How does the album PIN work?
The PIN is 4 digits that the host sends you separately from the link. Open the link, type your name and the PIN, and the album opens on that device and stays open for a month.
The link on its own shows only the album's cover. The PIN is the part that opens it, which is why it arrives in its own message.
The detail
- The link and the PIN are two halves on purpose. A link alone is a password: anyone it is forwarded to is inside. Kept apart, a forwarded link or a screenshot of a chat opens nothing.
- Once a device has entered the right PIN it is remembered for a month, so nobody types it again every visit. A second phone or a laptop is a second device and enters it once too.
- There is a ceiling on devices. A free private album takes the PIN on 3 devices; on the Album plan it is 50. It is a ceiling on purpose, so a PIN passed around cannot quietly turn an album into a public page.
- The host can set a new PIN at any time. Every device that got in with the old one is signed out at once.
- Guessing is stopped two ways. After 10 wrong tries the door closes for 15 minutes, and the PIN itself is stored as a slow password hash, never as digits anyone could read.
What the PIN does not do
It protects the album from a forwarded link, not from the person you gave the PIN to. Anyone who holds both can show the album to whoever is next to them. If something inside should not travel further, tell the people you send it to.
It does not by itself let anyone add. A PIN holder looks, comments and leaves a heart. On an event's album the host can turn on a switch that lets PIN holders add photos too, as part of a paid event.
What a viewer does
One screen, in any browser, nothing installed.
Step 1
Open the link
It shows the album's cover, the host's name, and a short form.
Step 2
Type a name and the PIN
Your name is so the host knows who left a comment. The PIN is the 4 digits from the host's other message.
Step 3
You are in
The album opens. Come back on the same device for a month without typing the PIN again.
Questions people ask next
I have the link but no PIN. What do I do?
Ask the host. The PIN is shown on their share screen and is never inside the link.
The PIN stopped working. Why?
The host set a new one, or sharing was switched off. Either change signs out every device at once. Ask the host for the current PIN.
Does the PIN expire?
The PIN itself does not. A device's session lasts a month, and a free private album is kept for 7 days from the day it was made, after which there is nothing to open.
Can I open the album on a television or a laptop?
Yes. Open the link in that browser and enter the PIN there. It counts as one more device.