Viallo is a private photo-sharing app for collecting photos from a group. For a party, the organiser creates one album and shares a link or a printed QR code; anyone who receives it can add photos from any browser with no app, no account and no name to type, on iPhone or Android alike. Photos are stored at full resolution, up to 500 MB per file, with no expiry date and no download deadline; you can download the originals at any time. Unlimited people can contribute on every plan including the free one. Hosted in the EU on Cloudflare R2; photos are never used to train AI models. Operated by Zava Solutions LLC.
For the party
Everyone at the party had their phone out. You got three of the photos.
Make one album, put the code on the table - or just drop the link in the group chat you already have. Guests tap it and pick their photos. No app, no account, nothing to type. You get the full-size originals, not the shrunk copies a group chat hands back.
- Free to start ·
- No card needed ·
- Full-resolution originals ·
- EU-hosted
How it actually works
You make an album and share one link - or print the QR code. Whoever you send it to taps it, and the albums you picked open in their browser. They choose one, pick photos from their phone and tap once.
No app to install, no account to make, no password to remember, and no name to type.
It works the same on an iPhone and on an Android, in whatever browser they already have. Their photos land in your album at the size they were taken.
Party's tonight?
Make the album, screenshot the code, send it to the group chat. That's the whole job - about ninety seconds, no printer, nothing to order. You can do it while the oven's on.
One code on the table.
Share
Create the album and send the link, or print the code. You can set it up weeks ahead - the link works before there's a single photo in the album.
They add
They tap, pick, done. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, nothing to type. Same on iPhone and Android.
You keep
Every photo arrives at full resolution, not a shrunken copy. There's no expiry date and no download deadline, and you can download the originals at any time, at no extra cost.
Step one is a card by the cake, or a screenshot of the code in the group chat you already have. If you want it printed, the QR downloads as one print-ready PNG.
You were the host. That is why you have no photos.
You answered the door, lit the candles, carried the cake and refilled the drinks. Everyone else was photographing the thing you built. You are in almost none of those photos and you took almost none of them.
Public App Store reviews of other apps built for this. Not our customers - and the events they describe are not all parties.
“The app claims that guests can take pics without having to download an app, but when they scan the QR code they have to download an app.”
“Once you scan the QR guests are forced to sign into their Apple ID... That would just lead to no one using it!”
“I had an event Feb 28th and the stupid thing expired at 7pm towards the beginning of my event... pay $30 more to finish my event.”
Will people actually use it?
Some of them. Not all of them - and anyone who quotes you a percentage is guessing.
The numbers you'll see on other sites - 85%, 90%, 93% - come with no sample size, no date, and no explanation of how they were counted. We're not going to add another one to the pile. What we can tell you is what seems to actually move the number, from people who've done it:
- Put the code where hands already are. The drinks table, next to the cake, not by the front door.
- Say it out loud once. Twenty people in a kitchen is one sentence: “before you eat, scan this, it's for the photos.”
- Drop the link in the chat the next morning, when everyone's saying how good last night was. That last one is worth more than the sign.
We don't have a number for parties, and neither does anyone else.
This is the part where we're different. With most of these tools the second ask is pointless, because the upload window has already shut - 24 hours on some free plans, a few months on others. Ours doesn't shut. If someone finds three good photos eight months later, they can still add them.
Party's already been?
You're not too late. Make the album now, put the link in the group chat, and say “stick your photos in here.” People still have them - they're sitting in a camera roll waiting to be scrolled past.
There's no deadline on this. Someone can add the good one from your 30th in October, and it'll go in the same album as the rest.
The photo you get back is full resolution, not a shrunken copy
Send a photo through a group chat and it gets shrunk on the way - that's how group chats work, and it's why the photo your friend sent you looks fine on your phone and falls apart the moment you try to print it.
Photos uploaded to Viallo keep their full resolution - up to 500 MB each, without the group-chat shrinking that turns a 24-megapixel photo into something that falls apart in print. (Photos from an iPhone are saved as high-quality JPEGs; everything else is kept as it arrived.) When you come back to make the book you keep meaning to make, they'll still be big enough.
