Start with TestFlight here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/8YqmDWnG
Galleri turns a Samsung The Frame TV into what it always promised to be: a gallery for your own photography. Browse what’s hanging, upload new work, dress each photo in a matte, run a slideshow, and tune how the art looks on the wall — all from the Apple devices you already use.
Why Galleri?
Galleri is native across the Apple ecosystem: iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, and it’s built around a photographer’s workflow. The detail that matters most: a photo’s matte, effect, and crop belong to the photo itself. Move your photos between TVs or computers, even reset the TV — the way you styled each photo survives and re-uploads exactly as you left it.
What you’ll need
- A Samsung The Frame TV (any model with Art Mode)
- The TV and your devices on the same Wi-Fi network
- Galleri on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac (the Apple TV app is for browsing, selecting, and customizing existing art)
1. Install
Galleri is currently in beta through TestFlight, and anyone can join. On the device you want to try it on — iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV — open the public TestFlight link. Install Apple’s TestFlight app if prompted, then install Galleri from inside it. On Apple TV, TestFlight is its own app from the tvOS App Store. (An App Store release is on the way; this page will get a plain install link when it lands.)
2. Connect your Frame
Galleri scans your network and finds Frame TVs automatically. The first time you connect, the TV asks for permission — pick up the Samsung remote and approve the prompt on the TV screen. That’s a one-time handshake; after that, Galleri reconnects on its own. Pairing is per device, so expect the prompt once for each iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV you use with Galleri.
3. Two shelves: the Wall and the Art Store
Everything on the TV lives in one of two places, and Galleri gives each its own destination on every platform:
- Wall — your photographs, as they currently sit on the TV. What you see is the TV’s own list: every tile is rendered in its real matte, so the grid looks like the gallery it is.
- Art Store — Samsung’s built-in artwork, kept separate so it never muddies your own collection.
4. Add photos
- Mac — point a Collection at a folder. Galleri watches it: export from Lightroom into that folder and the new files simply appear, ready to upload.
- iPhone & iPad — upload straight from your photo library. The upload editor lets you choose the matte and crop before the photo ever reaches the TV.
- Apple TV — browsing and control only. It has no access to your photo library, so use it to flip through what’s hanging and run the show.
Best practices: the Mac is the hub
The Mac is the central hub of the Galleri ecosystem. It saves each photo’s configuration inside the JPEG file itself — without re-encoding your image, so its quality is preserved. Because the configuration travels with the file, matting, removing, and re-uploading photos with the same look is routine rather than a chore.
Upload from iOS is a convenience, but the Frame TV does not offer a way to get the full image back to the Mac. That’s why we recommend uploading primarily from the Mac — one-offs can be done from iOS. Also, due to a limitation in Samsung’s firmware, effects cannot be retrieved from the television, so an effect will only be shown on the device that applied it.
Decide on a primary device to curate content for your Frame TV, and stick with it.
5. Mattes, effects, and crop
Pick a matte style and color from the same set the Frame itself offers, add one of the six photo filters the TV actually supports (Aqua, Art Deco, Ink, Wash, Pastel, and Fauve), and crop to taste. Set a matte on one photo or select a batch and dress them all at once; effects are applied per photo from Now Playing. And because appearance lives with the photo, none of it is lost when the file or the TV changes.
6. Run the slideshow
Set the rotation interval and the order (in sequence or random), then start or stop it from any device. Now Playing always shows what’s on the wall right now, with previous/next controls when you want to skip ahead.
7. Tune Art Mode
The display settings that matter for art hang together in one panel: Brightness (0–10), Tone (−5 to +5), the Brightness Sensor, Motion Sensitivity, and Sleep After. Some Frame models don’t expose these controls — if the panel is empty on yours, that’s the TV, not the app.
Galleri on each device
Mac
Three columns: a sidebar with your TVs, Now Playing, the Wall, the Art Store, and your folder Collections plus filters; the photo grid in the middle; and a detail panel for appearance and actions on the right. This is the workhorse — batch changes, folder watching, the whole library view.
iPad
The Mac layout, made for the couch: sidebar, grid, and an inspector holding Now Playing, playback, slideshow, and the Art Mode controls — all live at once in landscape.
iPhone
Four tabs: Now Playing, Wall, Art Store, and Settings. Now Playing is a remote in the theater sense — the framed artwork up top, transport controls, a filmstrip of the wall, and one tap into Appearance or the slideshow.
