This new iOS feature lets you share entire image libraries. Here's how to set it up.

iOS 16.1 introduces a new way to share photos and videos with relatives and friends: iCloud Share Photo Library. This feature is available on iPhone, iPad and Mac computers.

While the old way of sharing photos and videos—sharing albums—is still there, the iCloud shared photo library is more comprehensive, and participants can not only view photo collections, but also manage and edit photos. This feature is ideal if you want to avoid sending a lot of photos of your kids in group chats.

Create iCloud shared photo library

Before using iCloud to share your photo gallery on your iPhone, make sure your device is running iOS 16.1 or later and that iCloud photos in your Apple account are enabled (can be viewed in "Settings" > Your Name > "iCloud" > "Photos" on your phone). After completing these preparations, in Settings, click Photos >Share Photo Gallery >Start.

The system moves these photos and videos from your personal gallery to the shared gallery, so they will be displayed differently in the Photos app. You can preview the shared gallery before continuing and invite other participants through the information or links in any of the apps you like.

[Related: Easy Ways to Back Up iPhone Photos Without iCloud]

Finally, iOS will ask you whether the photos and videos you take in the future will be saved to a shared or personal image library by default. You can switch the save position one by one by clicking the Gallery button (the icon showing two silhouettes, located in the upper right corner in portrait mode) in the camera application. You can also change the default save location of pictures at any time through Settings > Photos > Shared Photo Gallery > Camera Share.

Share photo library with iCloud

After setting up the iCloud shared photo library, the shared photo library and your personal photo library will be displayed in the Photos app. To switch in the gallery view, click the three dots in the upper right corner and select Personal Gallery, Shared Photo Gallery, or Two Gallery. To make it easier to distinguish which project belongs to which gallery, you can enable the Share Photo Library Badge option. This overlays an icon (shows two silhouettes) on the pictures and videos that belong to the shared photo library.

Each participant in the Shared Photo Gallery has full administrative rights and has the same options in their Photos app that allow them to add and delete items as well as edit items. Only those who create a shared photo library have privileges: only they can remove or add members through their phone "Settings" > "Photos" > "Share Photo Library". Administrators can also delete the shared photo library from this screen, and if you are a visitor, you can use this menu to leave.

Shared Photo Gallery will also be displayed in the Photos app for iPadOS and macOS. If you are using a Mac, launch the Photos app and you will see a drop-down menu to the right of the main navigation pane. Click it to toggle between Personal Gallery, Shared Photo Gallery, and Two Gallery and right-click any image or video to move it between Personal Gallery and Shared Photo Gallery.

Note that by default, photos and videos in the iCloud shared photo library take up storage quotas for the creator account, not the storage quotas for the invited sharers. So, if you are expecting to create a large photo collection, it's better to have someone who pays to buy extra iCloud storage host this photo library.

Comparison of shared albums

iCloud Shared Photo Library is designed to allow fewer people to access more photos and videos compared to the shared album feature. For example, parents share photos of their children, or a group of friends collect photos and videos from their holidays.

[Related: How to Customize the Artificial Intelligence Effects of iPhone Camera]

You can have up to 200 shared albums at the same time, each album can have up to 100 participants, who can add photos and videos, but cannot edit them. At the same time, you can only have one iCloud shared photo library at a time, and can only be shared with up to 6 participants, and everyone has full control over the photo collection. There is also a larger space for shared photo galleries: they can contain as many photos and videos as possible, as long as your iCloud storage allows. Shared albums can only contain up to 5,000 items.

Shared Photo Library is also more closely integrated with the camera app on your iPhone—it is very convenient to be able to send photos and videos directly to the iCloud Shared Photo Library. However, to take advantage of this feature, your shared photo library should be a space you use frequently, rather than the small number of photos and videos you occasionally view.

The above is the detailed content of This new iOS feature lets you share entire image libraries. Here's how to set it up.. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!