How to Submit Photos for a Daily Challenge

Step 1: Navigate to the Upload Grid

• Tap the Photos option on your mobile bottom navigation bar or sidebar menu.
• You will land on the read-only Photo Gallery.
• Tap the Submit / Manage Photos button at the top of the gallery to open your team's active submission grid.
• (Note for Admins: Global Admins will see a prompt to select a target team first, while participants and organisers are locked to their own team automatically).

Step 2: Select a Photo Slot

Your upload grid is dynamically structured based on your trip's specific configuration:

• Per-Day Mode: Photos are grouped into rows for each sequential day of the race (Day 1, Day 2, etc.).
• Per-Leg Mode: Photos are grouped by the specific itinerary leg your team is navigating.

Find the active period, choose an empty slot in the grid (up to your trip's defined limit, usually 8 slots), and tap Upload Photo.

Step 3: Choose and Process Your Image

Select a photo from your device's camera roll or take a live picture.

• Client-Side Optimization: The application will automatically compress your image to a web-optimized format, stripping down resolution to a maximum of 1920px. This guarantees a lightning-fast upload even on weak roaming networks and stays safely within server request limits.
• HEIC Conversion: If you are shooting on an iPhone, raw .heic formats are natively converted to standard JPEGs right on your device.
• EXIF Metadata Preservation: The system automatically extracts the exact time the photo was taken along with its global GPS coordinates from the file metadata.

Step 4: Add Context and Captions

Once your image preview appears in the slot, you can add descriptive context to maximise your scoring potential:

• Public Caption: Add a public caption for the day or leg to describe the story behind your track (e.g., "Racing to catch the last connecting train out of Munich!").
• AI Judge Prompt (Optional): If your trip utilises the automated AI judging engine, you can provide an optional private prompt detailing how your photos satisfy specific hidden criteria or event themes.

Step 5: Submit and Score

• Tap Save Changes in the dashboard header to commit your uploads securely to Firebase Storage.
• If your trip is running in AI Judging Mode, tap the Score with AI button next to your daily caption.
• The Gemini AI engine will instantly evaluate all of your uploaded photos against global system rules, trip-specific custom themes, and your team's captions.
• Within seconds, a creative score out of 10 and a written critique will be generated and saved automatically to your dashboard.