Apple TV
The same four tabs on the big screen. Click any tile on the shelf to hang it, flip through the Wall and the Art Store, and control the slideshow from the sofa — no uploading here, by design.
What the icons mean
Galleri keeps the chrome minimal, so a handful of small icons carry real information. Here’s the legend.
Getting around
| Icon | Takes you to |
|---|---|
 | Now Playing — a tab on iPhone and Apple TV, a sidebar item on Mac and iPad |
 | Wall — your photos on the TV |
 | Art Store — Samsung’s artwork |
 | A Collection (Mac) |
 | Settings |
 | Add a TV, add a folder, or upload a photo |
The dot next to your TV’s name
| Dot | Meaning |
|---|---|
 | Connected — in Galleri, green always means connected and nothing else |
 | Your TV has gone offline |
 | The TV isn’t reachable right now |
 | The TV is asleep (shown on Apple TV) |
Badges on photo tiles
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
 | This piece is on the TV right now (on Apple TV it’s a play-on-TV mark in the tile’s corner) |
 | Cropped in Galleri |
 | A photo effect is applied |
 | Limited matte styles — the piece isn’t stored at the TV’s full 4K size, so only Flexible and Shadow Box are available |
 | Selected, in select mode |
Buttons you’ll press
| Icon | What it does |
|---|---|
 | Appearance — matte, color, and effect |
 | Slideshow |
 | Filters (iPhone) — on Mac and iPad the TV / 16:9 / crop / wand chips in the sidebar filter the grid the same way |
 | Scan or refresh — pull the TV’s latest state |
 | Upload to the TV (Mac) |
 | Enter Art Mode (Apple TV) |
 | Remove from the TV |
Tips and tricks to get the most out of Galleri
- The TV keeps a copy, not your original. Every upload is re-encoded to fit the 4K panel. What you can pull back off the TV is never your full-quality file. The Frame TV only returns a small thumbnail. Keep your masters, and let the Mac’s saved-in-the-file configuration keep how you want your photos displayed.
- Want every matte style? Crop to 16:9. The Frame only unlocks its full matte set for images stored at exactly the panel’s size: 3840×2160. Everything else is limited to Flexible and Shadow Box. Galleri’s crop and upload path takes care of this for 16:9 photos — another reason to crop deliberately.
- The Frame does one thing at a time. A first scan of a big wall or a batch upload takes minutes, and that’s the TV, not the app. Let it finish. Don’t run multiple copies of Galleri talking to the same TV at the same time.
- If the TV stops answering, back off. Pushed too hard, the Frame’s art service goes quiet while the TV itself stays on the network. Left alone it recovers in about 90 seconds; hammering reconnect can stretch that to ten minutes or more.
- Applying an effect changes the screen. Samsung’s protocol hangs the photo and switches the TV into Art Mode whenever a filter is applied — there’s no quiet way to do it. Expect the wall to flip.
- Deleting Samsung Art is slow. Store artwork can take up to an hour to actually disappear, and won’t delete at all while it’s on screen. Your own photos delete instantly.
- The Frame thinks every photo was taken the day you uploaded it — it records upload time, not capture date. (It also spells burgundy “burgandy” deep in its firmware. We love it anyway.)
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| TV not found | Confirm the TV is awake and on the same Wi-Fi network, then scan again. |
| Stuck on pairing | The first connection must be approved on the TV with the remote — check the screen for the Allow prompt. |
| Can’t upload on Apple TV | Uploading isn’t available on Apple TV — use iPhone, iPad, or Mac. |
| Matte color looks wrong | Galleri falls back to a plain border if the TV rejects a style/color combination. |
Use at your own risk
Galleri is an independent project with no affiliation with Samsung. It talks to the Frame over the same local-network protocol Samsung’s own apps use, and it treats your TV and your files with care — but televisions, firmware, and networks vary. Use it at your own risk.
Questions, bugs, or a Frame that’s behaving strangely? Get in touch — I’d love to hear how the Galleri looks on your wall.