Map view

Map view shows you at a glance where your event’s photos were taken. It is a view mode inside the gallery – you do not switch to a separate page, you flip the gallery from the grid over to the map.

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Every photo that has a location appears exactly where it was taken. 1 map information, 2 a photo group — the number tells you how many shots sit there, and tapping it opens the preview at the bottom (the map does not zoom), 3 zoom in and out plus “Reset view”.

Only photos that stored location info (GPS) when they were taken end up on the map. That is why the map is often smaller than the full gallery – that’s normal (more on that below).

Who sees what

As a guest you see exactly the photos on the map that are released in your gallery – the active filters apply here too. Moderators and hosts additionally see pending or unpublished photos, depending on their active moderation tab. You reach the moderation and admin areas through the profile menu in the top right.

Opening the map

1. Open your event’s gallery.

2. In the gallery toolbar tap Map (icon: an open map) – not Filter.

   On a computer (wide window) the Map button sits visibly in the toolbar.

   

   On a computer the Map button sits directly in the toolbar – tap here, not Filter.

   On a phone or in narrow windows the bar is too short for it: there you find Map in the ⋮ overflow menu (three-dot icon to the right of the upload button).

   

   On a phone: tap ⋮ to the right of the upload button – Map sits between “Photo wall” and “Recycle bin”.

3. The gallery switches to map view. The same button is now labelled Grid – tap it again to return to the familiar grid.

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   Computer

   

   Back to the grid: on a computer Grid sits in the toolbar, on a phone in the ⋮ menu in the exact spot where Map was before.

Sharing as a link

Map mode lives in the address bar (/gallery?view=map). Share that link and it opens the map directly for the recipient. Active filters are kept – a filtered map link arrives filtered. Older links to /map are automatically redirected to the map inside the gallery.

No Map button visible?

The button only appears when all three conditions are met:

• At least one photo with a location has been uploaded. Without GPS photos there is nothing to show.
• The event plan includes the map feature.
• The host has not disabled it (default: on, under Settings → Features → GPS map view).

If the button is missing, one of these applies.

What you see on the map

Every photo with a location appears as a marker at the place it was taken. There are three kinds of markers:

• Photo marker – the photo itself as a small framed thumbnail with a pointer tip. This is the normal case.
• Pin marker – a classic location pin. Appears when no thumbnail is loaded (yet).
• Estimated position – a marker with a dashed border and an ≈ badge. It shows an approximate, not an exact position (see Approximate positions).

Clusters

When several photos sit close together, the map groups them into a cluster – recognisable by a thumbnail with a number in the corner (how many photos are there).

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Three clusters in Vienna: the highlighted one groups 7 photos. Tapping it opens the preview along the bottom edge – the map does not jump.

“Close together” is measured in screen pixels, not in metres: fully zoomed out, markers within roughly 120 pixels are grouped, at street zoom only 30 pixels. That is why clusters break apart as you zoom in – a single thumbnail reading “7” turns into seven individual photo markers.

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The same cluster, zoomed in far: instead of a number you see every photo individually at the place it was taken. The highlighted marker is one of these single photos.

Opening a photo

Unlike a classic map popup, tapping a marker does not open a bubble at the marker – it opens a preview panel along the bottom edge.

1. Tap a cluster or a single marker.

   • For a cluster the panel shows all photos in that cluster in chronological order. The header counts along how many are loaded (e.g. “12 / 40 photos”).
   • For a single photo marker the panel shows the photo plus its neighbours within about 30 metres – not just that one image. That way you don’t miss anything taken right next to it.

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   Computer

   

   Tapping the cluster opens the preview panel at the bottom. The header counts along: “3 / 3 photos” – the location icon on the left, the X to close on the right.

2. Scroll horizontally through the photos in the panel. More images load automatically as you scroll (placeholders appear briefly).

