the sentence on the Who can get in row says which way it's set: "after confirming an email" or "after typing a name", either one a word you can tap to change it right there.

On (the default)

A guest who opens the link meets the welcome: a door standing open on the album, with a few of its newest photos showing through. Continue brings up a sheet over the album, the newest 9 photos blurred behind it and a count of the rest. The sheet asks what to call them, then for the email: a 6-digit code (or a link) in one email, no password, no app. That confirmation is a free Partyreel account, which is also how every photo they add stays in their account, with the event it went into. There is no way to browse the preview without confirming; the preview is what the confirmation is for.

For you, that means every upload in the album carries a confirmed name, and the email behind it shows in your own view of the photo. It's on for every plan at no cost.

What you can see, and can't do

The uploader's email appears only to you, per photo, in the photo viewer on your event page. Guests never see it, and it isn't listed anywhere else: there's no guest email export and no way to message your guests through Partyreel. It's there so you know who sent what, not as a mailing list.

Off

Flip the switch off and Partyreel asks you to confirm with Stop asking for an email first?. It spells out the trade: guests will add photos under a name they type, with no confirmed email behind it; their names stay on every photo and carry a small mark reading Unverified, but nothing proves who typed them, so abuse is harder to trace. Keep asking for an email backs out; Use names only goes ahead, and it's saved at once. Turning it back on is instant and needs no confirmation.

Two gates keep it on while they're the way in: letting each person in, and your invite list. Both match a confirmed address, so the switch stays on under them and says why.

What the mark means, and what you see

Off, the door asks a name and offers an email as an optional extra, so a guest arrives at one of three levels:

• A name only. The photo carries the name and the Unverified mark. The mark is about the email, not the name: names are never checked for anybody, and only emails are ever confirmed.
• A name and an email they have not confirmed. The album looks exactly the same to you and to every guest, mark and all. You never see that address, it is never listed or exported, and Partyreel sends it nothing. It is there so that guest can claim their own photos later if they confirm it.
• A confirmed account. No mark, and the email shows to you in the photo viewer.

So the mark answers one question for you: has this person confirmed an email? Anything finer than that, including whether an address was typed at all, is the guest's own business until they confirm it.

A guest who types a name can confirm an email later and clear the mark; find your uploads, and the events you added to covers that side of it.

Which to choose

• On for almost everything: weddings, family events, anything with children in the photos, corporate events, and any event with a screen in the room.
• Off for a small, trusted crowd where the extra step would cost you photos, or an event where guests have explicitly asked not to give an email.

On, a guest who'd rather not confirm doesn't get in: the preview stays behind the sheet and only the confirmation opens it. Off, typing a name is all it takes to see everything and add right away. Guests' own side of it is in why an event asks for your email.