Live photo wall

The live photo wall automatically shows an event’s newest photos on a big screen – ideal for a TV or projector next to the dance floor or at the entrance. New uploads appear in real time, and a QR code invites everyone to join in.

New photos appear live on the wall – with a QR code to join in. The ring marks the QR card: guests scan it and upload straight away – you can also hide it in the photo wall settings. On a computer the wall is keyboard-driven: → / ↓ / Page Down move on, ← / ↑ / Page Up go back, Space (or K) pauses, F switches to full screen, M turns video sound on and off.

A display, not a control panel

The photo wall is a presentation screen, not a control surface. It runs on its own and deliberately has almost no buttons. While it is open, the app also shows no notifications – so it can run unattended on a TV without toasts popping into the picture. You join in through the QR code or the normal gallery.

Who is this page for?

• Guests watch the wall on the big screen and add new photos through the QR code / upload.
• Hosts and moderators start the wall, put it fullscreen on a TV or projector, and configure it in the settings. Moderation and admin areas are reached not on the photo wall itself, but through the profile menu at the top right of the gallery.

Phone

Computer

Hosts and moderators reach moderation and the admin portal through the profile menu at the top right. ① your points and solved tasks, ② Profile options with My Profile, Language, Theme and Help, ③ Management with Account Settings, Moderation and Admin Portal – this section is missing until you hold a role for it, ④ Account with Sign out.

Is the photo wall available?

For the Photowall button to appear in the gallery at all, two conditions must be met:

1. Event plan: The photo wall must be included in the booked plan. If it isn’t, the /photowall page shows the notice Photo Wall Not Available instead of the wall.
2. Feature toggle: The host has to keep the feature enabled (on by default). Since the admin rework the Offer the photo wall switch lives in the Settings → Photo Wall Settings tab, right above the wall’s own options – no longer under “Features → Gallery Views”. Its description says what it does: “Shows the photo wall button in the gallery and makes the wall reachable through its link.”

For hosts: where is it enabled?

Open the admin portal through the profile menu, then go to Settings → Photo Wall Settings and turn on Offer the photo wall. Switching it on and fine-tuning it now sit in the same place. Details in Set up the photo wall.

Opening the photo wall – every way

There are four ways to open the wall. Which one fits depends mostly on your device’s window width.

The Photowall button needs more room than the Map button

Not every button in the gallery toolbar has the same threshold. The Map button becomes its own button from 720 pixels of window width, the Photowall button only from 960 pixels. In between lies exactly the zone many landscape tablets land in: there you already see Map as its own button, while Photowall still sits in the ⋮ more menu.

That’s why “phone or tablet” is too coarse a rule of thumb – what counts is the window width, not the device type. A narrowed browser window on a computer behaves the same way.

Way A – From the gallery bar (from 960 pixels wide)

The fastest way on a laptop or computer connected to a TV or projector.

1. Open the event’s gallery.

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The gallery toolbar on a computer – this is where the Photowall button lives as its own button.

2. In the top toolbar, click Photowall (sparkles icon).

   

   The Photowall button in the gallery bar opens the live wall.

3. The wall opens at the /photowall address and immediately starts showing photos.

Way B – From the ⋮ menu (below 960 pixels wide)

With a narrower window there is no dedicated photo wall button in the bar – it lives in the ⋮ more menu of the gallery. That applies to a phone just as much as to a landscape tablet or a half-width browser window.

1. Open the gallery. In the toolbar – the row with Filter and Upload – tap the ⋮ icon (three dots) on the far right.

2. Choose the Photowall entry (sparkles icon) from the menu. It sits directly below Select Photos; depending on the width, Map follows underneath.

   

   On a phone you open the wall from the gallery bar's ⋮ menu.

3. The wall opens. On a phone it’s mainly for watching – for the big moment use a device connected to a TV or projector.

Note

Because the Photowall entry in the ⋮ menu has no width threshold of its own, it is available there across the entire range below 960 pixels. The photo wall never shows up twice: exactly where the dedicated button appears, the whole ⋮ menu disappears.

Way C – From a fullscreen photo

If you’re already viewing a photo large, you can switch straight to the wall from there.

1. Open a photo in the fullscreen view (tap/click it).

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The fullscreen view has the play button for slideshow and photo wall. 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.

