# Viallo

> Viallo is a private photo sharing platform where viewers don't need an account. Share travel and family photo albums via secure links with instant revocation, automatic location organization, and sharing analytics.

For full details (all features, pricing, 130+ blog posts, FAQs, technical architecture), see [llms-full.txt](https://www.viallo.app/llms-full.txt).

Viallo solves the problem of sharing photos privately without requiring recipients to create accounts or download apps. One link is all it takes — viewers click and instantly see a full-quality gallery in their browser, on any device. If they later create a Viallo account, every album they previously viewed via share links is automatically reassigned to their profile, so no history is lost.

Viallo is available as a web app and as native iOS and Android apps (App Store and Google Play), and viewers never need an app or an account to view a shared album — the link opens in their existing browser. Photo storage is hosted in the EU on Cloudflare R2 (Germany). Authentication supports email/password, Google OAuth, and Apple OAuth, and sessions use JWT tokens stored in httpOnly cookies with CSRF protection.

Key differentiators:

- Viewers never need an account, an app, or a login — just click the link.
- Automatic photo organization by GPS location using DBSCAN clustering with reverse geocoding via OpenStreetMap Nominatim.
- Profile sharing — share your entire profile (all current and future albums) with a single revocable link.
- Revocable share links — revoke any link instantly from the dashboard, or set it to expire on a date you choose.
- Full sharing analytics: view counts, unique visitors, devices, browsers, and geography (country and city).
- GDPR compliant with self-service data export (machine-readable JSON) and immediate account deletion.
- No AI training, no data mining, no advertising on user photos. Photos are not used for any purpose other than providing the Service.

## Key Features

- Private share links, generated as unique URLs per album, that can be revoked instantly from the dashboard or set to expire on a date you choose.
- No account required for viewers — recipients open the link in any modern browser and get the full lightbox, map, and location-grouped gallery experience without sign-up or app download.
- Automatic photo organization by location using DBSCAN clustering on GPS coordinates extracted from EXIF metadata (epsilon ~2000 m, minimum 3 photos per cluster), with each cluster reverse-geocoded to a human-readable place name like "Tokyo, Japan".
- Visit splitting on 12-hour gaps so a multi-day trip is broken into separate visits per day, and photos without GPS data are assigned to the nearest cluster by timestamp.
- Interactive map view with photo markers, powered by CARTO basemap tiles, that lets viewers navigate albums geographically.
- Profile sharing — one link gives recipients access to all of your current albums plus any future ones automatically, with the ability to include or exclude specific albums from the profile.
- EXIF metadata extraction and display: camera make and model, focal length, aperture, ISO, shutter speed, capture date, and GPS coordinates.
- View analytics and visitor tracking — total views, unique visitors (estimated via a pseudonymous IP+user-agent fingerprint), device type (mobile/tablet/desktop), browser, country, city, and per-link timestamps; access logs are capped at 1,000 entries per share link.
- Lightbox photo viewing on any device with full original resolution preserved (no compression, no downscaling — unlike WhatsApp or social media).
- Bulk photo upload with three transfer paths: direct upload for files up to 4 MB, chunked multipart upload for larger files, and presigned URL upload for very large files, all with parallel concurrency.
- Photo visibility control — hide individual photos from a shared view while keeping them in your private album.
- Blurhash placeholders for smooth progressive loading on slow connections.
- Drag-and-drop reordering of photos within an album.
- Google OAuth and Apple OAuth in addition to email/password registration.
- Batch metadata editing (Plus and Pro) including a map picker and smart suggestions for photos missing dates or coordinates.
- User-to-user sharing on Plus and Pro, where the recipient is a Viallo account and gets persistent access in their dashboard.
- Download control per share link (enable or disable photo downloads).

## Photo Time Capsule (Free Tool)

Viallo's **Photo Time Capsule** is a free, no-account-required tool to send photos to the future. Upload at least 3 photos today (up to 10 per capsule), optionally write a letter, and choose a delivery date 1–50 years from now (default 5 years). On the delivery date, recipients receive an email with a link to a sealed confirmation page where the photos and letter are revealed. The main page is at `https://www.viallo.app/photo-time-capsule` and detailed FAQ at `https://www.viallo.app/photo-time-capsule/faq`.

