If you need to share vacation, school year, or party photos and you need to collect the different photos between people, there are several ways to do it. Up until a few years ago, the first solution was probably to send the photos to everyone, then create a CD of photos, and then make copies of the CD by hand for the people involved. However, this is not only an uncomfortable job but also quite laborious, especially in the phase of collecting the photos and handing over the CDs. However, it is much more convenient to use the Cloud, i.e. upload a shared album online for people to see at any time from their PC or smartphone, and then, if they wish, download the photos and make the CD themselves. It would be even better if the photos in this online album were uploaded by the different people, so that one person does not have to do the work, allowing everyone to participate and collaborate with one or more photos and videos in the final album.
Google Photo and special options for photos and videos on smartphones and PCs
The advantage of using Google Photo as a tool to create shared albums is not only that it is free for everyone, but also that it is based on the Google account, which everyone should already have, without forcing you to register other accounts in lesser known sites. The only small flaw of Google Photo albums, which deserves to be mentioned right away, is that there is no way to make the albums truly private, even though it is almost impossible for someone to see the photos without being invited. In addition, Google Photo makes it very easy to share photos and videos with others and create an album that anyone can participate in, both from the website and from the Google Photo apps for iPhone and Android. When creating the album, you must first give the album a title, then select the people who can participate, but they can also be added later and finally select the photos or videos. If we already have the photos to add, we can do it ourselves, otherwise it is enough to add at least one photo to start, you can not create an empty album.
The automatic recognition function
If you have activated the function of automatic recognition of people in the photos. You can select the option that automatically adds to the album all subsequent photos in which the faces of the selected people appear. The people who have been sent to participate in the album, will receive an e-mail with the link to open the created album and the permission to add photos from your PC or smartphone. All the photos added will be visible to all those who have access to the album by invitation or even by sharing link. In the shared album, in fact, you can press the share button at the top to generate a link to copy and paste into messages or emails. Anyone who receives the link will be able to see the album without being able to add photos; those added via the button under the title, where the veneers appear, can also add new photos to the album. Only the creator of the album can delete photos.
How does Google Photo sharing work?
Google Photo sharing is not permission-based: if you invite three friends to join you to add photos, they have to sign in with their Google or Gmail account, but if you send the link by message to simply show the photos, anyone can open the album without needing a Google account. So the link is public and visible to everyone, even though it's almost impossible to find or open it by chance because it's made up of random characters. Nevertheless, it is not advisable to publish sensitive and very private photos in Google Photos.
How to find the album?
To find the shared album you created, you can open Google Photo and its Album section at any time by searching for its title and cover. Once you open an album, by tapping the button with three dots in the upper right corner, you can find several options including:
- Slideshow, to see the photos one after another with transition effects.
- Download all, to download all the photos to your PC.
- Edit Album, to remove photos from the album, to sort the photos differently, to add text fields such as titles or descriptions above the photos, to add a location and to add more photos.
- Options, to enable automatic addition of photos, to enable sharing, if you disable it, the album becomes private and no one can see or use it anymore, to enable collaboration, if you disable it, no one can add photos to the album, to disable comments and preferences.
- Put the album cover down.
- Hide the album from the album list.
- Create a printed photo book from the photos in the album
- Delete the album
At the top of the Google Photo app, you'll also find the button to view photos on Chromecast and the button to add comments to photos. Note that the option that stops sharing, disables the link generated by deleting access to the album to everyone except the owner and also deletes photos added by others and all comments. If you decide to re-enable sharing, a new random link will be generated and sent to people again.
Creating shared albums is therefore an ideal, easy and free solution to organize photos from a trip, a wedding, a party, a vacation, school or even to keep a children's photo album accessible to parents or other family members. If you don't like it, there are other solutions, listed in the post with the applications, to share photos in private with friends and relatives
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