Why We Built Shared Booth, a Photo Booth for Two People in Two Places

For months, one small photo strip sat on my desk. A close friend and I took it at a mall booth, just before they went back to their own city. Every time I looked at it, I wanted to make another one, and I couldn't.

That strip became LensBooth, and the full origin is in the story behind LensBooth. This post is about one feature, Shared Booth, and the choices behind how it works.

Why a video call screenshot never felt like enough

My friend and I already had video calls. We'd take screenshots during them, grainy faces in two boxes, and they'd vanish into my camera roll within a week.

A screenshot captures a call, not a moment. Nobody is ready for it, the boxes never line up, and there's no reason to keep it. The mall strip was different because it was finished. It had a start, a countdown, a few frames, and an end.

So the goal was never a better video call. It was a way for two people far apart to make one finished thing together.

Why Shared Booth is built for exactly two people

People ask why it's not a group booth. The honest answer is that a real photo booth is small. You squeeze in with one person, maybe two, and that closeness is the point.

Two cameras also keep the countdown tight. Every extra person adds another connection that can lag, and one slow camera spoils the frame for everyone. With two, both shots land together almost every time.

For a bigger group in one room, Solo Booth works better. Everyone crowds around one camera, like a mall booth with too many people in it.

Why it opens from a link, with no app or account

The person who starts a booth is always keen. It's the second person who decides whether it happens.

If that person has to install an app, make an account and verify an email, many simply won't. So Shared Booth runs in the browser and sends a private link or a six-character code. Your friend taps it, allows the camera, and they're in.

I wrote more about that trade-off in our browser photo booth vs app comparison. The short version is that a link loses almost nobody.

Why one shared countdown matters more than anything

Early on, the obvious shortcut was letting each person shoot separately and stitching the photos afterwards. It looked wrong every single time we tried. One person blinked, the other was mid-laugh, and the strip felt like two photos glued together.

So both screens run one countdown, and every frame captures both cameras at the same moment. That's what makes a shared strip feel like you stood in the same booth.

Your two browsers connect straight to each other for the live view. The video isn't recorded on our servers, and guest strips save to your own device. Our privacy policy covers the details.

What people did with it that I didn't expect

I assumed Shared Booth would mostly mean couples on anniversaries. That turned out to be a small part of it.

One person used it to take birthday photos with a friend they hadn't seen in three years. Someone else made it a weekly tradition. Siblings living abroad send booth links to their parents back home, and grandparents pose with grandchildren in other countries.

Military families use it during deployments, and friends at different colleges squeeze in a strip between classes. None of them wanted a perfect photo. They wanted a minute in the same frame.

Want to make it a habit? These long-distance relationship activities and tips for staying close with long-distance friends both build on it. You'll find more keepsake ideas in our guide to making digital memories online.

What Shared Booth still can't do

It's worth being clear about the limits, so nobody gets caught out on a special night.

• It fits two people, not a group call.
• Both of you need a steady internet connection for the live view.
• Instagram, TikTok and other in-app browsers often block the camera, so open the link in a normal browser.
• It needs a camera on both ends, though either device can be a phone or a laptop.

Is the camera refusing to start? Our guide to fixing a camera in the browser usually sorts it out.

Frequently Asked Questions

One strip, two cities

Shared Booth exists because one strip on my desk wasn't enough. If someone you miss lives somewhere else, send them a link to our online photobooth for long-distance couples and friends. The strip you make together might end up on two desks.

Curious how it compares with other options? Our guide to what a virtual photo booth is explains the basics. You can also jump into the shared photo booth right now.