Sharing Photos and Videos with Shared Albums

In this video, we’re going to look at how we can share photos and videos in the Photos app on the Mac. We do this through Shared Albums. Let’s go to my Mac.

So if we go to my sidebar here, you’re going to see I have a section for Shared Albums. This is where I can find any albums that are shared with me from other people, as well as how I can find any albums that I want to share with other people. This is how sharing works in the Photos app on the Mac. What we do is we create an album and then we share it with other people.

So the first thing that we need to do, if we want to share an album is create a Shared Album. How do we do that? Well, all we need to do is just go over to the plus here, I click on it, and then from here I name the album. I invite people who I want to view that album. And then I can also add any comments. So it’s pretty simple.

So let’s share an album with my tulip picture. So I’m just going to call this Tulips. Now, what I do is I invite people. I can start typing in their name, or if they’re in my contacts, I can click on the plus. Once I invite people, they’re going to get an invitation in their photos app on their Mac, on their iPad, or on their iPhone. And once they accept that invitation, that album will show up under there shared albums. So now I’m going to invite someone here. We’ll just go with my name. I can add more than one person. Let’s just call this Favorite Tulip Pictures. And once I click on create, it’s going to create that album and send the invitation out. So now I click on it. And you’re going to see, I have tulips here.

The next thing I need to do is I need to add photos to this album. Now we have a few different ways that we could do this, but one of the easiest ways to just drag and drop. So I have this photo here, I just click and drag and place it in tulips. So now that photo is in there. I can also click on a photo and if I hold down the control key and click, you’re going to see Share. From here I go Shared Albums. I select it, and now I just select the album. I want to share it. I could also create a new shared album here. I’m just going to go with Tulips. And now I have two photos in there. I can also add videos. We’re going to add a few more here. So I’m just going to select these three down here. I control click and I go over to Share. We go over to Shared Albums and again, I select Tulips. So now I have five photos in there.

Let’s take a look at this album here. There are my five photos. If I want to add more, I can also just click on Add Photos and Videos. So now we know how to create the album. We’ve invited someone to view that album, and now we know also how to add photos and videos into there.

Now let’s look at how we manage our invitations, people that we invited to view our album, or who we shared our album with, as well as the different options we have with a shared album. To do that we go up to our tool bar and then you’re going to see this icon with the little silhouette of a person in there. This is where we can manage that shared album. I can see the status of every invitation. I can invite more people. I can revoke invitations, remove people from that shared albums, so they will no longer be able to share it. And then I also have a few other options.

I can let subscribers post photos to this. So once Dan accepts that invitation, he’ll be able to post photos and videos in this album as well.

I can also create a public website. This would be great for people that are not on an Apple device. All I have to do is just select this, and the Photos app is creating a link. And then from here, I just share this link. Anyone that is not on an Apple device is going to be able to view this album.

And then I can also set if there are notifications. From here I can invite more people. I click on the plus and invite more people. If I want to remove someone, all I have to do is just select their name and click on the delete key. I can also delete the shared album. So, this is where you can manage your album.

Now, once you create that album, how do you find it? Well, all you need to do is just go over to your Shared Albums and then you’re going to see all of your shared albums. Now, what about the people that you’re sharing it with? Where do they find this album? Well, they will find it under their Shared Albums as well. And if you want to see the activity of all of your shared albums, so this is like a feed. Any changes to any of your shared albums, those are going to be under your Activity. So now I click on Activity and we can see that I shared five photos. So think of this as an activity feed. This is where I can find all of the changes to all of my shared albums.

So that’s how we share our photos and videos in the Photos app on the Mac. We do this through Shared Albums. First thing you need to do is create the album, you name it, and then you invite who you want to view that album. You can also add a comment. Once you do that, you just go and add your photos and videos to that album. To manage the album, you first have to open it up and then you go up to the toolbar and click on people. From there, what you can do is manage the status of anyone that you invited to view that. You can see if they accepted the invitation, you can invite more people. You can delete people from viewing that album. You can also set if they are going to be able to add photos and videos to that album themselves, you can create a public link for people that are not on Apple devices. And then you can set if you want notifications. To view the album, you just go over to your shared albums and open up that album if you have a number of shared albums, you may want to look at your Activity feed. This is where you’re going to see all of the new photos and videos that anyone has added to any shared albums. These are albums that you’ve created as well as albums that you are subscribing to. When you share an album and someone is on an Apple device, they will find that album under their Shared Albums as well. And they can also view any activity with their Activity.

that’s how you share your photos and videos in the Photos app on the Mac.