TakeALook
TakeALook
For iPhone, iPhone Duo, and iPad
Pick an album, a date range, or just a few photos. Pass the device across the table. They swipe through exactly what you chose — and nothing else.
Free to use. One‑time upgrade for every album. No subscription.
The problem
You hand over your phone to show one photo. They swipe. Then they swipe again. Everyone has had this moment.
How it works
1
An album, a date range, or a handful of specific photos.
2
See exactly what they’ll see, and leave anything out.
3
The selection locks. Ending it takes some effort — as much or as little as you choose.
New in 2.0
Tap play and the handoff moves on by itself, from every 3 seconds to every 5 minutes, sliding or fading between items. Start Automatically opens a handoff already playing, and a swipe pauses it.
From Hand It Over, keep a set by saving it to a new or existing Photos album, in the order shown. TakeALook never edits or deletes your photos.
Open it like a book for a page on each side, with Sync Pages to turn both together. Set it on the table with the photo standing over its reflection, or stand it as a tent facing your guest. See each posture.
Ask Siri to “show the waterfall last summer in TakeALook” and it gathers the set for you to check before anyone else sees it. Apple’s on‑device model reads only your words, never your photos.
On iOS 27, search can also match the captions and keywords you add in Photos, a Shortcuts action sends selected photos straight to TakeALook, and Guided Access Help gives you the words to ask Siri when setting up an automation. Also new since 1.1: Live Photos and GIFs play, capture times show the time zone where a photo was taken, a blurred backdrop fills the space around each photo, Enhanced Search is one switch that builds faster, and Remember Last Selection brings back your last album and dates.
iPhone Duo
TakeALook follows the hinge as it moves and lays out each posture for the person across from you. The layout changes by itself — just fold it the way you want to share. Split View works too, with TakeALook in one half beside another app. Watch it fold.
Each side shows its own page. Sync Pages, on by default, turns both together.
The photo stands on the upper half, and a soft reflection of it lies on the table below, following every swipe, slideshow, and video.
The outer display faces your guest. Turn on Start in Tent Mode and the slideshow begins by itself.
Watch
Real screen recordings of TakeALook, set on a moving iPhone and iPhone Duo. None runs longer than forty seconds.
One photo, then one swipe too far. Pick the photos first, take out the rest, and hand it over: that set is all a guest can reach.
25 seconds
Skip the scrolling. Describe the photos you want, check the set TakeALook gathers, and hand it over.
21 seconds
For the guest who’d rather watch: tap play, pick a speed, and the photos move on by themselves.
21 seconds
Open it like a book, set it down on the table, then stand it up as a tent with the slideshow facing your guest.
37 seconds
Every feature, step by step, in one seven-minute walkthrough: first launch and the demo, choosing photos by album, date or description, handing your phone over, what a guest can and can’t do, the slideshow, ending a handoff, Guided Access, Siri and Shortcuts, Full Access, Settings, and iPad and iPhone Duo.
It has 21 chapters, so you can skip to the part you need. Each answer under How do I… on the support page links to its chapter.
7 minutes · 21 chapters
Prefer the plain recordings? The App Store previews are on YouTube too: See it in use, Just describe it, and Choose what they see.
In their hands
Everything they need to enjoy the photos. Nothing that reaches past them.
Ending a handoff
Handing your phone to your mother is not the same as handing it to someone you just met. The same handoff can end in a second and a half, or not at all until you unlock it — and you can change your mind between one and the next.
Default — nothing to set up
A second and a half on a button ends the handoff. Long enough that a stray tap never does.
One minute to set up
A code only you know replaces the press and hold. There is no holding your way past it.
Apple’s own lock
iOS confines the device to TakeALook. The swipe‑away is gone until you unlock it.
Set it once, forget it
A Shortcut starts that lock the moment TakeALook opens, so you cannot forget to.
iPad
Not a stretched phone layout. TakeALook lays out deliberately on iPad in both orientations — the natural device to hand across a table.
Privacy
Your photos and videos never leave your device.
There is no sign‑in, no server of ours, and not one line of third‑party code in the app — no analytics, no crash reporter, no advertising framework.
Guests can’t change your library. TakeALook never edits or deletes your photos, and creates an album or adds photos to one only when you choose Save to Album.
Place names, local times, and maps come from Apple Maps, using each photo’s coordinates and nothing else — and you can switch that off entirely.
Pricing
Every protection is in the free version. Paying changes which photos you can pick from — never how safe the handoff is.
Questions
