Share photos and videos and keep them up to date with iCloud
You can securely store your photos and videos in iCloud and share them with others using iCloud Photos, iCloud Shared Photo Library, and Shared Albums.
iCloud Photos
When you set up iCloud Photos, the photos and videos on your device are uploaded to iCloud. You can still see them in the Photos app on your device, and any photos and videos already stored in iCloud—for example, from another device with iCloud Photos turned on—are added to Photos.
You can see your photos and videos on any device that has iCloud Photos turned on, including your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple TV, or Windows computer. You can also access your iCloud photos and videos in a web browser at iCloud.com.
Because your photos and videos are in the cloud, changes you make on one device—like taking a new photo, cropping a video, or deleting a photo—automatically appear on all your devices. You see the most up-to-date versions of your photos and videos, no matter where you access them.
If you delete a photo or video stored in iCloud Photos, it’s deleted from all your devices. Photos and videos you delete are moved to a Recently Deleted folder in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac, and on iCloud.com. Recently deleted photos and videos can be recovered for 30 days. If you permanently delete a file from the Recently Deleted folder, you can’t recover those photos or videos.
iCloud Shared Photo Library
When you use iCloud Photos, you can also create an iCloud Shared Photo Library: a separate iCloud photo library you can share with up to five other people. Everyone can add, edit, favorite, caption, and delete photos and videos, and all collaborators see those changes in real time.
All photos and videos in the iCloud Shared Photo Library count toward the library organizer’s iCloud storage.
Shared Albums
You can use Shared Albums to create photo and video albums. You decide if the people you share with can add photos or videos to the album or just comment on and like them. When collaborators make changes to a shared album, everyone sees those changes in real time. You can also create a public shared album. Anyone who has the link can view the album, even if they don’t use iCloud.
Although shared albums are stored in iCloud, they don’t count toward your iCloud storage.
Get started
Learn how to set up iCloud Photos, iCloud Shared Photo Library, and Shared Albums.
Some iCloud features have minimum system requirements. See the Apple Support article System requirements for iCloud.