An album nobody else can see is just a folder on your phone. You already had one of those. The whole point is getting other people in there, and there are four ways to do it.

Good news first: you can invite anyone. They don't need an Albumer account already, and once they're in, they can add their own photos. They're not just spectators.

Invite by email, text, or a link

The everyday one.

1. Open an album you own and tap Add Members.
2. Pick from your contacts, search for people already on Albumer, or just type an email address.
3. Choose how to send it: email, text message, or a shareable link.
4. Send. They show up in Members once they accept.

The three do slightly different jobs. Email sends them an invitation they can make an account from. Text opens your own Messages app with the link sitting there ready. Share this link copies a link you can paste wherever you like, including into the family group chat that never sleeps.

Type a nonsense email address and it'll tell you. Invite somebody who's already in the album and it'll say so instead of quietly adding them twice.

Invite straight from your contacts

If the people you want are already in your phone, this is the quick way, and it costs nothing because your own phone does the sending.

1. Open the album and tap Add Members.
2. Scroll to From your phone. Let it see your contacts when it asks. It only asks at this point, not the second you open the app.
3. Search, and tick everybody you want.
4. Tap Text N invites. Your Messages app opens with the invite ready.
5. Send it. It comes from your number, not from a robot at Albumer.

Everyone in that group text shares one link, so you're not sending twelve different ones. Anyone already on Albumer is hidden from the list so you don't invite them to something they're already in. The list shows thirty at a time, so search if your address book is a monster, and anybody you've already ticked stays put even when the search stops matching them.

If the album is secret, the album name is left out of the message. Obviously.

Hold up a QR code

For a room full of people, forget typing anything.

1. Open your album and tap Event QR Code.
2. Tap Create QR Code.
3. Show it on your screen, or print it and put it on the table.
4. Guests point their camera at it and land on the join page.

Everyone who scans becomes a member who can see the album and add to it. You can also have Albumer print you proper signs for it, posters and table cards, in eight themes.

Read out a code

Sometimes you're on the phone to someone who is not going to scan anything.

1. On Home, tap Have an event code? Join an album.
2. Type the code.
3. Submit. The album opens and turns up under Shared.

What they can do once they're in

Everyone in an album can add photos and videos, make folders and fill them, comment, like it, leave a voice note in the Audio Guestbook, see who else is in there, and save the whole album to their own phone.

Only you, as owner, can rename it, set the cover, invite and remove people, delete the album, or make it secret.

If it's a big album and you're drowning, tap a member and Make Admin. They can invite people too. They can't promote anybody else, so it doesn't spiral.

One thing to know before the big day

Your guests need the free app. There's no adding photos from a web browser, so the join page sends everyone to install it first. Better to know that now than to find out with forty people standing around holding phones.