How to use Shared Albums in Photos on your iPhone, iPad or Apple Vision Pro

Shared Albums let you share photos and videos with the people you choose – and they can add their own photos, videos and comments. Find out how to turn on Shared Albums, manage a shared album and save photos from a Shared Album on your iPhone, iPad or Apple Vision Pro.

• Turn on Shared Albums

• Create a new shared album

• Delete a shared album

• Invite more people

• Remove a subscriber

• Add photos and videos to a shared album

• Delete photo and videos from a shared album

• Save photos and videos from a shared album

• File types that you can use in Shared Albums

• Shared Album storage limits

Turn on Shared Albums

1. Update your iPhone or iPad to the latest iOS or iPadOS, or your Apple Vision Pro to the latest visionOS.

2. Sign in to iCloud with the same Apple Account on all of the devices that you want to use with Shared Albums.

3. On your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud.

4. Under Saved to iCloud, tap Photos.

5. Scroll down and turn on Shared Albums.

Find out how to set up and use Shared Albums on your Mac and your other devices.

Create a new shared album

1. Open the Photos app.

2. In iOS 26 or later, tap Collections, then scroll down to Shared Albums. In iOS 18, scroll down to Shared Albums.

   

3. Tap Shared Albums.

4. In iOS 26 or later tap the Add button. In iOS 18 and visionOS, tap Create.

5. Give the shared album a name and choose some images to add to the shared album.

6. Choose people to invite from your contacts, or enter an email address or iMessage phone number. Tap Done.

7. Tap Create.

In iOS 17 or earlier:

1. In Photos, go to the Albums tab and tap the Add button .

2. Tap New Shared Album .

3. Give the shared album a name, then tap Next.

4. Choose people to invite from your contacts, or enter an email address or iMessage phone number.

5. Tap Create.

Delete a shared album

1. Open the shared album.

2. Tap the More button. In iOS 17 or earlier, tap the People button .

3. Tap Delete Shared Album.

4. Tap Delete to confirm.

When you delete a shared album, the shared album will be automatically removed from all of your devices and the devices of your subscribers. If you've turned on Public Website, the shared album will be removed from the web too. Deleting a shared album will delete all of its photos permanently. Before continuing, save any photos you want to keep.

Invite more people

1. Select a shared album that you’ve created.

2. Tap the More button.

3. Tap the Shared Album name.

4. Under Participants, tap Add Participants.

5. Enter the names of people you want to share this album with.

6. Tap Done.

In iOS 17 or earlier:

1. In Albums, select a shared album that you created.

2. Tap the People button .

3. Tap Invite People.

4. Enter the names of people you want to share this album with.

5. Tap Add.

To share an album with friends or family who don’t use iCloud, open a shared album you’ve created, tap the More button, then tap Shared Album Details. In iOS 17 or earlier, go to the People tab. Turn on Public Website. Your photos will be published to a website that anyone can see in an up-to-date web browser.

Remove a subscriber

1. Select a shared album that you’ve created.

2. Tap the More button.

3. Tap the Shared Album name.

4. Select the participant you want to remove.

5. Tap Remove Subscriber at the bottom of the screen.

In iOS 17 or earlier:

1. Open the shared album.

2. Tap the More button, then tap Shared Album Details. In iOS 17 or earlier, tap the People button .

3. Select the subscriber you want to remove.

4. Tap Remove Subscriber at the bottom of the screen.

As the creator of a shared album, you control who can access it. You can remove subscribers at any time.

Add photos and videos to a shared album

1. From your Library or from within an album, tap Select and then select the photos and videos that you want to share.

2. Tap the Share button, then tap Add to Shared Album.

3. Choose the album where you want to share your photos.

4. Tap Post. When you add new photos, shared album participants will receive a notification.

If you have a shared album open, you can also tap the Add button to select photos and videos to add.

If a participant can’t add their photos or videos:

• In iOS 18 or later, tap the More button, then tap the Shared Album name. Check that you’ve turned on Participants Can Add Photos.

• In iOS 17 or earlier, tap the More button then choose Shared Album Details. Check that you’ve turned on Subscribers Can Post.

Delete photos and videos from a shared album

1. Open the shared album.

2. Tap the photo or video.

3. Tap the Bin button.

4. Tap Delete Photo.

If you're the owner of a shared album, you can delete any photos, videos or comments from anyone. Subscribers can delete anything they personally added. Anything you delete is automatically deleted from the album on all of your devices and the devices of subscribers.

Any photos that you’ve saved or downloaded from a shared album to your Photos library will stay in your library even if the shared album is deleted or the person who created it stops sharing it.

Save photos and videos from a shared album

When you share photos and videos with someone, they can save shared items to their own library.

1. Tap the photo or video. In visionOS, open the photo, then tap the More button.

2. Tap the Share button.

3. Tap Save Image or Save Video.

File types that you can use in Shared Albums

Image file types and formats

• HEIF

• JPEG

• RAW*

• PNG

• GIF

• TIFF

Special formats

Shared Albums also support special formats that you capture with your iPhone, such as slo-mo, time-lapse, Live Photos and Memory videos. When shared, photos are reduced to 2,048 pixels on the long edge, except panoramic photos, which can be up to 5,400 pixels wide. You can share GIFs that are 100 MB or smaller.

Video file types and formats

• HEVC

• MP4

• QuickTime

• H.264

• MPEG-4

Videos can be up to fifteen minutes in length and are delivered at up to 720p resolution.

Shared Album storage limits

A shared album can hold up to 5,000 photos and videos. If you reach your Shared Album limit, you need to delete some photos or videos before adding new ones. The photos and videos you share (and the comments or likes associated with those photos) stay in iCloud until you or the contributor delete them manually, or until you delete the shared album completely.

The photos and videos in your Shared Albums are kept in iCloud, but they don’t count against your iCloud storage limit.