For guests

You scanned a code and a camera opened. No app, no account, no sign-up. Here is what happens to the photos you take, and what you can do about it.

Where your photos go

To the host's Google Drive. The person running the event owns the folder, and they see everything that gets delivered.

Papped keeps a record of your photo, not a copy of it: which event, which roll, and where it lives in the host's Drive. The image itself sits in their Drive, not on our shelf.

The one exception is a photo held for review. If automatic screening is unsure about a shot, it waits in our storage for up to 48 hours while the host decides. Then it either goes to their Drive like any other photo, or it is deleted. (If the host is approving every photo before guests see it, nothing is held aside like this: your shot goes to their Drive straight away and waits there for them to release it to the gallery.)

Who can see what you shoot

Everyone at the event. The gallery is shared, which is the whole point: you are all making one roll of film together.

Your name only appears if you typed one. It was optional on the way in, and skipping it does not limit anything.

What you control

Two things, both about your own photos:

  • You can delete a photo you took. It disappears from the gallery and from the host's Drive. This is not a request, it just happens.
  • You can shoot short clips too. On paid events the same camera records up to 3 short videos, sound and all. The host approves clips before the room sees them, so yours may take a moment to show up.
  • You decide whether others can save your photos. By default they can. To change it, open your gallery and tap the sliders icon in the top right, on either tab: Let others download my photos. Turn it off and other guests can still see your shots, they just cannot save them. That is why one photo in the gallery can be downloadable and the next one not.

You can also report any photo, including someone else's. It is hidden from the gallery straight away, not once the host gets round to it, and then goes to them to decide on.

Why you only get so many shots

Because a limited roll is the point. Unlimited uploads give everyone four hundred near-identical photos nobody looks at. A small roll makes people wait for the moment, the way a disposable camera did.

If you run out, the host can top you up. Many events do it automatically without you asking.

If something is not working

  • The camera will not open. You probably opened the link inside another app, like Instagram or WhatsApp. Those have a stripped-down browser that cannot reach the camera. Use the "open in browser" prompt on screen, or paste the link into Safari or Chrome.
  • It says you are out of film. Ask the host. There is a button for it on the camera.
  • Your photo has not appeared. Either it is still uploading on slow venue wifi, or screening held it for the host to look at. Both sort themselves out.
  • The camera says the event has not started. It opens at the time the host set.