Lately
The photos from the last few hours, in one album with a QR code.
Lately is an Android app and a website for sharing photos with everyone who was there. Whoever takes the pictures makes the album; everyone else scans the code and saves what they want at full quality, on iPhone, Android or a laptop, with nothing to install.
The home page cycles through game day, a wedding, a birthday, camping and a graduation.
1 · 4 · 8 · 24 h
how far back an album reaches, or Now to fill it as you shoot
0
apps or accounts a guest needs to see and save the photos
0
npm dependencies in the album server
0.2.3
the Android beta, downloaded straight from the site
The idea
Getting everyone’s photos to everyone else
My sister came to me with the idea. After a game, a wedding or a trip, the photos end up stuck on whoever took them. AirDrop only works between iPhones, a group text shrinks every picture, and most shared-album apps ask everyone to sign up first.
Lately fixes that from one side. You pick how far back to go, the app puts those photos in an album, and it shows a QR code. The album is just a web page, so it works the same on any phone or computer, and guests can add their own photos to it.
How it works
Three steps, and only one person needs the app
01
Pick how far back
The last 1, 4, 8 or 24 hours, or Now for an empty album that fills as you shoot. Tap any photo to leave it out.
02
Show the code
People scan the QR code or open the link. Add a password and they type it once.
03
Everyone saves
The album opens in their browser. One tap saves the photos to their camera roll at full quality.
The app
Real screens from the Android beta
The first two are the app itself. The third is the page a guest gets after scanning, and it’s the public demo album, so you can open it on your own phone.
Features
Made for a group taking pictures at once
Any phone to any phone
iPhone to Android, Android to iPhone, or onto a laptop as a zip. Always the original files, videos too.
Auto-share
Turn it on and every new photo goes straight into one live album until the time you set. Screenshots never go.
Guests add theirs
People with the code can upload their own photos from the browser, so the album collects everyone’s shots.
Private when you want
An optional password, a link that expires, and removing any photo later. Closing an album deletes the shared copies.
Only what you pick
Lately never uploads your whole library, just the window you chose, minus the photos you tapped to leave out.
Free in beta
No account, no ads. The Android app downloads straight from the site while Google Play and the iPhone version are on the way.
The website
latelyphotos.com
The site explains the app, hosts the beta download and sign-up, and serves every shared album. Its phone screens are built in HTML and CSS, and the hero cycles through real occasions the way the app gets used.
How it’s built
A React Native app and a server with no dependencies
Android app
- React Native and Expo
- A Kotlin module for Auto-share
- Built and signed on my own machine
Album server
- Plain Node.js, no npm packages
- Streams whole albums as a zip
- Password cookies signed with HMAC
Website
- Pages generated by a Python script
- Use-case pages for search
- Served from my own server
Brand
- Logo: clock hands that form an L
- Bricolage Grotesque type
- Gold, paper and dusk colours
- Auto-share runs as an Android foreground service of type specialUse, because Android 15 limits the usual dataSync type to six hours a day and blocks it from starting at boot
- Albums live on disk, and each phone proves it owns an album with a device key; the server keeps only a hash of it
- The same web page is the guest view on every device, which is what makes iPhone to Android work without an iPhone app yet
Try it at your next get-together
Lately is free while it’s in beta. Get the Android app from the site, or open the demo album on your phone to see what your guests would see.