The disposable camera, for video.

Why it works

Put a disposable camera on the table and the party films itself. Anyone picks it up, nobody checks the shot, and afterward there's one roll of the night instead of everyone's separate photos.

Disposable camera apps brought that ritual to phones, and the category grew up around photos. With VideoBro, the people there add clips from their own phones to one shared tape, and Develop turns it into one film, everyone's footage in the order it was shot.

What's the same, and what isn't

• Same: everyone shoots. Up to eight people on a tape, including you, each on their own iPhone.
• Same: nobody edits. Trim and delete are there if you want them. Nothing else is, and nothing is required.
• Same: one thing at the end. One film, not a folder of clips.
• Different: it's video. Sound, movement, the toast as it happened.
• Different: no forced wait. The tape plays as it fills, and Develop takes the minutes it takes. If the reveal is the fun part, don't watch until morning.
• Different: no exposure count. The tape counts toward its owner's free 2 GB, about an hour of footage, until it's developed.

Setting one up takes a minute: tap New Tape, then Collab and Invite to send the link. Everyone taps REC and films with the iPhone Camera app, held sideways, and every horizontal clip lands on the tape by itself. When it's over, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop. What Develop does.

Does everyone need the app?

To add clips, yes. Filming into a tape and adding clips both happen in the VideoBro app on an iPhone; there's no way to add from a browser. A friend who joins from your invite needs the app but not an account.

A friend on Android can't join the tape. They can send their videos to someone who's on it, who adds them with +; ask for the original file, since a copy sent through a chat app may lose the date it was filmed. If half the group is on Android, other ways to combine videos fit better. Watching is different: the finished film plays from a link in any browser, on any device, with no app and no account.

Made for a weekend, not a ballroom

Eight people per tape, on every plan, is a crew: a bachelorette weekend, a trip, a birthday. Pick the friends who'll actually film. What to text them.

For a wedding where every guest should contribute, a QR-code guest camera is built for that. How the two kinds compare.

Questions people ask first

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