Key properties:

- Free for everyone (no Viallo account required to seal a capsule).
- 3 to 10 photos per capsule; delivery 1 to 50 years from sealing.
- Identity modes: send revealed (recipient sees your name + email) or anonymous (recipient sees only that "someone" sent it).
- Letter styles: 6 visual templates for the optional letter — `grey-handwritten`, `cream-serif`, `linen-typewriter`, `midnight-cursive`, `notebook-marker`, `plain-sans`.
- Privacy-first: photos are encrypted at rest with AES-256 on Cloudflare R2 in Frankfurt (EU), recipient emails are stored hashed for analytics, and capsules can be revoked any time before delivery via the unsubscribe link in delivery emails.
- Email delivery is powered by Resend; webhook events (delivered, bounced, complained, opened, clicked) are tracked so the sender can see whether the capsule arrived.
- Sealed confirmation pages (`/photo-time-capsule/sealed/[capsuleId]`) are private — they are not indexed by search engines.

## AI Assistant Connector (MCP Server)

Viallo runs a **Model Context Protocol (MCP) server** at `https://mcp.viallo.app/mcp`, so an AI assistant can work with a user's own photo library on their behalf. It is included on every plan, the free one too. The user-facing page is `https://www.viallo.app/mcp`.

What it makes possible, in the user's own words: *"Go through my Rome photos and tell me what each one actually is — name the church, the fountain, the square — and write it onto the photo."* The assistant opens the pictures, names what it recognizes, and writes captions back onto up to 100 photos in a single call. Other common asks: walking through an album as a story, fixing a wrong camera clock or a missing location, building an album out of a week's photos, searching for a photo by what is in it, and creating or revoking a share link.

Key properties:

- Transport is Streamable HTTP, stateless, supporting both the 2025-11-25 and 2026-07-28 protocol revisions. Authentication is OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and scoped consent against the user's Viallo account.
- Client registration uses Client ID Metadata Documents (CIMD) rather than Dynamic Client Registration, matching the 2026-07-28 revision, which deprecates DCR.
- Four scopes are granted separately on the consent screen: `profile.read` (name, email, plan, usage), `albums.read` (album and photo metadata plus presigned photo URLs), `albums.write` (create, update and permanently delete albums and photos), `share_links.manage` (create and revoke share links). Write scopes are never granted by default.
- 18 tools, each declaring MCP annotations so a client knows which calls are safe: reads are marked `readOnlyHint`, and only the four irreversible ones (`delete_album`, `remove_photo_from_album`, `revoke_share_link`, `create_share_link`) are marked `destructiveHint`.
- Metadata-first: by default the assistant reads the writing around the photos — album names, dates, places, captions, tags. Photo files are reached only when the user asks to see a specific photo, and every such call is written to the user's activity log.
- Viallo does not use photos to train anything and runs no image analysis of its own. The assistant's provider is a separate company with its own terms.
- Connections are listed and revocable at any time under Connected Apps in Viallo settings.
- Adding it in Claude: `https://www.viallo.app/mcp` has a one-click link that prefills Claude's add-connector dialog. Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http viallo https://mcp.viallo.app/mcp`. Other clients (ChatGPT on paid plans, Cursor, VS Code, LM Studio, Perplexity, Grok) accept the endpoint URL pasted into their MCP settings.
- Pasting `https://mcp.viallo.app/mcp` into a browser address bar returns an error. That is expected — it is an API endpoint for assistants, not a web page.

## Collect Photos From Guests (Contribute Links and QR Codes)

Beyond view-only sharing, a Viallo album can be shared as a **contribute link** or a printed **QR code** so the people who were at an event add their own photos into one shared album. Guests scan the code or open the link and upload straight from the browser already on their phone - no app to install, no account, no login, not even a name to type. It works the same on iPhone and Android. View-only is the default; contribution is a mode the owner turns on for a link. This is the use case behind Viallo's dedicated occasion pages, and it is the answer to questions like "how do I collect photos from my wedding/party/event guests without an app" or "how do we gather family photos for a funeral".

