How to easily create and share iPhone photo albums

One of the easiest ways to share memories with loved ones is through a shared cloud drive. But until now, Apple’s ecosystem has lacked a native framework to do this. On the other hand, Google Photos has been offering a really improved media sharing experience for a while now.

With iOS 16, this sharing tool has finally arrived on your iPhone thanks to a feature called iCloud Shared Photo Library. In addition to creating a collaborative album that others can contribute to, the system also allows partners to comment. And the cameras on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro are better than ever, making sharing memories easy.

How to prepare your iPhone for album sharing

The first step in creating a shared album is to enable it using the iCloud media sharing system. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Open it Settings app on your iPhone and tap your name at the top.

Step 2: When you get to the Apple ID page, tap iCloud option at the top of the list.

Step 3: Under iCloud, tap Pictures.

Step 4: Scroll down the Photos page and enable it Shared albums to switch

How to create and share a photo album

Now that you’ve turned on the basic system that allows you to create a shared iCloud photo album, it’s time to create a collaborative album. Below are the steps you need to follow:

Step 1: Open it Pictures app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Launch album view by tapping Album option at the bottom.

Step 3: When you enter album mode, tap + icon in the upper left corner and select New shared album in the context menu.

Step 4: On the next page, you will be asked to choose a name for the shared album.

Step 5: After selecting a name, press Create button.

Step 6: Now you have two options. Choose from your contacts or create a publicly shared link. To do this, turn it on Public website to switch

Step 7: Once you do, a link button will appear at the bottom. Just tap it to copy the URL to the clipboard. You can now share it on any platform of your choice using the share sheet or by opening a social app.

Step 8: You can directly invite people to collaborate by adding/removing photos from the album using the contact button at the top.

A few tips should be kept in mind

A notable aspect is that you can extend the shared album invitation even to people who don’t use iCloud. For them, it’s a public site option that allows you to access a shared album using a URL generated in the Photos app. You can also create shared albums from your iPad and Mac.

However, as the person who created the shared album, you can also add or remove members at your whim. Another difference is how the deposit works. A collaborator can only add new photos and delete the ones he added.

However, the creator of the album may delete any media or comment posted by the contributor. Also, if you delete a photo, it is automatically deleted on all participant devices. If you’ve shared a link to an album that opens on the web, deleting the album will also permanently delete the web version.

In case you’re wondering, Shared Albums supports 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’s also worth keeping in mind that a shared iCloud album can hold no more than 5,000 items. Apple notes that photos and videos in a shared album “do not count against your iCloud storage limit.”

Speaking of iCloud, Apple recently introduced its new Advanced Data Protection feature, which puts a broader set of data, including photos and videos, behind a wall of end-to-end encryption. You can learn all about it and the steps to enable it in this guide.

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