Sharing and photo metadata · iPhone and Android
Who can see your shared photo albums, and how to check
A shared album starts with good intentions: holiday photos for the family, a wedding album for guests, pictures of a new baby for the grandparents, a running album with a partner. Years later it’s still there, still growing, and the list of people who can see it may no longer match the people you’d choose today. Shared albums rarely leak through a security flaw. They leak through being forgotten.
Who can see a shared album
There are two ways into a shared album:
- Invited people. You add them by name, email or phone number, and they see the album in their own photo app.
- A link or QR code. Anyone who has it can view the album. On Android, the official help says anyone with an album’s link can view it and anyone who scans its QR code can open it. On iPhone, older shared albums could be published as a public website that anyone with the address could view and download.
The second is the one to watch. A link gets forwarded, pasted into group chats and saved in old messages. Once it’s out, you can’t see who has it.
What members can do
Depending on the album’s settings, people in it can usually:
- view and download every photo and video in it;
- save copies to their own library, which stay with them even if they later leave or are removed;
- add their own photos, if the album allows it;
- comment and like, which shows their name or picture next to the action.
Some albums can also add photos automatically, for example every new picture of a particular person. On Android, the official help notes that anyone with access to such an album sees those photos as they’re added. Check auto-adding albums carefully: they share photos you haven’t looked at.
How to review your shared albums
On iPhone, open the photos app and go to the shared albums section. For each album, open its sharing details to see who’s in it, whether others can add photos and whether there’s a link. Newer versions of iPhone software group these under the album’s sharing options. Safety Check can also show who you share photos with; see iPhone Safety Check explained.
On Android, the photo app’s sharing section lists albums, conversations and links you’ve shared. Open an album’s options to see members, turn off link sharing and choose whether others can add photos.
For each album, ask:
- Do I still want everyone here to see new photos? Remove anyone who no longer belongs. You must be the album’s owner to do this.
- Does it need a link? If everyone who needs it has been invited, turn the link off.
- Should others be able to add? Turn it off for albums that are really yours.
- Is it adding photos automatically? Make sure that’s still what you want.
- Is it finished? Delete albums you no longer use, after keeping copies of anything you want.
What removing someone does and doesn’t do
Removing a person stops them seeing the album and anything added later. It doesn’t reach into their phone. Copies they saved stay in their library, and screenshots are beyond anyone’s control. If an album held something you now regret sharing, removing people limits further spread, but plan as if the copies they made still exist.
Deleting a shared album removes it for everyone, including any link. On iPhone, the official help notes that deleting an album that was published as a public website also takes the website down.
Where shared albums are stored
Shared albums live with the photo service, so that everyone in the album can reach them. That’s different from your own library, which on some services can be end-to-end encrypted. Assume the service can read what’s in a shared album, and read is cloud photo backup encrypted? for how your own library compares.
After a breakup or a falling-out, shared albums are one of the first things to check. See an ex still has access to your accounts.
Photos that were never meant to be shared
The safest private photo is the one that’s never in a shared album, a synced library or a chat. Silo, coming soon to iPhone and Android, keeps imported photos encrypted in its own vault, with no sharing feature and no account. To share one photo, you choose to save or share that single item, deliberately.
Questions
Is a shared album link private?
Only as private as the link. Anyone who has it, including someone it was forwarded to, can view the album. Treat a link as public and turn it off when it's no longer needed.
If I remove someone, do they lose the photos?
They lose access to the album, but any photos they already saved to their own library stay with them. Removing someone can't take back copies.
Can people in the album add photos?
Often yes, unless you turn that off. Both phones' photo apps have a setting that controls whether invited people can add their own photos and videos.
What happens if I leave an album someone else created?
You stop seeing it. On Android, the official help says leaving also removes the photos, comments and likes you added to it.
Are shared albums backed up and encrypted like my library?
They're stored by the photo service so everyone can reach them, which means the service can usually read them. Don't put anything in a shared album you wouldn't want stored that way.