Private albums with a PIN: share the photos without the event
Until now, using Gooya meant running an event. You created it, printed a QR code, put it on the tables, and guests added photos, videos and voice notes from their phone browsers.
That works well on the night. It does not help at all with the far more common situation: you already have the photos, and you need to get them to people.
So we added private albums
An album is not an event. There is no QR code, no table card, no date. You make an album, you put things in it, and you share it with a link and a four-digit PIN. Whoever has both can open it in a browser, look, comment and leave a heart. They do not install anything.
Who this is for, in the order we hear it asked for
- Family after the night. The wedding is over, you have the album, and now there is an aunt who was not there, a cousin who left early, and a grandmother who would like to see it on a big screen without being asked to sign up for anything.
- A trip. Four people came back with four camera rolls. One person collects them into an album and sends it round, and it stays in one place instead of scattering across three group chats.
- A memorial gathering. This one came up more than we expected. People want to collect the photos, and they want it kept out of public view. A link and a PIN, with no account for the people receiving it, is about the gentlest way we know to do that.
- A planner's client. The planner assembles the album, hands over the link and the PIN, and the couple shares it onward however they like. The planner does not have to stay in the middle of it.
Why the link and the PIN travel separately
The link and the PIN travel separately, and that is deliberate. A link on its own is a password. Anyone who is forwarded it, or who finds it in a screenshot of a group chat, is inside. Splitting the album into something you send and something you say means a forwarded link alone opens nothing. Send the link in the family chat and read the PIN out at dinner, or text the link and put the PIN in a separate message. It is a small friction, and it is the whole point.
What a viewer can do
Once someone is in, they can do two things beyond looking. They can comment, and they can leave a heart. We kept it to that on purpose. An album is not a feed, and it does not need reactions, threads or a scoreboard. A short line under a photo from the person who took it, and a heart from the person it is of, is usually all anyone wants to say.
If a viewer does have the Gooya app, albums shared with them appear under "Shared with you". That is the only thing the app adds here: a place where the albums other people sent you sit together, so you are not searching your messages for a link from March. Everything an album can do works in the browser, without the app, for everyone.
One honest comparison
One honest comparison, since it is the first thing people ask. iCloud Shared Albums and Google Photos shared albums are good, and if everyone you are sending to is on the same platform and already signed in, they may be the simplest thing you can do. Two differences are worth knowing. First, your guests need nothing: no app, no account, no platform in common, just a browser. Second, the PIN is yours to give.
What we have not solved
What we have not solved yet is honesty about the boundary. A PIN protects an album from a forwarded link; it does not protect it from the person you gave the PIN to. If something in an album should not travel further, say so to the people you send it to. Software cannot do that part for you.
Three words, so the product stays clear
- Events are live. You run one on the day, guests scan a QR code, and everything they add lands in one place.
- Albums are quiet. You make one whenever you like, put things in it, and share it with a link and a PIN.
- "Shared with you" is where albums other people sent you collect, if you use the app.