Visitors, views and hearts

The people you send an album to open it in their browser, on a computer or a phone, with no account and no app. This page is what they see there and what they can do with it — and what comes back to you: how often the album was opened, which photos they loved, and a weekly summary by email. The link and its settings are Sharing an album; the albums others share with you are at the end of this page.

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What they see

In the default template, Gallery, the album opens on its cover, as large as their screen allows — edge to edge on a phone — with the album's title under it, then how many photos it holds (unless you hide the number) and when the link expires, if it does. The photos follow in rows, each one whole at its own shape: nothing is cropped, a portrait stays upright and a panorama stays wide. A photo opens full-screen, and they can page through them; one line at the bottom says the day it was taken — and, if you choose, where and with what camera (see What visitors see). The photos they see are viewing copies, sized for a screen, and each loads no larger than its place on their screen needs — on a large or high-resolution screen (a laptop, a 5K display, a tablet, most phones) the cover and the full-screen photo come from a larger copy, up to 2048 pixels on the long side, made for that album's link from the moment it is first opened. Until a photo's larger copy is ready they see the usual one.

To look closer, they click the photo (or pinch, or press Z) where they want to see — and drag to move around. Without original downloads that stops at the viewing copy's own size; with them, it goes to 100% of the full photo, every pixel, the way you see it in your library.

Next to the title (under it, on a phone) are the album's buttons. Download all gives them the whole album as one zip: the viewing copies, or — if you allow it — your originals. Play, before it, shows the album as a slideshow — see Play, and the Film template — and Print / Save as PDF, after it, prints the album. At the bottom of the page, Report this album reaches us if something in it shouldn't be there.

An invitation by email

When an album is shared with only the people you add, Media Moana can email each of them an invitation on your behalf: from Media Moana with your name on it, the album's cover and a strip of a few of its photos, your note if you wrote one, and an Open the album button. The button opens the album straight away — no code — in whatever browser their mail app opens; it works for 30 days, and stops once you take them off the list or turn the link off, after which the page asks for their email address and a code as usual. Replying to the invitation writes to you. At its foot, Stop emails about albums shared with you stops every invitation to that address, from anyone; the codes they ask for to open an album still come.

An album anyone with its link can open can be emailed the same way, to the addresses you type. Its button is the link itself — it opens the album as the link does, in the template you chose — and on a link with a password, the email says they'll need the password you gave them: it is never in the email, and the album's page still asks for it.

Highlights first

A shoot of a few hundred photos opens on its best few dozen: under the title, Highlights, then All 312 photos — every photo, the highlights again among them in their places. A highlight opens full-screen like any photo, and paging on goes through the whole album from there.

Media Moana picks them from the album, the same way every time:

• 4- and 5-star photos. A photo's stars are your own — the rating Lightroom, Bridge, Capture One or Photo Mechanic wrote into the file — when it has one; otherwise the photo analysis's 1–5 star assessment. Your rating always wins: a photo you rated 2 stars is not a highlight, whatever the analysis thought of it. A photo you flagged as a reject never is.
• The best frame of each burst. Shots taken within a couple of minutes of each other that look alike — the groups of Similar photos — count once, by their recommended frame: the most stars, then the sharpest. The other frames are not highlights.
• At most 24, and never more than half the album. When there are more, the most stars go first, spread across the whole album rather than taken from its start.

There are no highlights while fewer than 8 of the album's photos have stars. If you turned photo analysis off (Account → Privacy & GDPR → Photo analysis), only your own ratings count — without them, the album has no highlights. To leave them out, switch off Highlights first under What visitors see on the album's Preview tab.

A link to one photo

To point someone at one photo, a visitor opens it and clicks the link button at the top right — Copy link to this photo. That link opens the album straight on that photo, full-screen; closing it shows the rest of the album. While a photo is open, the address in the browser is that photo's link too, so it can be copied from there as well.

A photo's link is the album's link with the photo added: it opens only what the album's link opens — with a password, they are asked for it first. If the photo has been taken out of the album since, the link opens the album as usual.

New photos since their last visit

Add photos to an album you've already shared — the rest of a wedding, the second day of an event — and the people who come back to the link see "3 new since your last visit" above the photos, each new one marked New, with Show only the new ones to see just those (Show all photos brings the rest back). The first time someone opens the link, nothing is marked.

• It's their browser that remembers the last visit: on another phone or computer, or after clearing cookies, nothing is marked there.
• A photo you take out of the album isn't counted. One you take out and put back counts as new again.
• Nobody is emailed or signed up for anything, and Media Moana keeps no record of their visits for this.

Keep it in Media Moana

With the album's buttons, Keep in Media Moana lets someone who uses Media Moana find the album again: click it, and the album is in their own library, under Shared with me below their albums (see Albums shared with you) — its cover, its title and your brand name if you've set one, never your email address. The button then reads Kept in Media Moana, beside a Shared with me link to their library; clicking it again takes the album off.

