Creating an event

Creating an event takes about a minute. Here is what each choice actually does.

Name and date

The name is what guests see when they scan, and it names the folder in your Drive. Use the name people would recognise: "Priya and Sam's Wedding", not "Event 1".

The start and end times control when the camera works. Guests who scan before the start see a "not started yet" message; after the end, shooting closes and the gallery stays readable. Give yourself a generous window. An event that runs late should not lock your guests out.

Times are read in your timezone as you create the event, and guests see the event in that same timezone rather than their own. That is what you want almost always, and it is worth a second look in the one case where it is not: if you are setting up an event while travelling, or in a different timezone from the venue, check the times after you land rather than trusting the clock you created them on.

Guest count

Type roughly how many people will be there, or tap a plan and the count follows. This does two things: it sets the price, and it sizes the photo pool.

You do not need to be exact, and you are not buying seats. Nothing stops guest 51 from shooting at a 50-guest event. The count sizes the pool of photos your event can hold; if it runs low, you top it up in one tap.

Shots per guest

Each guest gets their own roll. The default is 20 shots. You can set anywhere from 5 to 100.

Fewer shots means more considered photos. More shots means more coverage. For a wedding, the default is usually right; for a two-hour party, 10 is plenty.

Two things worth knowing:

• Refills. With auto-refill on (the default), a guest who runs out silently gets 5 more from the pool and keeps shooting. With it off, they see "ask the host for more film" and you decide.
• On free events, the roll is fixed at 5 shots. Setting your own roll size on an event that small is a paid add-on, priced the same as adding one more guest.

When photos appear

Two choices, and this is the one a nervous host cares about most.

• Straight away is the default and what Papped is for: guests watch the event fill up as it happens. Screening still holds anything questionable for you.
• After you approve them means nothing is visible to other guests until you say so. Photos still land in your Drive as they are taken, so you are not waiting on yourself to get them; it is only the shared gallery that waits. Because you are seeing every photo anyway, the automatic screening stops holding borderline ones aside: they queue up with everything else and you make the call. Explicit content is still blocked outright and never reaches you.

You can change your mind later in the Settings tab. Switching it off hands anything still waiting back to the automatic screening rather than publishing it unread. Switching it on mid-event applies to new photos: anything guests can already see stays visible, because pulling a photo back out of a gallery people are looking at is its own kind of alarming. To remove one specific photo, delete it from the Gallery tab.

Occasion

Personal, student or corporate. This affects price: the student and corporate rates need a verified email address on that domain.

You verify it right here, not somewhere else first. Pick Student or Corporate and a short form appears under the choice: enter the address, we email you a code, you paste it back. The rate unlocks on this event immediately, and stays unlocked for every event you create afterwards. A personal event needs none of this.

Stickers and watermark

Optional. Upload stickers guests can place on their photos, and a watermark or logo that gets stamped on every photo automatically.

Upload nothing and neither appears. There is no toggle to find. Leaving it empty is the opt-out.

Video clips

Paid events also give every guest up to 3 short video clips, with sound, from the same camera. Clips are separate from the photo roll, and every clip waits for your one-tap approval in the Review tab before other guests can see it. Approved clips land in your Drive next to the photos.

What you pay

Events up to 5 guests are free, with 5 shots each. Above that, your guest count picks a plan, the price is shown right on the form before you commit, and you pay once. There is no subscription and no card stored.

If the photo pool runs low during the event, you get a nudge with a one-tap top-up. Nothing is ever charged without you approving it.

After you create

The event starts as a draft. Nothing is live and no QR works yet. Take a moment to check the details, then launch it. That is the point at which guests can start scanning.