Spaces and the Space Switcher

If there’s one idea worth understanding early in Orbyte, it’s this: you’re always looking at one space at a time. Everything on screen - your Library, Capsules, Faces, Duplicates, Stowaways, Search - belongs to whatever space is currently active. Switch the space, and the whole view changes to a completely different collection.

This page explains what that means and how to use it.

What Is a Space?

A space is a self-contained media library. It has its own photos, its own AI analysis, its own Capsules, its own Face tags - everything. Nothing leaks between spaces. There are two kinds:

Personal - This is your private library. Only you can see it. When you first sign up and start uploading, you’re in your Personal space. If you never create or join a group, this is the only space you’ll ever need.

Group - When you create a Group (or accept an invitation to one), that group gets its own space. Everyone in the group shares the same library, but it’s completely walled off from your Personal space and from other groups.

The Mental Model

Here’s the key insight, and it’s worth a moment to really absorb:

Orbyte isn’t one big library with folders inside it. It’s multiple separate libraries, and you flip between them.

Think of it like TV channels. You have a remote (the Space Switcher) and each channel shows completely different content, but the TV itself - the screen, the buttons, the interface - stays the same. You don’t need to learn a new app for each group. You just switch the channel.

Or if you prefer: imagine you’re an astronaut with multiple missions. Your Personal space is your home base. Each Group is a different space station. Same equipment on every station, but different crew and different cargo. The Space Switcher is how you jump between them.

Using the Space Switcher

The Space Switcher appears in the sidebar, near the top, under a small “Now Viewing” label. It shows:

• The name of the space you’re currently in (“Personal” or the group’s name)
• For groups: an icon or initials, plus the member count
• A small arrow that opens the dropdown

Tap it to see all your available spaces. Your Personal space is listed under “Your Space,” and any groups you belong to are listed under “Groups.” The active space has a checkmark. Tap a different one to switch.

When you switch, Orbyte takes you to the Library page of that space. Everything refreshes - you’ll see that space’s media, that space’s Face clusters, that space’s Capsules. The sidebar stays the same. The tools stay the same. Only the content changes.

What Changes When You Switch

Everything that deals with your media is space-scoped. Here’s what that means in practice:

Library shows only the photos and videos that belong to the active space. Your Personal uploads won’t appear when you’re viewing a Group, and vice versa.

Search only returns results from the active space. If you search for “beach” while viewing your family group, you’ll find the beach photos your family uploaded - not the beach photos in your Personal library.

Capsules are tied to a space. A Capsule you create while viewing a Group lives in that group. It doesn’t show up in your Personal space or any other group.

Faces are detected and clustered per space. If you tag your sister in your Personal space, that tag doesn’t carry over to a Group space - you’d tag her there separately. This keeps things clean: not everyone in a group needs to see how you’ve labeled people in your private library.

Stowaways and Duplicates are analyzed per space. A blurry photo flagged in your Personal space has nothing to do with what’s flagged in a Group.

Upload sends files to whichever space is active. This is important - if you’re viewing a Group and upload photos, those photos go into the Group’s library, not your Personal one.

What Doesn’t Change

A few things are account-level and stay the same regardless of which space you’re in:

• Your account settings - profile, password, email, theme preference
• Your plan and billing - storage limits and subscription are tied to your account
• The Groups management page - where you create new groups, manage invitations, and see all groups you belong to

A Common Scenario

Say you have a Personal space and two groups: “Family” and “College Friends.”

You open Orbyte and see your Personal Library - all your private photos. You notice some Stowaways to clean up, so you tap into the Stowaways view and dismiss a few blurry shots.

Then your mom asks if you uploaded the reunion photos. You open the Space Switcher and tap “Family.” The whole Library refreshes to show the family group’s collection. You upload the reunion photos. They go straight into the Family space. You create a Capsule called “Reunion 2025” from those photos - it lives in the Family space, visible to everyone in the family group.

Later, you switch to “College Friends” to check if anyone posted photos from last weekend. Totally different library, totally different content. Same Orbyte, same sidebar, same tools.

When you’re done, you switch back to “Personal.” Your private photos are right where you left them, completely untouched by anything that happened in the group spaces.

How Orbyte Keeps You Oriented

Since you’re working with separate libraries that share the same interface, it’s important to always know where you are. Orbyte uses several visual cues throughout the app to make this clear - you should never have to wonder which space you’re looking at.

Color coding. Personal spaces use a cool sky-blue tint on icons and indicators. Group spaces use Orbyte’s warm amber/ember gradient. This subtle color shift runs through the sidebar, the Space Switcher button, and space-related badges - so even at a glance, the overall warmth of the sidebar tells you whether you’re in a personal or group context.

The user menu reminder. Open your profile menu and you’ll see a space indicator right below your name. When you’re viewing a group space, it shows “Viewing group space” along with the group’s name. This disappears when you’re in your Personal space, so its presence alone tells you you’re somewhere shared. The same area shows your storage - and that adapts too: in a Group space (if you’re the owner), you’ll see two bars labeled “You” and “Pool” so you can monitor both your personal usage and the group’s shared pool at once.

Page headers show the group name. When you’re viewing a group space, every page - Library, Faces, Capsules, Duplicates, Stowaways - shows the group’s name right below its title in the hero area at the top. This is especially helpful on mobile, where the sidebar (and the Space Switcher) is tucked away behind a menu. You can always glance at the page header to confirm which space you’re looking at.

The Upload page has its own switcher. This is a big one. The Upload page shows an “Uploading to:” label at the top with the name of the active space. Right next to it is a “(change)” link that opens an inline dropdown - the same list of spaces you see in the sidebar switcher, complete with checkmarks and group icons. You can switch your destination space right there on the upload page without leaving it. So if you’re dragging in vacation photos and realize you’re about to send them to the wrong place, you can fix it in one tap.

Tips

Orbyte remembers your last space. When you close the app and come back later, you’ll land in whichever space you were viewing last. No need to re-select it every time.

You can be in multiple groups. There’s no limit on how many groups you belong to. Each one is its own independent space in the switcher. The dropdown lists them all.

Groups need a Family plan. The Space Switcher and the “Groups” section of the dropdown only appear once you have at least one group. If you’re on a solo plan and haven’t joined any groups, you won’t see the switcher at all - you’re always in your Personal space, and there’s nothing to switch to.