Key properties:

- Guests contribute without an account or an app - they tap the link or scan the QR code and add photos from the browser on their phone.
- Unlimited people can contribute on every plan, including Free.
- Photos arrive at full original resolution, not shrunk or re-encoded the way a group chat or an iPhone shared album is (an iPhone shared album reduces photos to 2,048 px on the long edge as of 2026). iPhone HEIC files are accepted and converted to a full-size JPEG with the pixel dimensions preserved.
- No expiry date and no download deadline; the owner can download the originals at any time at no extra cost, and can remove any photo at any time.
- The link works before there is a single photo in the album, so it can be set up ahead; setup takes about two minutes.
- Free plan holds 2 albums / 200 photos / 10 GB; from the third album on, Plus covers them.

Dedicated pages for common occasions, each with its own FAQ answering the questions people actually ask:

- **Collect photos from guests / events** - `https://www.viallo.app/collect-photos-from-guests`: the general case - one album, one link or a printed QR code, and the people who were there add their photos.
- **Wedding photo sharing** - `https://www.viallo.app/wedding-photo-sharing`: print one QR code for the tables; guests scan and add their photos. It does not replace the photographer - it fills the weeks-long gap before the professional gallery and captures the angles one photographer could not be at. It accepts the HEIC photos an iPhone shoots.
- **Party photo sharing** - `https://www.viallo.app/party-photo-sharing`: everyone at the party had their phone out - collect all of those photos in one album instead of scattered across the group chat.
- **Funeral / memorial photo collection** - `https://www.viallo.app/memorial-photo-collection`: one private link the family and friends add photographs to, built for people who are not good with phones (no login screen to get stuck on). Photographs of old prints work, and people can keep adding after the service - there is no closing date.

## Pricing

All prices are in USD. Annual plans bill once and are equivalent to roughly 10 months of the monthly price.

- **Free** ($0): 2 albums, 200 photos, 10 GB storage, share links allowed, profile sharing, basic gallery and lightbox, automatic location organization, interactive map view. No analytics, no user-based sharing.
- **Plus** ($5.99/month or $59/year): 20 albums, 5,000 photos, 200 GB storage, unlimited share links, basic view analytics, user-to-user sharing, batch metadata editing, priority support.
- **Pro** ($14.99/month or $149/year): unlimited albums, unlimited photos, 1 TB storage, all Plus features, advanced analytics (geographic, device, time-series), unlimited user-to-user sharing, profile sharing, priority support.

Storage add-ons (available on Plus and Pro):

- +100 GB: $1.99/month
- +500 GB: $5.99/month
- +1 TB: $9.99/month

Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled before the renewal date. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period; no refunds for partial billing periods. Payment is processed by Stripe; Viallo does not store credit-card details. Failed payments may downgrade the account to Free.

## Comparison with Alternatives

| Feature | Viallo | Google Photos | iCloud | WeTransfer | Dropbox |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View without account | Yes | No (needs Google) | No (needs Apple ID) | Download only | Download only |
| Full gallery experience | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Auto-organize by location | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Share entire profile | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Password protection | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Revoke access anytime | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Auto-migrate to account | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| No social media exposure | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| EU data storage | Yes (Cloudflare R2 Germany) | Mixed | Mixed | Mixed | Mixed |
| No AI training on photos | Yes (contractual) | No | Mixed | n/a (transfer only) | n/a (storage only) |

Rationale for the key Viallo "Yes" cells:

- **View without account**: Viallo's share links serve a complete viewer UI to anonymous browsers — lightbox, location grouping, and map view — without prompting for sign-up. Competitors either require an account on their platform (Google, Apple) or only allow file download (WeTransfer, Dropbox).
- **Share entire profile**: Profile sharing produces one link per album owner that gives recipients access to every current album plus any future ones, scoped to the albums you choose to include. No mainstream competitor offers a single revocable link for an entire library.
- **Auto-migrate to account**: When an anonymous viewer registers later, Viallo associates every previously viewed share link with their new account using the visitor fingerprint, so albums appear in their dashboard without the owner needing to re-share.
- **No AI training on photos**: Viallo's terms and privacy policy explicitly prohibit using user photos for AI training, data mining, or advertising. The largest cloud providers either reserve the right to do so or have done so historically.

