iCloud Shared Photo Library Support Added in Latest iOS 16 and macOS Ventura Betas

[MacRumors]

With the third betas of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura that went out to developers this morning, Apple has added support for iCloud Shared Photo Library, a new feature that was not in the initial betas.

iCloud Shared Photo Library is designed to make it easier for you to share photos with your family members, and after installing iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or macOS Ventura, it can be set up in the Settings app. Under Photos, scroll down to "Shared Library" and tap it.

From there, tap on "Start Setup" to add participants you want to share with. You can invite up to five other people, and all participants can add, edit, or delete content from the shared library. You can add any five people, including people who you do not have a Family Sharing setup with.

After selecting people to share with, you can opt to move your photos to the Shared Library. You can move all your photos and videos, photos that include select people or that are from a select date, or you can choose photos manually.

Once your photos are added, you can preview the library before it's shared, and then officially invite participants using the Messages app or a shared link. All participants will have access to all photos that are uploaded to the shared library.

To prevent accidentally shared photos, there are smart setup rules that can be implemented. You can opt to share all past photos or just photos from a specific start date. You can also choose to share photos that have only specific people, such as your family members.

Photos can be added to the Shared Library automatically, but there are also options to share based on Bluetooth proximity. Sharing suggestions will continue to pop up in For You as well.

With a new toggle in the Camera app you can upload all photos you take to the Shared Library automatically, so if you're out on vacation with your family, everyone can see vacation photos as soon as they're snapped.

Shared photos will show up in Memories, Featured ‌Photos‌, and the ‌Photos‌ widget, similar to standard ‌iCloud‌ Library images.

Article Link: iCloud Shared Photo Library Support Added in Latest iOS 16 and macOS Ventura Betas

 

[NinjaHERO]

Cool. But how about a way to clean up the cluster that is our current photo management system Apple. Please.

 

[Cromulent]

This sounds pretty cool. My whole family use Apple stuff, so it would be nice to share with them all. Five people only, though, seems a bit small.

 

[iDento]

Cool. But how about a way to clean up the cluster that is our current photo management system Apple. Please.

They added a smart album to show duplicates but it’s not enough, I need something like “similar photos” in Gemini Photos app.

 

[Debauch]

How is this different for the current Shared Albums?

Lol limiting to six people though. I guess larger families can’t have this?!?

 

[applerocks]

This is good but the natural next step is needing multiple. One for the parents. One for kids. One for friend groups.

Shared albums are clunky and inconsistent. This is hopefully a better solution they can scale over the next 2-3 years.

 

[urgs]

I don't see the benefit over shared albums?

 

[LtRoyalShrimp]

Families today are often more than 5 people if generations are included and some of us, unfortunately, have to deal with divorced families. At first glance, the limit of one library seems bad but it seems like we can only start one shared library, yet be a part of more than one if someone else invites us?

I don't see the benefit over shared albums?

Shared Albums have awful limits like: No photo information and reduced quality.

When shared, photos are reduced to 2048 pixels on the long edge, except panoramic photos, which can be up to 5400 pixels wide. You can share GIFs that are 100MB or smaller.

Videos can be up to fifteen minutes in length and are delivered at up to 720p resolution.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202786

From what I understand Shared Library has 100% the same information for everyone at the highest quality with all metadata.

 

[antiprotest]

Ah no way I am turning that on dude.

 

[squirrelist]

How is this different for the current Shared Albums?

Lol limiting to six people though. I guess larger families can’t have this?!?

I don't see the benefit over shared albums?

Current Shared Albums are much clunkier. You have to remember to copy items in, they are reduced quality, they can’t be edited, and they can’t be selected in the photo picker. This new album allows you to easily move photos between, not a copy, and they act as if they are pics in your own real photo library, and you can easily see which items are only in your personal library but not yet shared to the shared one.

 

[contacos]

I don't see the benefit over shared albums?

Neither. You must have a LOT of trust into your family to share your whole camera roll!

I rather take my time and actually select what I want to share, e. g. vacation albums. I don’t need to see my BFs random screen shots for example

Fun fact, I just tried the regular Photo Sharing with my family but they didn’t get it. Went back to Dropbox to share a FOLDER. The concept of „just appearing“ in the Photo app was too much for them to comprehend lol

 

[ssspinball]

This is WAY WAY WAY more advanced than current Shared Albums, which are entirely and completely manual. you literally have to move photos that way by selecting photos one-at-a-time.

You can set the family share to automatically send ALL photos you take to the family album, or just those with family members identified in the pic, or just those at certain locations and have it done completely automatically. There is no step 2 after taking the photo! I also really like the toggle right inside the camera app so you can PRE-EMPTIVELY decide if the photos you are about to take go to your personal album or the family album.

If it works as expected, this will be a major improvement for families.

