Stop Texting Photos and Videos

Batch sharing is laborious; You often feel like you’re waiting forever for text messages or emails containing images to send. And many of us simply aren’t comfortable with posting our personal photos to Twitter’s social network, let alone Facebook’s. Without realizing it, iOS device owners who are content with sharing their photos and videos via text, email, or social networks are missing out on using one of Apple’s most-loved (and most useful) photo management features.

You see, Apple has a far better solution for sharing photos and videos built right into its iOS Photos app: iCloud Photo Sharing. This free feature, which is part of Apple’s wider iCloud offerings, allows iOS device owners to easily share one photo or video, or even a large number of photos and videos, with another person or several people. Let’s take a look at how it works.

First and foremost, you need to enable iCloud Photo Sharing for your device. Here’s how.

And now we proceed to the heart of the matter: how to share photos and videos using iCloud Photo Sharing.

You can invite your friends and family to an iCloud Photo Sharing album using either their mobile numbers or email addresses. You’ll also receive an iOS notification once that person has joined the album and is able to browse its contents. After joining, that person will then be able to view all of the pictures and videos added to that particular album on his or her iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. It’s as simple as that.

But wait – there’s more. If, for whatever reason, you’d like to share your pictures and movies with somebody who doesn’t own an iOS device, there’s still hope, because iCloud Photo Sharing also generates a public URL for new albums. This allows desktop users and owners of devices running on other mobile platforms such as Android and Windows Phone to view your album online, in a web interface.

This is a nice addition to iCloud Photo Sharing, as it means that there’s no limit imposed on whom iOS device owners can share their photos and videos with using the feature.

Another great thing about using iCloud Photo Sharing is the ability to create and maintain living, breathing albums of photos and videos. You see, once a friend or family member has been invited to join an iCloud album, you can continue to add new photos and videos into that album as and when you choose. All invitees will then be able to check out new additions to your iCloud albums as they’re updated, especially since they’ll receive an iOS notification every time the album host adds new content.

Imagine this: You’re on a family vacation, and you’ve got relations or friends back at home whom you’d love to share your photos with once you’re back. With iCloud Photo Sharing, you can add pictures and movies to a shared album as you go, importing new content and expanding on the album’s contents with each day. You could also have a shared iCloud album set up for pictures of your kid, adding new photos in every so often and sharing a photo life-story with grandparents, aunts, and uncles. For non-iOS users, the URL that iCloud Photo Sharing generates will always show the updated contents of the album.

You know what’s better than being able to share photos with another person quickly and easily? Having them share their own pictures and movies with you!

When you create iCloud Photo Library shared albums, enabling the Subscribers Can Post option allows invitees to add their own images into the same collection. You can turn on this option in the aforementioned People tab of a shared album.

With the Subscribers Can Post option enabled, multiple iOS device owners can create a collaborative pool of images showcasing a particular event (like a wedding or family vacation). Best of all, all the same great photo management features listed above still apply: notifications for new additions to the album will reach all subscribers, you can continue to add in new photos and videos as you go, and iCloud’s public URL will continue to update with additional content as and when it’s added.

Perhaps you’re a fan of Facebook’s commenting and liking features, which allow users of the social network to receive feedback on their photos, videos, and albums from friends and family members. If so, you’ll be pleased to hear that Apple has built a similar feature right into iCloud Photo Sharing.

In shared iCloud albums, subscribers can either “like” or comment on individual images. You’ll receive a notification when new comments are made on your photos and videos, and as the album curator, you can reply with your own comments, too. Got a funny story to share about one of your pictures? Sharing it with all your album subscribers is simple, thanks to iCloud Photo Library’s commenting feature.

Despite offering users a great feature set, iCloud Photo Sharing comes with an important message:

The album curator might delete the images or remove the album (subscribers can’t remove images, though, so there’s no need to worry about reckless invitees). To ensure that you maintain access to your favorite images shared using iCloud Photo Sharing, you are advised to make a habit out of saving your favorite images and albums to your iOS device as promptly as possible.

To do this, open the photo or video you’d like to save to your iOS device, and tap the Share icon. Then, find and select the option labeled Save Image and tap it. The photo or video will then be downloaded from iCloud and saved to your device. Even if the album curator deletes the photo or video, your copy will remain safe and sound on your iOS device. Phew.

There you have it: iCloud Photo Sharing – the best way to share photos and videos on iOS. As we hope you can see, this smart feature easily beats all other photo-sharing options.

It’s quick, easy to configure, feature-packed, and can even work across mobile (and desktop) platforms. And best of all, it’s free to use. What more could you want?

Start iCloud-sharing the contents of your Photos app now. For any questions or tips, feel free to comment with them below.