Help

SnapEcho collects photos, videos and voice notes from the people at your event, in one shared gallery. Guests do not need an account or an app — they scan a code and upload. Only the person running the event needs to sign up.

Here to add a photo to someone's event? Start with the guest steps — it takes about a minute. Want to send something onward? Jump to media sharing. Setting up an event of your own? Jump to the organiser guide.

For guests: adding your photos

No account, no app, no sign-up. Five steps:

1. Open the event. Point your phone's camera at the event's QR code and tap the link that pops up, or open the link someone sent you. You will land on the event's front page.
2. Tap "View Gallery". This opens the gallery, where a bar of four buttons sits along the bottom of your screen: Event, Photo, Voice note and Video. That bar is how you get everywhere — it follows you as you scroll.
3. Choose what to add. Tap Photo, Voice note or Video in that bar.
   • Photo → tap Take Photo. Your camera opens (on a computer, a file picker opens instead so you can choose a photo you already have).
   • Voice note → tap Record voice note, speak, then tap Stop. Good for birthday messages and well-wishes.
   • Video → tap Record Video, then Stop. Use Switch to front camera if you want to film yourself.
4. Say yes to the camera or microphone prompt. Your phone will ask for permission the first time. SnapEcho cannot record anything until you allow it, and the prompt only appears once per device.
5. Add a caption if you like, then tap "Submit". The caption is optional. Not happy with it? Tap Retake for a photo, or Re-record for a voice note or video, and go again. A progress bar shows the upload; when it finishes you are returned to the gallery.

Add as many as you like — repeat from step three. To get back to the event's front page at any time, tap Event in that same bottom bar.

For everyone: sharing from the gallery

Anyone who can view an event gallery can share a ready photo, voice note or video. You do not need a SnapEcho account or a separate app.

1. Open the gallery's Photos, Voice notes or Videos tab and find the item you want.
2. Tap Share beneath it. If your device supports sharing that file format, its native share sheet opens so you can choose an installed app that accepts it. A larger file may need a moment to prepare; if the button changes to Share now, tap it once more to open the share sheet.
3. If your browser cannot share that file type, SnapEcho downloads it instead. Open that download to save it or share it from your device.

A shared photo is a separate JPEG carrying the SnapEcho mark, snapecho.ca, and the event name when the watermark font supports its characters. A shared video is a separate MP4 carrying the same mark, prepared in the background after the video finishes processing — so its Share button appears a little later than Download does. Voice notes are shared as their original stored files, without a watermark. Nothing stored in the gallery is changed, and Download always gives you the original.

Guests: three things worth knowing

Everyone with the link can see what you add. The gallery has no password. Anyone holding the link or the QR code can view everything in it, so treat it as a shared album rather than a private one.

You cannot delete your own upload. Because you upload without an account, there is nothing tying the file to you, so there is no button that would know it was yours. Ask the event organiser to remove it — they can delete anything in their own gallery — or email us and we will help.

Your photo's location is usually removed automatically. Phone cameras quietly record where a photo was taken, and SnapEcho strips that out of JPG and PNG photos before storing them. GIF and WebP files are stored as they arrive, so any location they already carry is kept — and we cannot promise to remove everything your device embedded in a video or a voice recording. The Privacy Policy sets out exactly where that line falls.

For organisers: setting up your event

1. Create your account

Choose Register and fill in your display name, email address and a password. Passwords need at least eight characters with a mix of upper and lower case, a number and a symbol, and at least six of the characters must be different from one another — so "Aaaaaa1!" is rejected despite meeting everything else.

We then email you a confirmation link. You must click it before you can sign in — this is the step people most often miss, so check your junk folder if it has not arrived within a few minutes.

2. Pick a display name your guests will recognise

Your display name appears publicly on your event pages as "Hosted by …", so guests can see whose event they have opened. It does not have to be your legal name — "The Patel Family" or "Sam & Alex" works well. Change it any time under Your Profile. Your email address is never shown to guests.