The other ways to do this
The group chat
- What it costs
- Free
- What happens to the photos
- Compressed on the way in, and scrolled past within a week
Google Photos shared album
- What it costs
- Free - counts against the 15 GB you share with Gmail and Drive
- What happens to the photos
- Full size, no clock. Whether the people you send the link to can add photos is a setting on the album - Google calls it Collaborate
An iPhone shared album
- What it costs
- Free
- What happens to the photos
- No clock - but as of 2026 photos are capped at 2,048 pixels on the long edge, about 3 megapixels of the 24 a modern phone shoots
A per-event app
- What it costs
- $39 to $119 for the one event
- What happens to the photos
- Full size - then a clock. Most lock or delete the gallery at 12 months; the ceiling in the category is 24
A party app that meters your guests
- What it costs
- $24.99 for one party, up to 25 guests - the 26th moves you to the $49.99 tier
- What happens to the photos
- 15 photos each. Ten more each is another $14.99
Viallo
- What it costs
- $5.99/month or $59/year - your whole account, not one event
- What happens to the photos
- Full size. No expiry date and no download deadline
| Option | What it costs | What happens to the photos |
|---|---|---|
| The group chat | Free | Compressed on the way in, and scrolled past within a week |
| Google Photos shared album | Free - counts against the 15 GB you share with Gmail and Drive | Full size, no clock. Whether the people you send the link to can add photos is a setting on the album - Google calls it Collaborate |
| An iPhone shared album | Free | No clock - but as of 2026 photos are capped at 2,048 pixels on the long edge, about 3 megapixels of the 24 a modern phone shoots |
| A per-event app | $39 to $119 for the one event | Full size - then a clock. Most lock or delete the gallery at 12 months; the ceiling in the category is 24 |
| A party app that meters your guests | $24.99 for one party, up to 25 guests - the 26th moves you to the $49.99 tier | 15 photos each. Ten more each is another $14.99 |
| Viallo | $5.99/month or $59/year - your whole account, not one event | Full size. No expiry date and no download deadline |
What we can show you, and what we can't
There is no testimonial on this page. We could borrow one from a wedding, or write one ourselves, and either would make the section above worthless. When a host who used this for a party sends us one, with the guest count and the photo count in it, it goes here with their name on it.
What you can check without taking our word for it: make an album, put one photo in from your own phone, download it again, and see it come back at full resolution - not the shrunken copy a group chat would hand you.
Who can see it
Only the people you give the link to. Albums aren't public, aren't listed, and aren't indexed by search engines. Anyone with the upload link can add photos - that's the part that makes it work without accounts - and you decide separately who gets a link to view. You can switch any link off at any time, and the photos stay.
Everything is hosted in the EU. We don't train AI models on anyone's photos.
A QR code for party pictures - whatever you're throwing
It's a shared photo album for parties, and the party can be any of these.
Birthdays · The big ones - 18th, 21st, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th · Anniversaries · Baby showers · Engagement parties · Graduation parties · Housewarmings · Leaving dos and retirements · Christenings and naming days · Christmas and New Year · Or just a Sunday where everyone came round
Same album, same code, same two minutes. Make a new one each time.
Planning the wedding itself? Same mechanic, different scale - the wedding page covers the parts that are specific to it.
It isn't a ticket for one night.
Most tools built for this sell you an event. You pay, the gallery opens, and some number of months later it shuts again - a few weeks on the cheap ones, a year on the good ones. Then you're paying again, or downloading everything before a deadline, or you've lost them.
That model makes sense for a wedding. It makes no sense at all for the way you actually live, which is: a birthday in March, a christening in May, a leaving do in July, and the Christmas thing you swear every year you won't host again.
This is an account, not an event. New party, new album, new code on the table - and no new purchase per party. Same login, same two minutes, same three-word job for your guests. Two albums fit the free plan; from the third party on, Plus covers all of them for $59 a year.
And they stack up. Five years in, the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th birthdays are five albums in one place, in the order they were taken, at full size. That's a different object from five galleries that expired. You can scroll it.
There's a small thing that comes with doing it more than once, too: it's the same people. The twenty who came to the 30th are most of the twenty coming to the housewarming. The first time, you explain what the card on the table is. By the third, nobody asks.
