Version 1.30 of Snappic adds support for local sharing station syncing. This feature enhances your experience by allowing seamless synchronization between photo booths and nearby sharing stations without an internet connection. Prepare for a more efficient and streamlined process, perfect for keeping the fun flowing!
Important notes
Before starting, please make sure that access is allowed to all available items under the device settings, as seen in the image below. Once all of this is enabled, you can continue with the article. This is done to ensure that Local Sync works as expected,
As well as, devices in use need to have WiFi and Bluetooth enabled
lastly, both devices need to be running Photobooth and Share station respectively
Key Features of Local Sharing Station Sync:
No Internet Required: Sync photo booths with nearby sharing stations without needing an internet connection. Note that a working internet connection is still needed to share with guests.
Reduced Wait Times: Guests can quickly enter their details at a separate sharing station, freeing up the photo booth for the next user.
Fast Syncing: Sessions will appear on the sharing station within seconds, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience.
Multiple Device Support: Sync multiple photo booths with multiple sharing stations simultaneously. There is no limit to the number of photo booths or sharing stations.
How to Use the Local Sync:
Simply start the sharing station, and it will start syncing with all the nearby devices that are running the same event on a Snappic photo booth.
The discovery of nearby photo booths is automatic. You just need to make sure that the photo booth and sharing station are both running and that they are running the same event.
The devices don't even need to be on the same network as long as they are near each other.
The Local sharing station sync operates under similar restrictions as AirDrop:
The devices must be within 10 meters (30 feet) of each other, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth must be on.
If the sharing station can't find a photo booth because it's too far away, or if syncing is slow for the same reason, you can also connect them to the same local network to improve this.
NOTE:
Syncing is one-way only. The photo booth will sync new sessions and deletions to sharing stations, but sharing stations won't sync changes to a photo booth.
If you want to delete a session from all devices, either do it from the event dashboard online or from a photo booth that will sync the change to nearby sharing stations.
Deleting Sessions
When sessions are deleted from the online gallery using the web-based event dashboard, these deletions will be synced to any sharing station that is syncing with the online gallery.
This means that the session will automatically be deleted from the sharing station as well.
When deleting a session directly from a Snappic photo booth device (iPad, iPhone, or Mac) using the Manage Queue page, you will be given the option to delete it from that device only or to also sync the deletion to nearby sharing stations. *
Note that deleting a session directly from a Snappic photo booth does not delete the session from the online gallery; it only syncs the deletion to nearby sharing stations when the photo booth is started and running.
Sharing Station Admin Menu
We have added a menu to the admin screen when running a sharing station that allows you to see which photo booths have been found nearby and access controls related to them.
To access the sharing station admin menu, tap the Back button at the top left of the gallery page of the sharing station. This will bring up the passcode lock. Switch over to Admin mode above the keypad, and then enter your event passcode. On the next screen, select the Sharing Station option.
The screenshot below shows a bigger version of the sharing station admin menu:
Here, you can see that there are two galleries from which the sharing station will sync: The online gallery and a gallery on a nearby device named Snappic's iPad.
The stop/start button can be used to stop or start downloading sessions from a gallery. For example, if you don't want to download sessions from the Online Gallery, you can simply tap the Stop button in the row for the Online Gallery.
This view shows some stats for the galleries, so you can see how the syncing process is going at a glance. In the screenshot above, you can see that this sharing station has a total of 202 sessions that have been uploaded to the Online Gallery (The Available column). 3 sessions have been deleted from this sharing station, so the Synced column shows that this sharing station has 199 sessions synced to this iPad out of the 202 available. The Downloaded column shows that this station has 198 sessions downloaded of the 199 sessions synced, meaning there is only 1 remaining session to download. A session will only show in the sharing station once it has been downloaded.
The gallery on Snappic's iPad only has 1 session available, and that session has been synced and downloaded to this sharing station.
The sharing station will automatically sync with the Online Gallery, and also all nearby photo booths whenever they have any new data. It will also sync every 60 seconds, in case network conditions prevent the sharing station from being notified about changes.
Once a sharing station has synced with a gallery and it knows what sessions are available in that gallery, it can start downloading those sessions. If you want to force a sync, tap the Sync Latest button. This will only sync sessions that this sharing station has not seen before. This allows you to delete a session off the sharing station, without worrying that it will be downloaded again the next time it syncs with that gallery. If you ever want to download all the sessions that have been deleted, tap the Resync All button. As long as the sessions are still available in the gallery, they will be downloaded again once the sync finishes.