Notify clients when a gallery goes live

A visitor who has found the gallery can ask to be told when there is something new in it. A quiet Get notified pill appears after they have looked around for a moment; one tap, the browser asks its own permission question, and that is the whole setup. Nothing is installed and nobody has to hand over an email address to do it.

What they are told about

Two moments, and only these two:

• The gallery goes live. "The photos are live. Tap to view the gallery."
• One year on. When One-Year-Ago-Tonight brings the gallery back, subscribers hear about it.

Downloads, favorites and comments never trigger a notification to visitors. Those are your moments, not theirs.

Rules it keeps

• Opt-in only. The permission question is asked only when someone taps the pill, never on page load, and a dismissal is remembered for that gallery.
• Same door as the gallery. Subscribing goes through the gallery's own access gate, so a password-locked or private gallery only takes subscribers who could open it, and a gallery that has gone dark stops sending.
• Anonymous is fine. If the visitor has given a name and email, the subscription is tied to it; if not, it still works.
• Gone means gone. When a browser drops its subscription, the record is deleted on the next send.

iPhone and iPad

Safari only allows notifications for a gallery that has been added to the home screen. Visitors on iOS who want them add the gallery from Safari's share sheet first; the pill appears once the gallery opens from there.

Notifications are on every plan.