3. Tap a photo in the panel to open it in fullscreen. From there you can page on, like, comment or share as usual.

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   From the preview panel you go straight to fullscreen. ① the icon bar in the top right – on a computer with Like, Comments, Slideshow, the three-dot menu, Fullscreen and Close, on a phone only Slideshow, the menu and Close, ② Details reveals title, album and capture data, ③ the arrow to the next photo – on a phone you can swipe instead. Like and Comments sit next to Details at the bottom on a phone.

4. Close the panel with the X in the top right (Close preview).

Note

While the preview panel is open, the map hides the timeline at the bottom – it comes back as soon as you close the panel.

Zooming & panning

The map has its own gestures so that ordinary page scrolling doesn’t move or zoom it by accident.

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The three buttons in the top right: ① + zooms in, ② − zooms out, ③ Reset view to show all photos. The third icon looks like “fullscreen”, but it jumps back to the area covering all photos.

On a computer (mouse)

• Pan: hold the left mouse button and drag.
• Zoom: Ctrl + scroll wheel (Cmd + scroll wheel on a Mac).
• Scrolling without Ctrl over the map does nothing – the map doesn’t zoom and the page underneath doesn’t scroll away either. Instead the hint “Use Ctrl + scroll to zoom the map” appears for about two seconds.

Scrolling without Ctrl shows this hint in the centre of the map. It fades after about two seconds and then stays away for eight seconds, so it doesn't pop up on every scroll.

On a phone (touch)

• Panning and zooming take two fingers. Swiping across the map with one finger scrolls the page – and shows the hint “Use two fingers to move and zoom the map”.
• Zoom: pinch with two fingers.
• The + / − buttons work on a phone as well.

Swipe across the map with one finger and this hint appears. It only shows once the finger actually moves – an ordinary tap on a photo does not trigger it.

The hint won't nag twice

As soon as you use the gesture correctly once – Ctrl + scroll wheel on a computer, two fingers on a phone – the hint disappears immediately and won’t come back during that session.

Reset view

If you get lost, tap the third button in the top right (“Reset view to show all photos”). The map flies back to the area covering all photos.

Info card (i icon)

In the top left sits a small i icon (“Show map information”). Tap it to expand an info card. It shows:

• How many images are in the current view.
• If none are visible: “No photos in this area” with the hint “Move the map to see photos in other locations”.
• The permanent note “Only photos with location enabled are displayed”.

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The expanded info card: “23 images in view” with the permanent note below it. In this example the host has not enabled estimated positions – that's why the checkbox from the next section is missing here.

The counter is tied to the visible section: move the map and it recounts. Land in an area without photos and the heading changes.

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North of Vienna there isn't a single photo – the info card reports “No photos in this area” and suggests moving the map. That is not an error, just an empty section.

You collapse the card again with the X (“Close information”).

Showing approximate positions

Some devices or browsers (e.g. certain Android web uploads) strip the GPS data out of photos. If the host has enabled it, Photogala can derive an estimated location for such photos – for example from photos taken shortly before or after at the same place.

In the expanded info card you then find the checkbox Show approximate positions with a counter (≈ n).

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The checkbox sits below the permanent note; `(≈ 2)` says how many estimated photos there are. Here it is off – so the counter above only counts photos with an exact location.

Tick it to show the estimated photos. They appear with a dashed border and an ≈ badge, so you can tell them apart from exact GPS photos at a glance.

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Ticked: the counter jumps from 21 to 23 images and two markers with a dashed border and an ≈ badge appear. Untick it again if you only want to see exact GPS photos.

Note

The checkbox only appears if the host has enabled the feature and there actually are photos that can be estimated. If it’s missing, one of those isn’t the case. When you open the map it is usually off – so you have to switch estimated photos on yourself.

Playing the journey (timeline)

If your event has photos at several points in time, a timeline appears at the bottom – a small time bar that lets you replay the course of the event like a journey.

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The timeline along the bottom: ① the round Play journey button, ② the date labels – start on the left, current position in the middle (bold), end on the right. The axis and the segment dots sit in between.