What it costs
Free
2 albums, 200 photos, 10 GB
Guests can add photos on the free plan, and there's no limit on how many people contribute, on any plan.
A birthday party is usually 100 to 300 photos. The free plan holds 200; Plus covers a busier night.
Plus
$5.99 a month, or $59 for the year
20 albums, 5,000 photos, 200 GB
Pro
$14.99 a month, or $149 for the year
unlimited albums and photos, up to 1 TB of storage
Plus isn't an event package - it's your account. The same $59 covers this occasion and every one after it.
Couldn't I just use a shared album?
You could, and for some parties you should. It's free and it's already on your phone.
Two things to know before you do. As of 2026, Apple's iCloud Shared Albums shrink photos to 2,048 pixels on the long edge - about 3 megapixels out of the 24 a modern phone shoots. Apple has said this changes in iOS 27. And adding a photo means signing in with an Apple Account, so the Android half of the room is out.
This is free too, for your first party. Try both. You'll know within a day which one your friends actually used.
Two things it doesn't do
Photos only - no video. If someone films the candles, that clip needs to go somewhere else. We'd rather you knew now than found out at the party.
Anyone with the code can add to the album. That's what makes it work without accounts, and it's the trade. You can delete anything you don't want.
Questions people ask
Do people need to download an app?
No. They tap the link, or point their phone camera at the code, and a web page opens. They pick photos from their phone and tap once. No app, no account, no password, nothing to sign up for - and it works the same on iPhone and Android, which is the bit that catches people out with iCloud shared albums, where adding a photo still means signing in with an Apple Account.
What about the people who aren't good with technology?
That's the case this is built for. There's no login screen, which is where most of these things fall over - someone scans a code, hits a Google or Apple sign-in wall, and gives up. Here the link opens straight onto the albums you picked, and adding a photo is one tap.
How long do we keep the photos?
There's no expiry date and no download deadline - we don't run a clock on them the way the per-event tools do, where you get 12 months and then renew. One limit is worth knowing: if your account goes over what your plan holds, the oldest photos are hidden a few days later rather than deleted, and they come back, up to what your plan then holds, if you subscribe again within 30 days. You can download your originals at full resolution any time, at no extra cost - one at a time, or as a multi-select zip. On a phone, a very large batch has to come down in a few goes rather than one.
Who can see the album?
Only the people you give a link to. Albums aren't public, aren't listed and aren't indexed by search engines. Anyone with the upload link can add photos; you decide separately who gets a link to view. You can switch any link off at any time, and the photos stay.
Can someone add a photo we don't want in there?
Anyone with the link can add photos - that's what makes it work without accounts. You can delete anything from your album, and you can switch the upload link off entirely once the occasion is over.
Can people upload video?
Photos only. If someone films the speeches, they'll need to send those another way.
How many photos will we actually get?
It varies a lot - see the section above. Where you put the link, and asking a second time a week later, seem to make more difference than anything else.
What does it cost?
Free to start. See the plans above - and note that Plus covers your whole account, not one occasion.
I'm hosting tonight. How long does this take?
About two minutes. Make an album, give it a name, and you've got a link and a QR code. Screenshot the code and send it to the group chat, or hold your phone up and let people scan off the screen. Nothing to print, nothing to order.
Can I just put the link in the group chat instead of printing a code?
Yes, and plenty of people do. The link and the code go to the same place. The chat is often the better option anyway, because it's also where you'll remind everyone the next morning.
Can I use it again for the next party?
Yes. Make a new album for the next one - new album, new code, same account. The old one stays exactly where it is. Two albums fit the free plan; from the third party on, Plus covers all of them.
What do I get that a WhatsApp group doesn't give me?
Two things. The photos arrive at full size instead of re-encoded on the way, and they stay in one place instead of scrolling away behind three weeks of other messages. Also, everything's in one album rather than split across the group chat, three people's AirDrops and a Google Photos link.
Is there a party photo sharing app my guests have to download?
No. They tap the link or scan the code and it opens in the browser that is already on their phone.
One album. One link. Everyone's photos.
Create your party album - freeFree to start · No card needed · Full-resolution originals · EU-hosted