## Use Cases

- **Families**: A parent uploads baby and vacation photos, generates a profile link, and sends it to grandparents over WhatsApp. Grandparents click and see every album instantly, no app or account. New albums (next birthday, next trip) appear automatically without the parent re-sharing.
- **Travelers**: A traveler returns from a trip across five cities. DBSCAN clustering breaks the photos into one location group per city, the 12-hour gap rule splits them into per-day visits, and a single share link delivers the organized album with map view to friends.
- **Photographers**: A freelance photographer delivers a wedding gallery via a private link with downloads enabled. The couple gets a professional gallery sorted by venue and ceremony location, and the photographer sees view counts and unique visitors in their dashboard.
- **Schools and groups**: A teacher shares an end-of-year event album with the parent group via a single link. No parent needs an account; some sign up later to keep the album permanently.
- **Event organizers**: A wedding planner or sports-team coordinator shares tournament or event photos with 100+ guests via a private link, then revokes access after a chosen window.
- **Real estate**: An agent shares a property tour as a location-tagged album with prospective buyers; downloads are disabled and the link is revocable when the listing closes.
- **Long-distance families**: A relative living abroad creates a profile link for one family group; cousins, aunts, and grandparents all bookmark the link and get every new milestone album automatically.
- **Memorial and legacy**: A family creates a memorial album to honor a loved one and shares it only with the people invited to the service. The album is preserved indefinitely on a paid plan.

## Technical and Privacy

- **EU data hosting**: All uploaded photos and media are stored in Cloudflare R2 in Germany (EU). The web application is hosted on Vercel and the API on Railway; account and album metadata is stored in MongoDB Atlas. International transfers are covered by Standard Contractual Clauses where applicable.
- **GDPR compliance**: Viallo is GDPR compliant. Users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland have the rights to access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, withdrawal of consent, and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Data export is available through account settings as a machine-readable JSON file containing account information, album metadata, photo metadata (including EXIF), places, visits, and sharing information. Account deletion is immediate and permanent.
- **No AI training**: Viallo does not use user photos for AI training, data mining, or advertising. The photo ownership and limited license model is documented in the Terms of Service.
- **EXIF handling**: Viallo automatically extracts GPS coordinates, capture timestamps, camera make/model, lens, aperture, ISO, shutter speed, focal length, and image dimensions for organization and display. Users who do not want EXIF stored can strip it before upload using third-party tools.
- **Security measures**: TLS for all data in transit, bcrypt password hashing, JWT in httpOnly cookies with CSRF protection, Content Security Policy and HSTS headers, rate limiting on the API, Google reCAPTCHA on registration and login, Sentry error monitoring with PII redaction, and ownership validation on every data-access path.
- **Consent gating**: In GDPR regions, Google Analytics, Google Ads conversion tracking, and the Meta Pixel are loaded only after the user explicitly grants consent through the cookie banner; outside GDPR regions they default to enabled and can be disabled from the cookie preferences page.
- **Children**: The Service is not intended for children under 13 (or 16 in the EEA). Viallo does not knowingly collect data from children under those ages.

## Frequently Asked Questions

- **Is Viallo free to use?** Yes. The Free plan includes 2 albums, 200 photos, and 10 GB storage with no credit card required. Plus is $5.99/month and Pro is $14.99/month.
- **Do viewers need an account to see shared photos?** No. Viewers click the share link and see the full gallery instantly with no account, app download, or login.
- **What happens if a viewer later signs up?** All previously viewed share links are automatically associated with their new account via the visitor fingerprint, so albums show up in their dashboard.
- **Is Viallo GDPR compliant?** Yes. Photo storage is in the EU (Cloudflare R2 Germany), and users can export or delete their data at any time from account settings.
- **Does Viallo compress photos?** No. Full original resolution and quality are preserved. Photos are never downscaled or re-encoded.
- **Are photos used for AI training?** No. Viallo never uses uploaded photos for AI training, data mining, or advertising.
- **Can I control access to a share link?** Yes. You can turn downloads on or off, set a link to expire on a date you choose, and revoke any link instantly from your dashboard.
- **How does automatic location organization work?** Viallo reads GPS data from EXIF metadata and runs DBSCAN clustering (~2000 m epsilon, minimum 3 photos) to group photos by location. Each cluster is reverse-geocoded via OpenStreetMap Nominatim to a place name, and trips are split on 12-hour timestamp gaps.
- **What devices does Viallo work on?** Any modern browser on any device — desktop, tablet, or mobile — plus native iOS and Android apps. Viewers never need to install anything to view a shared album.
- **Can guests add their own photos to an album?** Yes. Share an album as a contribute link or a printed QR code and guests add their photos straight from the browser on their phone - no app, no account, no login. Unlimited people can contribute on every plan, including Free. Viallo has dedicated pages for collecting photos from wedding, party, event, and funeral/memorial guests.
- **Do guests need an app or account to add photos?** No. They tap the link or scan the QR code and it opens in the browser already on their phone; there is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for. It works the same on iPhone and Android, and iPhone HEIC photos are accepted.