1. Tap the round play button Play journey. The map plays the stations in discrete stops: each step reveals a whole station (all of its photos plus the leg leading there). The tour takes about 12 seconds in total, but every station stays for at least 1.4 seconds – with many stations the tour gets correspondingly longer.

2. The same button turns into Pause so you can stop at any time. Once you’ve reached the end, tapping again starts the journey over from the beginning.

3. Drag the slider through the journey manually (“Scrub through the journey”). Only photos up to the chosen point in time are shown. As soon as you drag, automatic playback stops.

4. Along the axis there are segment dots – each stands for the start of a station. Tap one to fly straight there; a tooltip shows the date and photo count (e.g. “Feb 27 · 8”).

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   The small dots on the axis are the stations. Their spacing reflects the real time gaps – a long break becomes a long gap.

5. The date labels show the start on the left, the current position in the middle (bold) and the end on the right. They only name day and month – so at a one-day event the same date appears three times.

6. While a time filter is active a circular arrow appears – Show all photos – which clears the time selection and shows all photos again.

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   The slider sits at a good third: only the first station is left on the map, and the middle date jumps to the chosen point in time. The highlighted circular arrow on the right brings all photos back – it only appears while a filter is active.

No timeline showing?

The timeline needs capture times. Photos without a stored capture date can’t be placed on the journey – they still appear as markers, but they don’t count towards the timeline or the route. If all photos share the same second, or the time is missing everywhere, the bar stays hidden. An open preview panel also hides it temporarily.

The travel route on the map

Between the chronological stations the map draws a dashed line with direction arrows per leg. The route only appears from two stations onward.

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The dashed route connects the wedding's three stations. The highlighted arrow in the middle of a leg shows the direction of travel.

A few subtleties:

• Short legs get no arrow. The measure is the distance on screen: if two stations are less than about 90 pixels apart, the line stays arrowless – zoom in and the arrow shows up.
• A path walked there and back appears as a plain line without an arrow.
• What counts as a separate station depends on the zoom. The radius grows with every zoom step outwards: around 250 metres at street zoom, 600 metres in the neighbourhood, 2 km in the town view, 8 km in the regional view and up to 400 km in the world view. Zoomed in, church and restaurant are separate stations; zoomed out they merge into “Vienna”.
• Time counts too: a break of more than five hours starts a new station, even if you stayed in the same place.

Example

At the wedding, photos were taken at the church, at the restaurant and later down by the lake. You tap Map in the gallery bar (on a phone in the ⋮ menu): over the restaurant sits a thumbnail with the number 40 — that many photos are grouped there. Tapping it opens the preview panel at the bottom, whose header reads “12 / 40 photos”; the rest load as you scroll horizontally. With Ctrl + scroll wheel you zoom into the church area and the group breaks apart into individual photo markers. Via the i icon in the top left you tick Show approximate positions: two more photos appear, recognisable by their dashed border and ≈ badge – those arrived without GPS, so the place is estimated. The third button in the top right takes you back to all photos, and Play journey travels the three stations in about 12 seconds.

When the map stays empty

Troubleshooting

• Map completely empty (“No photos with location data”): no photo with GPS enabled has been uploaded yet. In that case the Map button usually doesn’t appear at all.
• Photos exist but not in the view (“No photos in this area”): move the map, zoom out or use the Reset view button.
• Loading error (“Error loading map”): reload the page and check your internet connection.
• Individual photos missing from the map: GPS was off when they were taken, the device/browser stripped the data (then possibly visible via approximate positions), or the photo isn’t approved yet.

Related topics

• Fullscreen view (slideshow) – how to open and control photos from the preview panel.
• Upload photos and Take a photo – why some photos have a location and others don’t.
• Filtering and the gallery filters – filters apply to the map too.
• Albums – when albums and filters interact.

For hosts

Enable map view under Settings → Features → GPS map view; availability depends on the event plan. There you can also optionally allow approximate positions for photos without exact location data. You reach the admin and moderation areas through the profile menu in the top right.