2. Tap the play button (circle). Instead of starting right away, a small menu opens with Start Slideshow and Live Photo Wall.

3. Choose Live Photo Wall – the photo wall opens.

Note

This two-option menu only appears when the photo wall is available and no slideshow is currently running. If a slideshow is already playing or the wall isn’t enabled, the play button starts the normal slideshow directly. More in Fullscreen and slideshow.

Way D – Direct address (for kiosk devices)

The wall lives at a fixed /photowall address for your event. For a TV or kiosk device that should permanently show the wall, add a bookmark to this address – then the device starts straight into the wall, with no toolbar and no width thresholds involved.

Operating the wall

The wall deliberately has no button bar – it is a display, not an app. You operate it with the keyboard or with swipe gestures:

Space (or a tap on the wall) pauses it: the photo dims and Paused appears at the bottom with the hint Tap or press space to continue. After 90 seconds the wall resumes on its own.

Input	Effect
F	Fullscreen on/off
Space or K	Pause and resume
→ ↓ Page Down or swipe left	Next photo
← ↑ Page Up or swipe right	Previous photo
M	Video sound on/off
Tap/click the wall	Pause and resume

A presentation remote works without any extra software: it sends Page Up/Page Down, and those count as the arrow keys.

For the first few seconds the wall shows a hint at the bottom centre – Press F for fullscreen · Space pauses – and then fades it out, so nothing stays in the picture permanently. On touch devices without a keyboard that hint is skipped.

A paused wall resumes by itself

If you pause the wall, Paused appears at the bottom centre with the note “Tap or press space to continue” and a progress bar: after a short while the wall carries on by itself. That way a wall someone tapped by accident doesn’t stand still all evening.

Going fullscreen

To make the wall fill the whole screen (without browser bars), you switch it to fullscreen.

1. On a computer, laptop or TV stick with a keyboard: press F. The wall immediately uses the entire screen; F or Esc gets you back out.

2. On touch devices (tablet, touch kiosk) there is no keyboard. There a small round fullscreen button appears at the top centre. It fades out after about ten seconds so it doesn’t sit in the picture permanently – reloading the page brings it back.

3. In fullscreen the wall is completely uncluttered: logo, QR code, photo info and celebrations stay, everything else disappears.

Fullscreen not possible?

If the browser doesn’t support fullscreen – the classic case being iOS Safari before version 17 – the round button stays away too, and F does nothing. Use your browser’s or TV’s own fullscreen function, a kiosk bookmark on /photowall (way D) or a current device.

Running it on a TV or projector

A few practical points so the wall lasts the whole evening:

• Turn off the screen lock and power saving. Photogala does not keep the screen awake – that is the device’s job. If your TV, laptop or tablet sleeps after a few minutes, the wall is gone. Disable the auto-off beforehand.
• Keep the photo wall tab in the foreground. If you switch to another tab or program on the display device, the wall no longer runs visibly. If you want to work alongside it, use a second device.
• Go fullscreen before the guests arrive and watch the wall for a moment – you’ll see straight away whether the framing and text size work on the big screen.
• Bookmark /photowall on kiosk devices (Way D). If the device restarts, one tap puts you back into the wall.
• Don’t mount it too narrow. On very narrow screens the wall hides the QR code – and then guests lose their way in.
• Reload after a long outage. The wall catches up on brief connection drops by itself. If it stalls after a longer failure, reload the page once; it starts straight back into the wall.

What happens live on the wall

Almost everything on the wall is a setting the host chooses. That explains why you see something at one event but not at another. Guests can’t change these options themselves.

New photos in real time

New uploads appear automatically – no reload needed. If the connection drops briefly, the wall reloads on its own after reconnecting.

Two display modes

The display mode decides between two basic forms:

• Slideshow — one photo at a time, with a gentle cross-fade. Images show for about 5 seconds by default, videos longer accordingly. Optionally a slow pan and zoom plays over them (Ken Burns effect).
• Collage — grid of photos, several at once. As the collage style you can pick Uniform grid, Polaroid, Vintage, Featured (highlight) or Justified rows.

How a photo fits the frame is set by Photo fit: Default (adapts to the photo’s aspect ratio), Fill frame (fills the area, crops the edges), Whole photo (with dark bars) or Whole photo, blurred fill (edges softly blurred).

