Roaming Mode

Not every event happens inside a booth. With Roaming mode, an attendant can walk around the venue, snap guests on the fly, and still run them through your normal templates, effects, and sharing flow.

What Is Roaming Mode?

Roaming mode turns ALIVE into a handheld photo experience — designed for operators who walk the venue instead of sitting behind a stationary booth. Enable it and the app adapts to a mobile-friendly capture flow.

It's ideal for:

• Roaming photographers covering a venue with an iPad
• Cocktail hour and candid moments where guests don't want to line up at a booth
• Large events where a single booth can't reach every guest
• Hybrid setups that combine a stationary booth with a roaming attendant

Enabling Roaming Mode

1. Open Settings in the ALIVE app
2. Find the Roaming section
3. Toggle Enable Roaming Mode on
4. Configure the sub-settings below to match your workflow

Roaming Settings

Roaming mode has three optional sub-settings. Each one is independent — turn on the ones that fit your event.

Disable Countdown

What it does: Replaces the auto-countdown with a manual capture button. The operator taps to shoot — no timer.

When to use: Always, for most roaming setups. Countdown timers make sense for a stationary booth where the guest is posed and waiting, but not when the operator is walking around snapping candids.

Excess Media Capture

What it does: Lets the operator take more photos than the template requires, then pick the best ones from a photo-picker grid. If your template has 3 photo slots, the operator can shoot 6, 8, or 10 photos and select the best 3 after the fact.

When to use: When you want the safety net of extra shots. The picker shows thumbnails in a grid — tap photos in the order they should appear in the template, and confirm when you've selected enough.

Continuous Capture

What it does: Skips the sharing page after each session and returns straight to the camera. The session uploads in the background while the operator moves on to the next group.

When to use: High-volume roaming where speed matters. The operator captures, confirms, and is immediately back to the camera — no tapping through a share screen between guests.

The Roaming Flow

With all three sub-settings enabled, the workflow looks like this:

1. Capture freely — The operator taps the shutter as many times as they want. No countdown timer, no fixed count.
2. Pick the best shots — A photo-picker grid appears. The operator taps photos in the order they should fill the template slots.
3. Confirm — Once the required number of photos is selected (one per template slot), the operator confirms.
4. Session is created — ALIVE builds a session from the selected photos, applies the event's effect and template, and queues it for upload in the background.
5. Back to camera — The operator is immediately back on the capture screen, ready for the next group. No sharing screen in between.

With fewer sub-settings enabled, the flow adjusts — for example, without Excess Media Capture, the operator takes exactly the number of photos the template needs (like standard mode, just without the countdown). Without Continuous Capture, the sharing screen appears after each session as usual.

Selecting Photos in Order (Excess Media Capture)

When Excess Media Capture is enabled, the order you tap photos is the order they'll appear in the template. If your template has three photo slots, the first photo you tap fills slot 1, the second fills slot 2, and so on.

• Tap a photo to select it — a numbered badge shows its order
• Tap again to deselect it — the remaining selections renumber automatically
• Once you reach the required count, the Confirm button unlocks

Headless Session Processing

When you confirm a session (or when Continuous Capture returns you to the camera), the session is handed off to the background upload pipeline. That means:

• You can start the next group straight away — no waiting for uploads
• The effect (AI, ALIVE Effect, camera, GIF, green screen, etc.) runs in the background
• The finished session appears in the Sessions list and Gallery once processing completes
• Slow or patchy Wi-Fi won't block you from capturing — sessions queue and upload when the network catches up

Sharing Roaming Sessions With Guests

Roaming sessions show up exactly like any other session — in the Gallery, in the Sessions list, and at any branded share URL you've configured. Guests can find their photos by:

• Scanning a QR code the operator shows them after capture
• Entering the event gallery link (printed cards, social posts, etc.)
• Searching the event gallery by session

See Understanding Sessions for how sessions work and how guests retrieve their media.

Tips

• Start with all three sub-settings enabled — Disable Countdown + Excess Media Capture + Continuous Capture is the full roaming experience. Dial back from there if needed.
• Watch your framing — No live template preview means you have to keep aspect ratio in mind. Compose for the template's shape.
• Shoot more than you need — With Excess Media Capture on, selecting from six good shots is easier than stretching two okay ones.
• Brief the attendant — Roaming works best with a dedicated operator who knows the template and the event's vibe.
• Use good lighting — Without a fixed booth setup, lighting is the single biggest factor in photo quality.
• Keep moving — The whole point is reach. Capture, pick, confirm, walk on.

What's Next?

• How Photo Capture Works — The standard booth capture flow
• Understanding Sessions — How sessions are stored and shared
• Selecting a Template for Your Event — Choose the template roaming sessions use

Updated on: 07/05/2026