How shared album controls give your photos more privacy

Whether you share by link or to specific people, Photos makes it easier and more secure to share albums.

Organize photos and videos from an event, trip, or other occasion to bring together multiple people through shared albums. Viewers can add their own photos, videos, and comments. You can share your albums through a link or directly with someone.

How we protect your shared albums

We give you control over who to share your albums with and how. You can add, remove, and restrict access to specific people. Link sharing lets you share your photos through an unguessable URL that can be reset at any time.

Share an album with specific people

You can control which Google Account users have access to your album. For example, Sara created a shared album titled “Kids,” and added her husband and their parents to the album.

Add specific people to your album to limit access to a smaller group.
Anyone with access to the album can add others to the shared album. If you have notifications turned on, Google Photos will notify you when new people are added.
Choose whether others can add photos, comments, and likes to your album.

Link sharing

Quickly send photos and videos through a link instead of adding people to a list.
A shared link is a URL that people can’t guess on their own. After a link is created, it can be shared by others.
To reset the link, turn link sharing off and then back on. The old link will no longer work and you can share the new link with people you trust.

Keep in mind:

If you remove someone from a shared album, but have link sharing turned on, anyone with the original link can still view the album.
To prevent others with access from adding photos, under "Options," turn off Collaborate.

You’re in control

As an album owner, you have control over your shared photos and videos.

To make a shared album private, remove all collaborators and turn off link sharing. When an album is made private, all comments are removed and collaborators will no longer have access. You can share the album again at any time.
When you remove someone from an album, all photos or comments from that person will be removed.
When you block someone, you can't view each other’s photos, videos, or comments.
Only an album owner can change the link sharing settings.

You must be the owner of the album to remove someone.

Open the desired album.
Click More Options.
Scroll to find the contact you’d like to have removed.
Click More Remove person.

Turn Link sharing on & off

Open the desired album and click More Options.
Click the toggle next to Link sharing to turn it on or off.

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