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Photos and videos on a menu item

A diner scrolls past the description and stops on the photo. The gallery lives in the Photos tab of the Studio card.

The rule

One photo, three sizes, every screen. A thumbnail, a medium version and the original are kept, and the right one is served automatically. You never pick the size.

Three ways to add a photo

  1. Upload — from the chef’s phone. Up to 10 MB; HEIC, JPG, PNG and WebP all convert on the way in.
  2. AI Generate — pick a look from the row of sample pictures. Each one shows a real photo that look produced, so you can see the difference between a studio shot, a table scene and a close-up before you spend anything. Any house look you designed in Photo Studio appears here too, so an item photo matches the rest of your photography.
  3. AI photo — make a photo you already have look better. Press Edit on the photo. The original stays. You pick a Photo studio look from a row of sample pictures. You can also pick your own place photos: one as the Background, one for the Plating. See A dish photo in your own place. On the Free plan a dish holds one photo, so there the better photo takes the old one’s place.

You can also send a photo to the Telegram chat and put it on a dish. It arrives hidden. See Add a photo to a dish from Telegram.

You can also use a photo from your Library. In Add media, press Library. Then press Use this photo. We copy it onto the dish. The photo in your Library stays. To change it first, press Edit with AI on the photo. This is free, and a photo the dish already has is not added again.

Every photo you upload or make with AI here is also saved in your Library, so you can use it again on another dish or in a post.

Short videos too

Upload a video the same way, or use the Add a video box on the Video tab. MP4, MOV or WebM. Five to ten seconds is best. Every video you upload also goes into your Library.

We make the video smaller on your phone or computer before it uploads. This does not use your internet. The video keeps the first 30 seconds. You see a line that says the old size and the new size.

Put the star on a video and it plays on the menu. The card for that item plays the video while a guest scrolls. This works on the menu grid, on the swipe rows and on the section pages. The video has no sound there. The photo you had is still the share image.

On the item page a film stays at the top. The video shows below it, first in the photos.

A video tile has the same shape as the video. A tall phone video gets a tall tile.

In the menu list you see the first picture of the video, with a small ▶. Put your mouse on the item and the video plays. The list does not load any video before that, so it stays fast.

You do not have to film anything: see Video on an item.

  • The hero — tap the star. That photo leads the grid card, the social share and the detail gallery. Picking a new one un-marks the old. Star a video and the menu card plays it.
  • The order — drag tiles. Saves automatically; the hero always leads regardless.
  • Visible / Hidden — the bar under each tile. Visible means guests see it on the menu. Press it and it says Hidden. The tile stays in your gallery.
  • Download — the down arrow pulls the full-resolution original.

Captions and alt text

Tap any tile to edit them. Caption shows under the photo on the public page — short and evocative, “Hand-rolled in our kitchen.” Alt text describes the picture: “Plate of cacio e pepe topped with cracked pepper.”

New photos arrive with the item’s own name already in Alt text, so nothing is ever blank. It is a starting point, not a good description — replace it when you can, because a sentence about what is actually in the frame is worth more to both a screen reader and your SEO score.

Alt text isn’t only for screen readers — it’s what the AI reads when it can’t see the picture, and one of the things your item’s SEO score is graded on.

Where the new picture goes

When the item already has photos, AI Generate asks before it finishes:

  • Add it — the new picture joins the ones you have. This is the default.
  • Replace them — the new picture becomes the only one, and the current photos are removed.

If the item has no photos yet, the question doesn’t appear — there is nothing to replace.

Good to know

  • The AI buttons cost credits. The exact price shows beside the button before you press it, and a bigger size costs more. If your balance is short you’ll see that too — your numbers, and a link to top up.
  • Deleting a photo is permanent. There’s no recycle bin. If you might want it back, press Visible to hide it instead.
  • On the Free plan each dish holds one photo. Guests only ever see one photo per dish on the Free plan, so the second one was work for nothing. Photos you added before stay where they are. Change your plan to add more.
  • On a paid plan each dish holds 20 photos and videos. To add a new one, delete one first. Photos you added before stay where they are.
  • AI photo still works on the Free plan. The better photo takes the place of the one you enhanced. It keeps the star and the same spot. The old photo goes.