3. Create the event

Go to Events and choose Create Event. You will be asked for:

• Name — required, and what guests see first.
• Description — optional, a line or two of welcome.
• Start date and time — required.
• End date and time — optional, and must be after the start.
• Location — required, the venue or address.
• Cover photo — required, the large image behind your event's title.

Everything except the description and the end date is required, and every one of these can be changed later with Edit.

Organisers: getting guests to upload

Open your event and you will find three ways to share it. All three point to the same place — a short link like snapecho.ca/e/A3B7X2, easy to read aloud.

• Copy Link — copies the short link so you can paste it into a message, a group chat or an invitation.
• Print QR — opens a printable sign with your event's name, details and QR code, ready to put on tables or a wall. This is the one most guests will use.
• Download QR — saves just the QR code as an image, for dropping into your own invitation or slideshow design.

Print your signs after any edits. The printable sign includes the event name, location and dates, so if you change those afterwards your printed copies will be out of date — the link on them still works, but the details will be wrong.

Organisers: during and after the event

Open your event and choose View Gallery. Contributions are sorted into Photos, Voice notes and Videos tabs. The page shows what was there when you opened it, so refresh it to see what guests have added since — it does not update on its own.

• Remove something. Each item has its own Delete button, and you will be asked to confirm. Only you can do this — guests cannot delete anything, including their own uploads.
• Play everything back. View Slideshow runs through the whole gallery automatically — good on a screen at a reception, or for sending round afterwards.
• Change the details. Edit updates the name, description, dates, location or cover photo. The link and QR code stay the same.
• Delete the event. This removes the event and every upload in it, permanently. There is no undo and no recycle bin, so download anything you want to keep first.

SnapEcho is not a backup. Save your own copies of anything you would be upset to lose.

Limits and file types

Large photos are automatically shrunk before upload, so a big camera photo will usually go through without you doing anything.

If something goes wrong

The camera or microphone will not start

Your browser is blocking it. Look for a small camera or padlock icon in the address bar, tap it, and allow access — then reload the page. On iPhone, check Settings → Safari → Camera and Microphone are set to Ask or Allow. Recording also needs a secure connection, so make sure the address begins with https://.

"File is too large"

The limit is 50 MB. This is almost always a long video — try recording a shorter one.

The recording stopped on its own

Two things stop a recording for you. Video and voice notes both stop at five minutes. A voice note also stops after about ten seconds of silence, so a long pause ends the recording early — that is why a quiet clip can stop well before the five-minute mark. Either way, what you captured up to that point is kept, and you can submit it or re-record.

"Unsupported file type"

The file is a format we cannot accept — see the table above. This can happen with screenshots in unusual formats, or files from older cameras.

My upload finished but I cannot see it yet

Uploads are processed after they arrive — photos as well as videos and voice notes — which takes a few moments, longer for a long recording. Wait a little and refresh the gallery.

Share downloaded a file instead of opening my apps

Your browser or device does not support sharing that file type from a website, or the share sheet could not open. The download contains the same watermarked photo or video, or the same original voice note, so you can share it from your device instead.

I cannot see a Share button

Share appears only beneath an item that has finished processing. Wait a moment and refresh the gallery.

A video needs one thing more: its watermarked copy has to be prepared in the background, which takes a little longer than the video itself. Two cases leave a video without a Share button for good — one uploaded before we added video sharing, and one whose copy could not be prepared. Editing the event's name queues that work again for every video in the gallery, and Download gives you the original meanwhile.

I never got the confirmation email

Check your junk folder first. The page shown right after you register has a button to send the link again, so use that if you still have it open. If you have navigated away, email us and we will re-send it. Note that only organisers get email from us — guests who upload never do.

I am locked out

Five failed sign-in attempts locks an account for fifteen minutes, and the clock has to run down: resetting your password does not lift the lock early. Wait the fifteen minutes, then sign in — using Forgot password? in the meantime if you also need a new password.

Still stuck?

Email snapecho.ca@gmail.com and tell us what you were trying to do and what happened instead. See also the Privacy Policy for what we store and how to have it removed, and the Terms of Service for the rules of the road.