Heartbeat Photos

0:00 Heartbeat Photos, at h.ki/photos/, is Heartbeat's photo gallery, built so that hovering over a thumbnail shows the full image without a click; you sign in with Google, drag photos from a computer or phone into a gallery, and share it by its link. Its own words on the signed-out page are "A better way to view your photos: Just hover!" (Nov 7, 2026). Almost everything in it has a key, listed below.

Quick facts

Seen on h.ki on Nov 7, 2026; the keys are from "All Heartbeat Photos features - No fluff" (Jan 1, 2024).

Every key

From the Jan 1, 2024 video, whose chapters list each key; the ? dialog on the site is the place to check them today.

Upload and organize

0:08 After signing in with Google, drag photos from your desktop or phone onto a gallery; progress shows in the bottom right corner, and an icon takes you to the photo once it is up. The hamburger menu lists your galleries and creates new ones; the upload button takes several files at once.

0:42 R rotates a photo that came in sideways, and Q moves the thumbnails to another edge of the screen.

4:15 Each gallery is Public (anyone can find it), Unlisted (only people with its link) or Private, changed from the gallery's three dots at any time.

5:02 Deleted photos go to Trash, where you can recover them, delete them for good, or empty it.

6:17 Right-click a photo to copy its link, download it or open it in a new tab. The I sidebar adds rename, share, rotate, and Set as gallery thumbnail, the image a gallery shows on the home page.

View: hover, theater, grid and click mode

2:12 T toggles theater mode, which hides the interface so only the images show; a button in the bottom right does the same, and a separate full screen mode fills the screen.

2:29 V shows the thumbnails as a grid and back; a long strip of thumbnails scrolls smoothly from end to end.

2:42 C switches to click mode for anyone who prefers it. The video is frank about the design: "we built this entire gallery on the premise that clicking is bad and you should only need to hover".

3:08 I opens the details sidebar: file name, resolution and file size, which change as you hover over each image.

3:26 G F ("go to file menu") opens the hamburger menu of galleries.

3:43 H adds the photo you are looking at to Favorites, the same key that saves a moment elsewhere on Heartbeat.

7:21 G H and G V flip a photo horizontally and vertically. Why G? It stands for "go to", and "we were running out of hot keys", so G opens a second set.

Share a photo, or part of one

1:36 To share, copy the address: whoever opens it sees that photo with the rest of its gallery.

1:49 Zoom in with the mouse wheel, hold Ctrl while moving to the address bar, and copy: the link then opens on the zoomed-in part, "just like Google Maps".

Find photos and galleries

4:05 Click the logo for the home page, a grid of your photos; uncheck My galleries to see other people's public galleries.

5:15 Search finds your photos or everyone's, galleries or photos or both, and your trash, with a filter for a gallery name or tags.

Settings and slideshow

0:54 The ? button lists every key, and the settings button holds the slideshow speed, a tour, showing or hiding thumbnails and their scroll bar, light or dark mode, transitions between photos (fades, scales, flips) and the background effect.

6:58 Slideshow presents the gallery full screen, moving on every 3 seconds or any time you set, up to 24 hours for a new image each day.

7:16 Restore defaults, last in the settings menu, puts every setting back.

History

0:13 Freedom! launched Heartbeat Photos 1.0 on Aug 3, 2023 at heartbeat.photos as "a clickless gallery": hover to see, drag and drop to upload, with importing from Google Drive or iCloud described as coming later. It came two weeks before the Heartbeat Extension, and its first photo, the video says, was George Vanous with elephants. heartbeat.photos now redirects to h.ki/photos (checked Nov 7, 2026); see Heartbeat Domains.

What we think

We think hover-to-view is the right default for browsing a gallery on a computer, where it saves one click per photo, but it has no equivalent on a touch screen, so on phones the gallery is a more ordinary one. The keys are thorough; the cost is that two of them need a two-key G sequence, which the video admits came from running out of single keys. Signed out, the page offers only "Sign in with Google", so a visitor cannot try uploading before making an account.

Frequently asked questions

Is Heartbeat Photos free?

Yes. Heartbeat calls itself "free to use for everyone" (h.ki/about), and Photos launched as "Free for you!".

How do I share only part of a photo?

Zoom in with the mouse wheel, hold Ctrl while you move to the address bar, and copy the address; the link opens on that zoomed-in part.

Can other people see my galleries?

Only public ones appear to others. Unlisted galleries open only for people with the link, and private ones only for you.

How do I turn off hover?

Press C for click mode, or choose it in settings; then a thumbnail shows its image only when clicked.

Where do deleted photos go?

To Trash, where you can recover them or delete them permanently.

Sources

• Heartbeat Photos, h.ki, seen signed out on Nov 7, 2026
• What is Heartbeat?, h.ki/about, read Nov 7, 2026
• All Heartbeat Photos features - No fluff, Freedom!, Jan 1, 2024 (video)
• Heartbeat Photos 1.0 is here - Free for you!, Freedom!, Aug 3, 2023 (video)