• Not signed in? The same button signs them in — or makes them a free account — and brings them back to the album, which is then kept without a second click.
• You don't see it on your own albums, and an album you let only the people you add open doesn't show it: it reaches them under Shared with me through its list.
• A password still counts. The button appears once the password has opened the album, and keeping it doesn't remember the password: when that browser's access runs out, or you change the password, the album asks for it again. Under Shared with me, an album with a password shows its title but not its cover.
• It leaves their list when you turn the link off, the link expires or you delete the album, or if you switch it to only the people you add and they aren't on the list. You aren't told who kept an album.

Saving it to their own Media Moana

When you allow original downloads, someone who has a Media Moana account — a second shooter, a photographer you work with — can copy the album into their own library instead of downloading it: Save to my Media Moana, with the album's buttons. Where Keep in Media Moana keeps the link, this keeps the photos — links expire and get turned off; a saved copy stays.

• They get exactly what a download would give them: your originals, with the GPS position removed unless you chose Keep location in originals — and, in the rare file the position can't be taken out of, its viewing copy, as a download does. Never watermarked.
• The whole album, or only the photos they choose. The copies go into a new folder of theirs named after the album (with a number if they already have one by that name), and become photos of their library like anything they upload: processed, searchable, analyzed if their account analyzes photos. A photo already in their library is skipped.
• The copies count toward their storage, not yours. If they don't have room for the whole save, nothing is copied and they are told how much room it needs.
• It runs in the background, up to 2,000 photos, with its progress on the page and in their library's Jobs. If you turn the link off, it expires, or you take originals off while it runs, it stops at the next photo.
• Someone who isn't signed in is asked to sign in first and comes back to the album to finish. You don't see the button on your own album. With only the people you add, the button is there only for people who could open the album anyway.

Which photos they loved

The people you share with can mark the photos they like with ♥ — on each photo in the album, and in the large view — without an account. Tapping it again takes it back. It's an echo of what they liked, not a client selection: there's nothing to submit and no deadline.

• Open the album to see the hearts: each loved photo shows how many it has, and the line under the album's name says how many hearts on how many photos. Loved by visitors narrows the album to those photos; click it again to see them all.
• Hearts belong to the photo, so rearranging the album keeps them. You see how many, never who: visitors don't sign in, and Media Moana doesn't keep their names.
• Each visitor can give a photo one heart. Their browser remembers their hearts with a cookie, set the first time they use one (see the Cookie Policy); on another browser or device they start again.
• Taking a photo off the album removes its hearts; putting it back starts it from none. Turning the link off removes all of them — a new link starts from zero.

How many people opened it

Once the link is published, you see how often it was opened: beside the album's name on every tab — "Published · Seen 12 times" —, and under the link on its Share tab and above the photos on its Photos tab: "Seen 12 times · last opened 2 days ago" — or "Not opened yet".

• Each person counts once a day, however often they reload or come back that day. Another browser or device — or the same phone on another network — may count again.
• You opening your own album while signed in doesn't count — nor does its Preview tab — and neither do the previews WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack and other apps make when the link is pasted into a message.
• It's a number, not a list: visitors don't sign in, no cookie is set to count them, and Media Moana doesn't know who they are. Only on a link only the people you add can open do you see who opened it.
• Turning the link off clears the count; a new link starts from zero.

A weekly summary by email

On Monday, after a week in which people opened or loved an album you share, Media Moana emails you a summary of that week (Monday to Sunday, UTC): one line per album with its views and hearts, the photos people loved most that week, and Open album. A quiet week sends nothing.

• One email a week at most, however many albums you share.
• It's on unless you turn it off: Account → General → Email Preferences → Weekly Share Summary, or Unsubscribe at the bottom of any summary — either one stops the summary and nothing else.
• The pictures in it load from Media Moana through a link only that email carries, for a while after it's sent; a photo you have since moved to the trash no longer shows.

Albums shared with you

When you use Media Moana yourself, the albums other photographers share with you are kept in your library: Shared with me, in the left column under your albums. It lists, newest first:

• Albums shared with your address — a link only the people they add can open, whose list has the email address you sign in with. It appears once they publish the link; you don't do anything.
• Albums you kept with Keep in Media Moana from a link anyone can open.

Each row shows the album's cover, its title and, if the photographer set one, their brand name ("by …") — nothing else says who shared it. An album with a password shows no cover. Click a row and the album's page opens in the same tab, exactly as its visitors see it: one shared with your address lets you straight in, with no code; one with a password asks for it again whenever that browser's access has run out.

An album leaves the list when its link is turned off or expires, the album is deleted, or the link no longer lets you in the way it came — your address taken off its list, or a link you kept switched to only the people they add without you on it. A kept one also leaves when you click Kept in Media Moana on its page. Your own albums are never listed. Until something is shared with you, the section says so: "Albums shared with your email address, and the ones you keep from a link, show up here."