 

[ssspinball]

I rather take my time and actually select what I want to share, e. g. vacation albums. I don’t need to see my BFs random screen shots for example

And you can do exactly that if you want. It’s very flexible and not “all or nothing”.

 

[Grimace]

The words "Move Photos" are throwing me off a little. If we are truly moving them to this album, and everyone has Read/Write/Delete access, couldn't your annoying sister delete your photo?

Or, should it read "Copy Photos" to the Shared Album?

 

[CygnusTC]

Oops Honey.....my coworker took that picture while I wasn't looking...

 

[LtRoyalShrimp]

The words "Move Photos" are throwing me off a little. If we are truly moving them to this album, and everyone has Read/Write/Delete access, couldn't your annoying sister delete your photo?

Or, should it read "Copy Photos" to the Shared Album?

It does seem like anyone can delete a photo and its a real delete? Seems weird...

Keynote timestamped:

 

[darngooddesign]

The words "Move Photos" are throwing me off a little. If we are truly moving them to this album, and everyone has Read/Write/Delete access, couldn't your annoying sister delete your photo?

Or, should it read "Copy Photos" to the Shared Album?

Copy implies that there will be two of the same photos. "Add photos to..." is probably more accurate. Hopefully it isn't moving it to a separate library that can be deleted from.

Hopefully your sister can only delete from the shared album, but not your library.

*Edit*
The wording in the above video is a little contradictory, but it sounds like its a separate photo library that you copy your photos to. So your sister would not be able to delete photos from your personal library.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

This is by FAR the biggest feature this year. I don't dare turn it on immediately though, as I will let you guys ride out the early bugs so I don't loose my entire library... Yikes!

 

[darngooddesign]

This is by FAR the biggest feature this year. I don't dare turn it on immediately though, as I will let you guys ride out the early bugs so I don't loose my entire library... Yikes!

Always wise to be cautious but just back up your library prior to turning it on. I did the same with my big music library before turning on Apple Music library sync.

 

[Deadeyeshark]

Interested to know a couple of things, does your personal library remain intact once you move photos to the shared library and if so does the shared library eat into your iCloud allowance?

 

[saudor]

You can set the family share to automatically send ALL photos you take to the family album

with great power comes great responsibility. some things are better hard and tedious, given all the horror stories

 

[cookiemonster89]

How does Apple handle duplicates? E.g. If I share with my wife and add all our vacations pictures she already has in her private library to save some icloud storage space. Do I need to delete it manually Or is iOS smart enough?

 

[DotCom2]

The words "Move Photos" are throwing me off a little. If we are truly moving them to this album, and everyone has Read/Write/Delete access, couldn't your annoying sister delete your photo?

Or, should it read "Copy Photos" to the Shared Album?

Good question and I would like to know this as well.
Also, what if you have a pic that you really like and someone in the group edits it and messes it up? Can you just make a copy of a pic and send just a copy of it to the Shared Family Album, this not messing up the original?

 

[Mr. Dee]

I don’t want to to mess with this. I have too many ‘sensitive’ photos I don’t want my family to see. Knowing me, I am going to end up sending something to my mom.

 

[Kagio]

Families today are often more than 5 people if generations are included and some of us, unfortunately, have to deal with divorced families. At first glance, the limit of one library seems bad but it seems like we can only start one shared library, yet be a part of more than one if someone else invites us?

It really saddens me me that the limit is 6 for so many years now, this was to chance to change that, but no. We are 8 siblings (+ partners) + parents. This is the same story with iCloud Storage Space and I just find it arbitrary and kind of discriminatory. We big families have a big role in making this features legit, and providing word of mouth for them for broader usage. We are the big-expression-reason/inspiration for these features to exist, but are kept out of them kind of randomly. It's frustrating. And your point is so true too, multiple generations in one shared library is a natural need, and that get's you over 6 people really quickly

The words "Move Photos" are throwing me off a little. If we are truly moving them to this album, and everyone has Read/Write/Delete access, couldn't your annoying sister delete your photo?

Or, should it read "Copy Photos" to the Shared Album?

Totally legit question, and one of the screenshots reads "everyone can ... delete ..." so,

How does Apple handle duplicates? E.g. If I share with my wife and add all our vacations pictures she already has in her private library to save some icloud storage space. Do I need to delete it manually Or is iOS smart enough?

Totally legit question - sounds like a huge potential mess (also, what if she edited some of the photos you've been sharing for all this previous years but you don't like her edits?)

Good question and I would like to know this as well.
Also, what if you have a pic that you really like and someone in the group edits it and messes it up? Can you just make a copy of a pic and send just a copy of it to the Shared Family Album, this not messing up the original?

Yup...

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Adding up:

"whoever creates it provides storage for all content" < hmmm? so people I invite will eat up my iCloud Storage Subscription ... instead of Apple taking care of figuring if a participant is already paying for his/her own space and avoinding (at least those items) to eat up my space?