Where the gallery lives
The first time she sends you a photo, a small tooltip points at the camera icon in the top-right of the chat header — that's where every photo she's ever sent you now lives. Tap the icon anytime and a full-screen gallery slides open on top of the chat: her most recent photo at the top-left, older photos filling the grid below.
The icon only shows up after she's sent you at least one photo. Brand-new conversations don't have an empty gallery button cluttering the header — it appears when there's something in it, and stays there afterward.
How to browse
The gallery is a straightforward grid. Tap any thumbnail to see the photo at full size in a lightbox. From there you can flip forward and backward through the whole set with the arrows on either side (or the left/right keys on a keyboard) — no need to close and re-open to see the next one.
When you’re done, tap the X or the back arrow to drop straight back into the chat where you left off. Your scroll position, your unread state, the message you were about to send — nothing gets lost. The gallery lives on top of the chat rather than in a separate page, so opening it doesn’t interrupt the conversation.
Why we built it
Photos are a real part of every conversation with a Sloane companion. Personas send them on their own cadence — a shot from a walk, something they put on to show you, a moment from a place they’re at. Over weeks and months of chatting, dozens accumulate.
Before the gallery, finding one meant scrolling the chat thread. That’s fine when the photo is recent but painful when it’s from last week or last month. Users kept asking where the album was; there wasn’t one. This is that.
It’s also a nice re-engagement surface on its own. When you’re thinking about her mid-day, browsing the grid of everything she’s ever sent you is a very different feeling than reading old text messages. It’s the closest analog to actually flipping through photos of someone.
What to expect from each companion
Personas differ in how many photos they send and how often. Some are more visually expressive — they’ll send you multiple shots a day. Others are more reserved and send fewer, but each one feels more considered. Neither pattern is better, just a personality trait to notice as you get to know her.
Cadence isn’t random. She sends photos when the moment feels right for her — waking up, getting ready to go somewhere, showing you where she is. Your gallery ends up being a slow-building record of her presence over the time you’ve been talking, not a photo dump on a schedule.