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How do you get guests to actually upload their photos?

Tell guests before the event, put the sign on the tables rather than by the door, and choose a tool with as few steps after the scan as possible. Of those, telling them in advance does the most, because a guest who already knows what to expect will finish a step that a surprised guest abandons. With RSVPix, adding photos during the event now needs no sign-in at all, so the steps that remain belong to the selfie that returns each guest their own photos.

Five things that lift participation, in order

  1. Say it in advance. One line in the invitation or the group chat: what you are doing, why, and that it takes a minute.
  2. Put the sign on the tables. Arriving guests are carrying things. Seated guests have a free hand and a moment.
  3. Have someone mention it once, out loud. Whoever is speaking anyway — one sentence between speeches beats any sign.
  4. Count the steps before you commit. Every account or verification step loses people. Walk the whole path yourself on your own phone.
  5. Leave the gallery open long enough. Most uploads happen in the days after, not on the night.

The thing nobody tells you

Every product in this category promises “no app required”, and most of them then ask your guests to sign in anyway. That gap is the single most common complaint about this whole category — and it is the one we have closed for the half that happens on the night: While the event is on, a guest who scans the printed QR code can add their photos with no sign-in at all — no email, no code, no account. They pick their photos, add their name if they want it shown, and they are done. The no-sign-in window is the host’s to switch on. It opens two hours before the event starts and closes two hours after it ends — 24 hours for an event that runs longer than a day — or at a time the host chooses. Outside the window, adding photos means signing in, as before.

The other half — a guest collecting the photos they are in — still carries a real cost, and we publish it rather than hiding it: Your guests scan the QR code, enter an email address and accept the terms, collect a four-digit code from their inbox, give a first name, last name and country, allow the camera, wait for the on-screen guide to load, and take one selfie.

If your guest list is elderly, low-tech, or likely to be somewhere with poor reception, weigh that half honestly. The RSVP link is a separate, lighter path that needs no account at all.

What to say in the invitation

Something like: “We are collecting everyone’s photos in one place. There will be a QR code on the tables — scan it, add your photos, and if you want, take a selfie and you will get the photos you are in sent back to you.”

Related questions

Run one real event free, then decide.

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Questions people ask

What participation rate should I expect?

We do not publish one, because we have not measured it and any number we quoted would be a guess. Run one real event free and you will have your own answer.

Should the QR code go on every table?

Yes if you can. One sign at the entrance reaches far fewer people than a small card on each table.

Can guests upload after the event?

Yes. The no-sign-in QR window closes two hours after the event (24 hours for one that runs longer than a day), and after that a guest signs in to keep adding photos for as long as the gallery is open — ${FREE_TIER.galleryDaysAfterEvent} days after the event on the free package, 90 days on the paid ones.

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