# Why photos must be taken in the Venzeo™ app

> Browser, email and uploaded photos can't be certified. What the app's integrity checks confirm, and what they record as evidence.

Source: https://help.venzeo.com/en/article/why-photos-must-be-taken-in-the-venzeo-app
Language: en
Updated: 2026-10-31

This page is for anyone who must decide whether to trust photos in Venzeo™, such as a claims, risk or legal team.

A **certified report** is a report whose photos, time and GPS position Venzeo™ can confirm. Venzeo™ certifies only reports sent from the Venzeo™ mobile app on a device that passes its security checks, and only when your organisation has a licence.

## Why a browser, email or upload cannot be certified

A photo file cannot prove when or where it was taken. It can be old, taken somewhere else, edited, or made by AI. A web page that uses the phone camera cannot prove this either. The browser cannot show Venzeo™ that the device and the camera are genuine.

That is why photos from outside the app are never certified:

- A report created in the web interface carries the label **Web report > without certification**. See [Creating a report on the web](https://help.venzeo.com/en/article/creating-a-report-on-the-web).
- Photos sent by email have no certification at all.

A Venzeo™ Request also runs in the mobile app. The link in the SMS opens the Venzeo™ app, or the app store to install it first. So photos from a customer or client are certified in the same way as photos from your own team. See [Requesting photos from someone outside your team by SMS](https://help.venzeo.com/en/article/requesting-photos-by-sms).

## What the app checks

The app takes the photo itself and records the time and GPS position at that moment. The device and the app must then pass extensive Venzeo™ Intelligence integrity tests.

If all tests pass and your organisation has a licence, the report is **Certified**. If a test fails, it shows **Warning!**. If Venzeo™ does not have enough data to decide, for example on an older Android version, the report has no certification label. Without a licence, reports show **Not certified unlicensed report**. For the devices that can create certified reports, see [Mobile device requirements (Android and iOS)](https://help.venzeo.com/en/article/requirements-of-the-mobile-device-android-and-ios).

## Photos of printed pictures and screens

Certification confirms the device, the app, the time and the place. When your organisation has a licence, Venzeo™ Intelligence also detects photos of printed paper or of a screen, instead of the real scene, and reports this in the certification of the report. The recorded time and position give you one more check. For example, a photo of car damage taken in an office at night does not match the claim.

## A Venzeo™ report as evidence

A court, an insurer or another party receives a complete Venzeo™ report: all its photos and an explanation of its certification. It carries far more information than a single photo from an ordinary camera app or camera. The report includes:

- the original photo, kept even after someone edits it in the web interface (**Show original**);
- the certified time and GPS position of each photo;
- the certification of the report, which an organisation with a licence can include in a PDF with **Show Venzeo™ certification**;
- the audit log of changes to the report. See [Checking who changed a report in the audit log](https://help.venzeo.com/en/article/audit-logs).

If a report is not certified, see [Reports show Warning! or no certification label](https://help.venzeo.com/en/article/reports-show-warning-or-no-certification-label).