— Blog · Events —
Virtual parties got a bad reputation during the lockdown years. The format was crammed into every social occasion — birthdays, weddings, graduations, happy hours — and most of them felt flat. Talking heads on a grid, a half-hearted toast, then everyone drifted off. The problem wasn't virtual gatherings themselves. The problem was that nothing on the call gave anyone something to do.
A virtual photobooth fixes that. It turns the call from a conversation into an event. Here's how to run one well.
The setup is genuinely minimal:
That's it. No special hardware, no professional setup, no specific operating system.
A virtual photobooth party works best with a clear structure. Here's a 60-minute version:
Standard call opening. Everyone joins. Quick hellos. Host explains the format: "We're going to do photobooth rounds — everyone takes a strip with a theme, shares them in chat, we react. We'll do four rounds. No pressure to participate in every round, but everyone's encouraged to try at least one."
Host announces the first theme. Examples: "Take a strip showing what your apartment looks like right now." "Take a strip of your most ridiculous expressions." "Take a strip with the closest pet, child, or houseplant."
Everyone goes to their own Roll Booth tab, takes a strip, and posts it in the shared chat. The call stays live but quiet for about 5 minutes. Then the strips come in, one by one, and everyone reacts.
Pair people off (or assign small groups). Each pair calls each other separately, takes a "joint" strip — one person on each side, photographed during a shared video moment, then composited together later. Or: each person takes a strip in their own space, with the same theme, and the strips get laid out side-by-side to make a group strip.
Now the rounds get sillier. "Take a strip while doing one push-up between each frame." "Take a strip while eating something messy." "Take a strip pretending to be a different person." Challenges generate the funniest strips of the night.
Host pulls up the shared album and screen-shares it for the whole group. Everyone scrolls through the strips of the evening together, reacting in real time. This is the "applause" of the event — the moment where everyone gets to appreciate what was made together.
Good themes have three properties: they're easy to interpret, they invite specific behavior, and they don't require props no one has.
Avoid themes that require:
At the end of the call, the host collects all the strips into a single shared folder or album and sends it to everyone. This is the equivalent of "guests taking their prints home." Without this step, the strips will scatter across personal phones and never resurface. With it, every guest has a permanent record of the night.
If you want to go further: assemble the strips into a single PDF or contact sheet and email it out within 48 hours. This is the digital equivalent of the wedding guestbook — a paper artifact that survives the moment.
Virtual photobooth parties are surprisingly good for:
What they're not great for: large groups (over 12 gets hard to coordinate), events where most people don't know each other, or anything formal. The format thrives on warmth and silliness.
The virtual photobooth doesn't replace the in-person one. It does something different — and that difference is what makes a video call feel like an event.