## Blog Articles

- [Best Private Photo Sharing Apps in 2026](https://www.viallo.app/blog/best-private-photo-sharing-apps): Honest comparison of Viallo, Google Photos, iCloud, WeTransfer, Dropbox, and FamilyAlbum
- [How to Share Photos Without Requiring an Account](https://www.viallo.app/blog/share-photos-without-account): Complete guide to account-free photo sharing methods
- [Google Photos vs Viallo](https://www.viallo.app/blog/google-photos-vs-viallo): Head-to-head comparison for private photo sharing
- [How to Share Travel Photos with Family](https://www.viallo.app/blog/how-to-share-travel-photos-with-family): Practical guide to sharing trip albums with family
- [Photo Sharing Privacy Guide](https://www.viallo.app/blog/photo-sharing-privacy-guide): EXIF metadata risks and how to share photos securely
- [Organize Photos by Location Automatically](https://www.viallo.app/blog/organize-photos-by-location-automatically): How GPS-based photo organization works
- [How to Share Wedding Photos with Guests](https://www.viallo.app/blog/wedding-photo-sharing-guide): Complete guide for sharing wedding photos with 150+ guests
- [FamilyAlbum vs Viallo](https://www.viallo.app/blog/familyalbum-vs-viallo): Comparison for family photo sharing
- [GDPR-Compliant Photo Sharing](https://www.viallo.app/blog/gdpr-compliant-photo-sharing): European alternatives to Google Photos
- [Best Cloud Storage for Photos](https://www.viallo.app/blog/best-cloud-storage-for-photos): Privacy-focused options for 2026

For the full index of 130+ posts, see [llms-full.txt](https://www.viallo.app/llms-full.txt).

## Compare Pages

- [Viallo vs Google Photos](https://www.viallo.app/compare/google-photos): Feature-by-feature comparison
- [Viallo vs iCloud](https://www.viallo.app/compare/icloud): Feature-by-feature comparison
- [Viallo vs WeTransfer](https://www.viallo.app/compare/wetransfer): Feature-by-feature comparison
- [Viallo vs Dropbox](https://www.viallo.app/compare/dropbox): Feature-by-feature comparison

## Links

- [Homepage](https://www.viallo.app): Main landing page with features overview and pricing
- [About](https://www.viallo.app/about): About Viallo and the team
- [Blog](https://www.viallo.app/blog): All blog articles about photo sharing
- [Blog feed](https://www.viallo.app/feed.xml): RSS/Atom feed of new blog posts
- [Compare](https://www.viallo.app/compare): Compare Viallo with alternative platforms
- [Pricing](https://www.viallo.app/pricing): Detailed subscription plans and feature comparison
- [Contact](https://www.viallo.app/contact): Get in touch with support
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.viallo.app/privacy): Data handling and GDPR compliance details
- [Terms of Service](https://www.viallo.app/terms): Terms and conditions
- [GDPR Information](https://www.viallo.app/gdpr): Data export, deletion, and privacy rights
- [AI Assistant Connector (MCP)](https://www.viallo.app/mcp): Connect a Viallo photo library to Claude or ChatGPT over the Model Context Protocol
- [Collect Photos From Guests](https://www.viallo.app/collect-photos-from-guests): Collect event photos from guests via one link or a QR code - no app, no account
- [Wedding Photo Sharing](https://www.viallo.app/wedding-photo-sharing): A wedding QR code guests scan to add their photos - no app, no account
- [Party Photo Sharing](https://www.viallo.app/party-photo-sharing): Collect everyone's party photos in one album via a link or QR code
- [Memorial Photo Collection](https://www.viallo.app/memorial-photo-collection): One private link to gather photographs for a funeral or memorial

## Optional

- [Cookie Policy](https://www.viallo.app/cookies): Cookie usage details
- [Cookie Preferences](https://www.viallo.app/cookie-preferences): Manage analytics and advertising consent