Apple added the shared photo library iCloud in iOS 16, iPados 16 and MacOS Ventura, considerably improving the sharing of photos and videos with a group of people with whom you frequently exchange media. The shared library, as it appears in the Photos Application, is a kind of supercharged shared album that you could use with your family or a group of close friends.
However, this is generally the case that we want to be circumspect on what we share: each image we take is not the one we even want a selected group can see. Due to how the shared library is integrated into the iOS / iPados camera application, it may be easy to file a private photo in the group pool.
In the application of the camera, a small icon of two people in a circle in the upper left (portrait) or lower left (landscape) mark if an image or a video will land in the shared library when it is captured. If there is a line through, the image is not shared; If the yellowish color of the camera interface and filled, this will be the case. If you press the icon when turned off (line through), it lights up yellow and a rectangular “shared library” label appears briefly in a superposition.
You can change this as an overview via Parameters > Camera > Shared library Or Parameters > (Applications >) Photos > Shared library > Camera sharing. There, you can activate or deactivate the part of the camera, which is defined to share manually by default. If you deactivate the sharing of the camera, the icon no longer appears in the application of the camera.
Apple also has a subtle option available if you choose to share automatically: captured photos and videos are copied in the shared library only if Bluetooth is active and other members of the shared library are detectable nearby (they have activated Bluetooth and signed in their iCloud account). In appearance, this is a confidentiality functionality to prevent you from accidentally sharing everything in the shared library when you are not with other members.
You can also choose to share at home in the pictures of the photos, which always puts the media captured in the shared library when you are on the location you have defined as your home.
To see the content of the shared library:
- In iOS / iPados in the Photos Application, press your icon in the upper right corner of the application and press the shared library (or the two libraries) under the library view options.
- In MacOS in the Photos Application, click on the context menu in the top left of the main photos view and choose the shared library or the two libraries.
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