QR code to join in

If the QR code is enabled, it appears at the top right with the text Scan to view/upload. On very narrow screens it is hidden. Through the code guests go straight to the gallery to view and upload – see Uploading photos.

The QR code sits in the top right of the wall, labelled Scan to view/upload. Position the screen so that this corner stays clearly visible.

Highlights and celebrations

These overlays are individual toggles and off by default – the host decides whether they run:

• Like celebration: a heart effect at the bottom right when a photo gets a like – with the guest’s name, or “Someone liked a photo”.
• Achievement unlocked: a banner in the same zone at the bottom right with the name of the award.
• Milestones: a big effect in the centre of the picture with the number reached, for about five seconds. The thresholds are 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000, 2500, 5000 and 10,000 photos.

All three carry the accent colour the host set for the wall.

Note

Milestones are only celebrated when the threshold is crossed live – while the wall is running. If there were already more photos when it opened, it isn’t celebrated retroactively. More context on achievements under Points and rewards.

Photo info and captions

Depending on the settings, a small info pill can appear at the bottom of the photo with the uploader’s name (camera icon) and/or the like count (heart). A caption can also be shown – either the photo description or the related photo task (optionally with an example image). More on tasks under Photo tasks.

Which photos run at all (curation)

The host can narrow down which photos are shown – this explains why you sometimes don’t see all pictures:

• only photos from certain albums or certain photo tasks (one match is enough – album or task),
• only one media type: photos only, videos only or motion photos only,
• only task photos or, the other way round, only free photos (Task relation),
• only popular photos (from a minimum number of likes) – or the other way round only the quiet ones, with at most that many likes,
• only photos from the last few minutes (Recent photos only), with an optional fallback to older ones if nothing new is there,
• only photos with certain people on them, only group shots or only portraits, or only the photos of one particular guest,
• jump to new photos so fresh uploads are shown right away,
• and the playback order: newest first, oldest first or shuffled – counted either by upload time or by capture time.

Tip

If the wall only runs the last few minutes or only popular photos, that’s not a bug but a deliberate host setting. You can always reach the full gallery through the QR code.

Example

You are asked to start the wall on the TV in the hall, and you wonder why not all photos are showing.

On the laptop you open the gallery, start the photo wall and press F. The wall fills the screen; Esc takes you back out.

The wall runs the slideshow at about five seconds per image, with the QR code at the top right reading Scan to view/upload. Ten minutes in you notice the registry-office photos never appear. That is not a bug – the host set the curation to Only new photos, so only the last few minutes’ uploads are played.

And when the 100th photo is uploaded, a big milestone effect sweeps across the center. Had the wall been started after that, there would have been none: milestones are only celebrated when the threshold is crossed live.

Empty state and loading state

• No photos yet: The wall shows No Photos Yet and invites the first picture with “Be the first to share your photos for the event!” – including the prompt Scan to upload your photos when the QR code is enabled.
• Loading: briefly a placeholder appears reading Loading slideshow… or Loading collage…. That’s normal and only takes a moment.
• Error: On a connection or loading error the page shows a generic error notice. Reload the page and check your internet connection.

Troubleshooting

• No Photowall button in the bar → either the window is narrower than 960 pixels (then it sits in the ⋮ menu), the plan doesn’t include the photo wall, or the host has switched Offer the photo wall (Settings → Photo Wall Settings) off.
• Map is its own button but Photowall isn’t → normal between 720 and 960 pixels. Use the ⋮ menu.
• The wall goes black mid-evening → the display device went to sleep. Turn off the screen lock.
• No QR code visible → either disabled by the host or the screen is too narrow.
• Only a few photos are running → curation is active (album, popular, or recent photos only).

Tip

A big screen shows the photo wall off best – perfect next to the dance floor or at the entrance. The logo on the wall is a separate premium feature and is only shown with the matching plan, even if a logo was uploaded.

Related help

• Fullscreen and slideshow – the play button that also starts the wall.
• Uploading photos – how new pictures reach the wall via QR code.
• Photo tasks – the tasks that can appear as a caption.
• Liking and commenting – likes that are shown as a celebration.
• Set up the photo wall – for hosts: on/off plus every option of the wall.