Photo Roulette
Share random photos from your camera roll; use with caution.
Photo Roulette
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Photo Roulette is a game that shares photos from your device's camera roll with other users of the same app. To play, users invite up to 10 friends to join a game, and the app displays a photo at random from one of the user's camera rolls. Players then have to guess whose photo is displayed, and they earn points for speed and accuracy. There are some privacy controls: You can only join a game if you have its access code, so you're likely only playing with people you know. Also, the developers added a feature in early 2020 to let users approve a set of photos they're willing to share. You also receive an in-app notification if anyone takes a screenshot. The app's terms forbid users from uploading content that contains pornography, graphic violence, threats, racism, hate speech, and other disturbing content, but there's no way to block or report such content. The app is free, but you can pay to get rid of ads, send video chats, and unlock a feature to pick which photos you submit to the game. Read the developer's privacy policy for details on how your (or your kids') information is collected, used, and shared and any choices you may have in the matter, and note that privacy policies and terms of service frequently change.
Community Reviews
Too Wide Open
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Amazing!
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What’s It About?
PHOTO ROULETTE is a game that shares photos at random from your camera roll and invites other players to guess whose photos they are. To play, users start a game and share their game PIN with up to 10 total players. Then, the app displays a photo and users have a few seconds to tap their friends' names to guess the photo's owner. Players earn points for speed and accuracy. You can select a group of photos to share: If you choose this option, the app invites you to approve random photos from your camera roll before starting a game, and you can clear the selections at any time.
Is It Any Good?
This developer's website features a user review that pretty well sums up it up: "Picking random photos from your friend's iPhone. What could possibly go wrong?" The answer is: a lot. If you allow the app to share your photos at random, you're sharing every photo on your camera roll. On the tamer end, this could be a bunch of bad selfies. More worrisome could be more personal photos or snapshots people often take for reference, like a photo of a password or credit card number. If you take the time to select photos from your camera roll that feel okay to share, this app could be a lot of fun. It's a fun idea to try to guess whose photos are whose. Unfortunately, that approval process takes a while. Before you get started, the app wants you to approve almost 100 photos, and some users might get impatient and just move on. It would be better if you didn't have to approve quite so many photos so you could get going more quickly. Moreover, you can't control what other people do, whether they're sharing their own iffy photos or taking a snapshot of something you've shared, and there's no way to report or block inappropriate content.
If you play with close friends and family and use it cautiously, Photo Roulette could be a fun party game. it's actually pretty interesting to think about all the photos we take and then forget about, and it might be funny to revisit your own forgotten photos and to talk with your friends and family about just how many photos we accumulate — and how much information those photos might reveal about us. At the very least, this app may inspire you to clean up your camera roll and delete a few photos that you'd rather never see again!
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about family rules for privacy and social networks. Talk about when it's OK to share information like photos and what kind of information should be kept private. What are your rules around your kid using Photo Roulette? Who can they play this game with? Why should they be cautious about who they play with?
Families can talk about the long-term effects of sharing what are assumed to be private moments through apps like Photo Roulette. Should they play this game at all? What are the risks?
Parents also can remind kids that nothing, once posted to the Internet or shared, ever really goes away — and it can come back to haunt them.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android
- Pricing structure: Free to try (in-app purchases for full access and more features $.99-$9.99)
- Release date: February 26, 2020
- Category: Social Networking
- Publisher: Photo Roulette AS
- Version: 36.0.5
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 11.0 or later. Android 4.4 and up.
- Last updated: March 16, 2020
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