iOS 16 Makes It Easier to Share Photos With Family Using New Shared iCloud Library

[MacRumors]

Apple in iOS 16 has introduced a new iCloud Shared Photo Library, which is designed to make it much easier for you to share your photos with close family members.

An iCloud Shared Photo Library can be shared with up to five other people, and each contributor has equal access to add, edit, favorite, caption, and delete shared photos.

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.

There's a new toggle in the Camera app that lets all the photos you take upload 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.

The iCloud Shared Photo Library does not appear to be implemented in the first beta, so support will likely be added in a future beta.

Article Link: iOS 16 Makes It Easier to Share Photos With Family Using New Shared iCloud Library

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

God I hope my family don't share their pictures with me, they're honestly just terrible (BTW, this is coming from a guy that takes pictures of different coloured Henry vacuum cleaners)

 

[JippaLippa]

This is the classic feature that, while cool in practice, only works when the whole family is on the ecosystem, similar to shareplay.
Only me and my sister have an iPhone in our family, while the rest is a mixture of cheap androids (nothing against high end android phones) with all sorts of custom versions of google's OS.

 

[MrSimmo]

Lets also hope its not based on Apples “lets downscale to a crap resolution “ approach they have today with sharing…

 

[eilavid]

will this take up icloud storage? or is it free like the shared album feature

 

[I am Sampson]

Best news of WWDC in my opinion.
Was literarily looking for a way to force all photos to be shared just a few days ago. My partner and I have no need for privacy and want to share everything just like devices under the same appleID do. Very happy about this!

 

[Rockondevil]

Been wanting this feature for so long.

 

[Danfango]

Looks good.

Interested to see how backup works for this as I currently back up a large Photos library which is a mix of family and personal photos. If it's some hybrid iCloud-only library then there will be issues as I need an offline archive. As much as I love Apple, I trust no vendors to look after valuable data in the long term past convenience.

 

[WannaGoMac]

how is this any different than existing shared albums?

 

[gmanist1000]

how is this any different than existing shared albums?

I assume there's no limit per album like the current shared albums. I think there was a 10,000 photo limit per album?

 

[Thisismattwade]

Best news of WWDC in my opinion.
Was literarily looking for a way to force all photos to be shared just a few days ago. My partner and I have no need for privacy and want to share everything just like devices under the same appleID do. Very happy about this!

Agreed! Though I'm hoping someone can answer above poster's question about whether it takes up double iCloud storage for each shared item. Not a deal-breaker, and this completely changes my purchasing decisions for my next Macbook.

 

[Schtibbie]

Lets also hope its not based on Apples “lets downscale to a crap resolution “ approach they have today with sharing…

Yeah.. It needs to (for me) have the following end result: We go on a vacation as a family. I take pics on my iphone. My wife takes pics on HER iphone. If either of us goes on our home macbook that contains ALL our family photos since the beginning of time, we'll find BOTH sets of pics all in the Photos application, ALL FULL RESOLUTION. We can let them live in icloud but we can ALSO fully back them up on time machine when the Macbook backs up to our external disk. And at no point do I have to plug my phone old-school-like into the macbook to upload (and then erase from my phone) my photos into the "family" Photos. I hate having to do that. It's clunky. And if i leave them on my phone after the upload we end up taking up 2x family shared cloud storage! HATE IT.

 

[Bhy]

how is this any different than existing shared albums?

Good question.

Already tried using existing shared albums to share with family and it was a cluster.

Photos changed pic sizes, had upload issues, duplicated pix, it was a mess.

 

[erikkfi]

Now it's easier than ever to share your photos into a group folder where anyone can delete them.

 

[CordovaLark]

This is going to accidentally expose so many affairs.

 

[munpip214]

Now it's easier than ever to share your photos into a group folder where anyone can delete them.

That’s what a shared album is for. You only share a library with somebody you can trust like your spouse. I would not trust my parents or kids to do this. They might accidentally delete a picture I wanted to keep.

Also wondering if pictures are copied over or just transferred?

 

[Berti10]

will this take up icloud storage? or is it free like the shared album feature

I can imagine, it is a separate library in itself. But you can switch between yours and the shared one or show both at once. I think they will take up space as usual (not free), but now you do not have doubles taking up shared iCloud space

 

[iMerik]

They kept mentioning "up to five additional..." and I was so hoping they would tell us iCloud Family can include five additional users plus you can pay extra for adding a 6th, 7th, etc. There's decent solution for a family of two parents and five+ children.

 

[chmarch]

The real question is, has Apple finally improved the interface to add photos to ANY shared album? This is especially horrific on the iPad, presenting only a tiny "window"/interface in the center of the screen, and no way to search any of the existing shared albums. I have begged Apple to fix this for years, and it's always neglected. Someone with a beta please tell me if iOS 16 will finally move in a better direction!

 

[iDento]

That’s what a shared album is for. You only share a library with somebody you can trust like your spouse. I would not trust my parents or kids to do this. They might accidentally delete a picture I wanted to keep.

Also wondering if pictures are copied over or just transferred?

I think Apple is not that stupid and they will just move the images to the recently deleted folder. If the person deleted the image on purpose, then it's a different story.

 

[abowlby]

I know this feature will please quite a few customers. I’m one of them.

 

[jimthing]

They kept mentioning "up to five additional..." and I was so hoping they would tell us iCloud Family can include five additional users plus you can pay extra for adding a 6th, 7th, etc. There's decent solution for a family of two parents and five+ children.

...so is contraception!
/s

 

[John.B]

Wait. Is this restricted to just Family Sharing?

 

[Zeke92]

I'm so confused by this feature. How is it different from the existing share albums? Does anyone know? I'm legit curious as to the difference.

 

[chazzee]

I'm so confused by this feature. How is it different from the existing share albums? Does anyone know? I'm legit curious as to the difference.

The current shared albums is a manual process to share photos. What Apple is implementing is an automatic feature based on a set of rules