Google adds new album sharing controls to Google Photos

Sharing photos to loved ones who cannot see each other like they used to is more important than ever. Even as we slowly emerge from isolation mass gatherings are still not allowed not encouraged in most of our country it is important we stay connected to loved ones. Google are helping us do that with another easy way to share photos to your family and friends.

Last December Google introduced direct sharing to allow users to easily share one-off photos and videos by adding them to a private conversation within the Google Photos app. Now Google are expanding that direct sharing to shared albums.

Rolling out sometime this week the default option when sharing an album will be to share to a specific person(s) via their Google account allowing you to be able to have greater control over who is added to the album.

The new addition will NOT remove the ability to share albums via a link which can be used to share albums with those who do not have a Google account. You can turn off link sharing though and also decide whether you want those who you’ve shared the album with already be able to add photos ot the album. You can also now remove persons from an album which also removes the photos they have added to said album.

The new sharing allows a more secure way to share albums to others in which only those who you decide to share the album with will be able to see the album. Previously with a link sharing anyone with said link was able to view the album.

I exclusively share photos with my family and friends through Google Photos and it is great to see Google adding a more secure way to share albums with them. It seems that COVID-19 has resulted in a lot of great enhancements and additions to various Google products.

While they may not have been developed specifically for these trying times it seems fairly obvious that COVID-19 has sped up their release as we see weekly updates and enhancements from Google. What’s next do you think?