One of the easiest ways to share memories with loved ones is through a shared cloud drive. But until then, the Apple ecosystem did not have a native system to do this. Google Photos, on the other hand, has been offering a media sharing experience for quite some time.
With iOS 16, this sharing feature has finally made its way to your iPhone, thanks to a feature called iCloud Shared Photo Library. In addition to creating a collaborative album to which others can contribute, the system also allows partners to post comments.
Below check out all the details on how you can use iCloud Shared Photo Library.
How to Prepare Your iPhone for Album Sharing
The first step to creating a shared album is to activate it through iCloud’s media sharing system. Here’s how to do it:
- open the app Settings on the iPhone;
- Then tap your name at the top;
- Right after accessing the Apple IDtap the option icloud at the top of the list;
- in the section icloudtap Photos;
- Finally, go to the page Photos and enable toggle Shared Albums.
How to create and share a photo album?
Now that you’ve turned on the fundamental system behind creating a shared iCloud photo album, it’s time to go ahead and make the collaborative album. Here are the steps you need to follow:
- open the app Photos on the iPhone;
- Then launch the Album view by tapping the option Album at the bottom;
- Tap the icon + in the top left corner and select New Shared Album;
- Then, choose a name for your shared album, and press Create;
- Afterwards, you have two options: Send to one of your contactsor create a shareable link. To do this, toggle the switch to make the album public;
- That done, one link button will appear below. Just tap on it to copy the URL to your clipboard. Now you can share it on any platform of your choice via the share sheet. Or even opening a communication app.
- Finally, you can invite people to add/remove photos from the album using the contact button that appears at the top.
important tips
You can even extend a shared album invite to people who don’t use iCloud. In this case, the option that makes the Album Public is what allows access to the shared album through the URL generated in the Photos application.
You can also create Shared Albums from iPad and Mac. However, as the person who created the shared album, you can also add or remove members at your own whim.
Furthermore, a contributor can only add and delete photos that they have added. On the other hand, the album creator can delete any media or comment posted by a contributor.
Furthermore, if you delete a photo, it will be deleted on all participating devices. If you’ve shared a link to an album that opens on the web, permanently deleting the album also deletes the web version.
It is also worth mentioning that shared albums support still images in HEIF, JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF and TIFF formats. As for videos, you can upload clips saved in HEVC, MP4, QuickTime, MPEG-4 and H.264 file types.
It is also worth bearing in mind that an iCloud Shared Album can only store a maximum of 5,000 items. Speaking of iCloud, Apple recently released its new Advanced Data Protection feature that puts a broader set of your data behind an end-to-end encryption wall.
