Google Photos rolls out new 'shared albums' feature

Google has started rolling out new photo sharing feature to compete with Apple’s iCloud photo sharing. However, Google brings this support to Android, web as well as iOS. “Today we’re introducing shared albums in Google Photos—a fast and simple way to pool your photos and videos that makes it easier to bring everyone’s memories together,” the official Google blogpost.

It is a great feature that will allow to pool your photos and videos from friends and family who keep forgetting to share them via email or social networks. This means you can make albums collaborative and people who receive the shared album can join in and add their own photos and videos. People can also get notifications when new pictures are added and save photos/videos from a shared album to the Google Photos library. “I tested them for the past week on iOS and Android and found a few delightful features that you can’t find in Apple’s shared albums. For example, videos and animated photos will appear in your album as if the subjects are moving, an old feature carried over from Google Photos that will still make people smile,” writes TheVerge’s Katherine Boehret. However, this feature works with iOS for now and will be made available to Android users soon. Google says that there’s no ‘setup select photos’, and you can simply make an album and then send the link off to whomever you’d like. It will work across devices, be it tablet, laptop, Android or iPhone.