Skip to main content

Google Photos rolls out shared albums to spread memories more easily

At its Nexus press conference in September, Google announced that shared albums will be coming later in the year to the well-received Google Photos app. The feature is rolling out now and as the name suggests, it allows users to add friends and family to their photos in a particular album.

But it’s not limited to just adding friends and family to an album. The new feature makes taking photos at events more collaborative. For example, if you threw a party and everyone was collectively taking photos and videos, you could create an album and each person would be able to add their own media. Members in the album get notifications when new pictures are added.

“Sharing photos and videos between friends and family after your birthday bash or holiday gathering shouldn’t be difficult,” James Gallagher, engineering lead for Google Photos, said in the blog post announcement. “But between the great shots your brother has buried on his iPhone and that friend who keeps forgetting to email you her pics, you’re often left reliving the event through just the photos and videos you took yourself.”

Another example Google Photos director Anil Sabharwal demoed on-stage at the September event involved his ability to share an album with his mother to keep her in the loop about what’s happening with her grandchildren. It’s very similar to photo-sharing in Apple’s iCloud, but Google Photos isn’t exclusive and is available on a variety of devices.

To make a shared album, select photos from the sidebar, hit the plus button to make an album, and then send the link to whomever you wish to add. Google says the feature works with whatever device your family and friends are using — whether tablet, laptop, Android or iPhone. If someone is added as a contributor, they need a Google account to participate, but anyone with the link can view the album and download photos. The album owner decides who can add their own content to the album.

The photos are saved in chronological order based on when they were taken, not added, but shared album images can be rearranged by the album owner. Sadly, you can’t yet comment, caption, or like any of the photos or videos. The collaborative albums are not automatically saved into your Google Photos library, but the update brings the option to add them.

Dave Lieb, product lead for Google Photos, said to The Verge that comments and likes will be added to shared albums in a staged approach. Lieb also said that shared albums are private unless the user explicitly shares them with someone.

The feature is rolling out today on Android, iOS and the Web. 

Editors' Recommendations

Julian Chokkattu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
Google is bringing Apple’s best headphone features to more products
Google Pixel Buds A-Series true wireless earbuds.-A

As part of its Better Together With Android announcement tied to CES 2022, Google says it will be creating its own versions of two of Apple's most notable audio features: The ability to seamlessly move your headphones' Bluetooth connection from a phone to a computer and vice versa, and support for head-tracking spatial audio.

"To amplify your visual and audio experiences," the company said in its press release that "your devices should instinctively know which of them you want to use and when. We’re building a technology for Bluetooth-enabled headphones that will enable them to automatically switch the audio to whatever device you’re listening to."

Read more
Google One subscribers now have enhanced photo-editing tools on iPhones
Pixel 6 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro in hand.

Google One subscribers on iPhones can now tweak portrait photos and HDR levels in the Google Photos app as part of a new subscription perk. The change was spotted by 9to5Google and follows a broader rollout to Android phones that started in February.

If you're running iOS 14.0 and have an iPhone with 3GB of RAM -- essentially the iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus, X, and above -- you'll be able to make use of these new tools. The first of these features is portrait lighting, which lets you change the position of light sources in portrait photos. There's also a "blur" a tool that allows for the addition of retroactive software blur on images captured without portrait mode.

Read more
Google adds a private locked photos folder to iPhones for ‘personal’ photos
Google Photos logo.

Google Photos will soon let iPhone and Android users save their photos behind a biometrically protected locked folder as Google pushes for greater privacy features on mobile. It's a nice way to get some peace of mind and keep sensitive personal photos off the cloud.

Locked Folder is a feature Google introduced for Pixels earlier this year that lets them hide sensitive photos out of view. If a photo is hidden away behind a "locked folder," it won't show up. It's a lot like the hidden album feature on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, but with the benefit of password or biometric protection.  Images in the locked folder also aren't synced to Google Photos, but restricted to the device used. Locked Folder will come to iPhones early next year, while non-Pixel Android users will have it sometime "soon."

Read more