PHOTO SHARING FACE-OFF: ICLOUD VS. GOOGLE PHOTOS

If there’s one thing that keeps me hooked on Google Photos, it’s sharing.

- JARED NEWMAN

With Google’s Partner Sharing feature, any family photo I take automatically appears in my wife’s photo library, and vice versa. That way, we both have the latest pictures of our kids, and those pictures also sync with our Google Photos smart displays, regardless of who took them. 

The advantages of frictionless sharing aren’t lost on Apple. With its rollout of iCloud Shared Photo Library last year, you can keep your entire photo collection in sync with a partner and other immediate family members.

But while Google’s and Apple’s shared library features serve similar purposes, the two companies have entirely different philosophies for how sharing should work. Here’s what you need to know before turning either of their sharing library features on.

HOW ICLOUD SHARED PHOTO LIBRARIES WORK

In the past, Apple allowed you to create shared albums to which other people could contribute. By contrast, iCloud Shared Photo Libraries is meant for sharing just with immediate family members, so it has several key differences from regular album sharing:

• Sharing extends to your entire library, not just individual albums.

• New photos you take can automatically appear in the shared library.

• Members of the shared library can edit or delete any photo, and those changes will apply for everyone.

• You can only belong to one shared library at a time, and each shared library has a limit of six members.