Do you take a lot of photos with your smartphone and want to share them with your loved ones? Here is a selection of free online services to easily share your photos via the Internet with your family or friends.
A birthday, a wedding, a party with friends, a vacation with the family… there are plenty of opportunities to capture the most precious moments with your smartphone camera. But why keep these shots for yourself when you can share them with all your loved ones? This is exactly what online photo sharing services offer. More practical than sending piecemeal by email or SMS, they allow in a few seconds to share an entire album or a few shots chosen by you. Simply enter the email address of one or more contacts to give them access to the items you want to share. Free or included in a subscription, these sharing platforms can host a greater or lesser quantity of photos. This is one of the points to watch out for when choosing the service you like. And nothing prevents you from using them as storage space to free up space on your mobile.
To help you find your way around, we’ve selected eight free online photo-sharing services. All of them offer sufficient storage space to store your photos for the time to share them and offer paid subscription plans to take advantage of more online space. But, as you can see, they are not all equal in terms of ergonomics, interface and functionality, and some will surely be more suitable than others for your uses and tastes.
Google Photos
This is one of the key functions offered to Google account holders. Can be used via a web browser on a computer or from the app for Android and iOS Google Photos demonstrates real comfort and great ease of use. Photos taken with the smartphone can automatically be sent to the online space. Both the web service and the apps make it possible to create albums that can then be shared with loved ones. Just select them from the address book. You can also recover an Internet link leading to the pictures that you just have to communicate to whoever you want. On the storage space side, Google allocates 15 GB. But be careful, since this capacity is to be shared with the brand’s other services (Gmail and Google Drive). Also, snapshots recorded in original quality (without compression) gradually eat up the allocated space. However, Google provides tools to monitor the remaining space and, if necessary, clean up to regain some space. Otherwise, you can always turn to a paid plan, from 19.99 euros per year to take advantage of 100 GB.
Download Google Photos for Android
Download Google Photos for iOS
Microsoft OneDrive
OneDrive remains known for its online backup features and its close ties to Windows and the Office suite. Still, it’s a great service for hosting and sharing your photos. The system activated by default on Windows Phone smartphones in the 2010s made it possible, like Google Photos, to automatically save the photos taken online. The Windows Phones have disappeared but the function has remained and is accessible on Android and iOS. In its free version, OneDrive allows holders of a Microsoft account (Outlook, Hotmail or Live) to store 5 GB of data to share with all the documents and files saved from your PC or Mac. It’s not much, but enough to host photos that you want to share. For those who need more space, Microsoft offers a paid plan starting at 2 euros per month for 100 GB. To organize sharing, the publisher has implemented simple and practical functions. You can create an album and share it with whoever you want by providing a simple email address and even give permission to modify this album. Your contact will be able to add their own photos to the album. Convenient.
Apple Photos
To share photos, iPhone, iPad and Mac users obviously have the first instinct to turn to the Photos app installed by default on their device. Except that the sharing is done live. The photos can thus be transmitted by email or by messaging (SMS or WhatsApp for example). If you want to transmit many clichés, this is certainly not the ideal solution. It is therefore necessary to allow the backup of snapshots on iCloud, Apple’s online storage service or, better, activate the Shared Albums function on iOS and macOS. It allows you to set up an album in which you just have to drag the desired photos and invite other users to view them and even add more. On the other hand, from the iCloud web service, the sharing functions are more restricted. If you can share snapshots by obtaining an access link, it is not possible to share entire albums. And beware, with the free version of iCloud, you only have 5 GB of space available. If you use the service to automatically back up the content of your iPhone or iPad, for example, there is little space left for your snapshots. If you absolutely want to use iCloud to share your photos with your loved ones, you must therefore turn to a paid plan from 0.99 euros per month for 50 GB. Finally, the Apple Photos app is only available only on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Joomeo
Joomeo is a French company. Its online service allows images to be stored and shared. Rather complete, it is accessible through a web browser but also an app for Mac, PC, iPhone and Android and even a plug-in for Light Room, Adobe’s image management software (the Photoshop). As soon as you register on the platform, you benefit from 5 GB of storage space, just like what Apple or Microsoft offer. Apps for PC and Mac allow you to send snapshots to online storage or download them. The web service interface is both simple and elegant and the functions quickly identifiable. It is possible to share an entire album or just a few snapshots. The contacts concerned can download the photos, add them (if you authorize them to do so) and even order prints. Because Joomeo also offers a printing service. Joomeo offers paid plans to take advantage of more space from 24 euros per year for 50 GB.
FlickR
Created in 2004 FlickR has undergone many changes in its 18 years of existence. After passing into the hands of Yahoo, FlickR is now owned by SmugMug, a company specializing in image hosting for professionals. But the site very popular with photo enthusiasts for a long time lost its luster. Previously, you could store 1 TB of images for free. Today, if you don’t want to spend a penny, the space is limited to 1000 shots. In addition, the Web service interface has taken quite a bit of time. It resembles in places that of Picasa (the old Google platform, used before Google Photos) with dated menus and abstruse titles. As for the sharing functions, they also need to be reviewed. It is possible to share snapshots or entire albums but you have to think about unlocking access beforehand. FlickR of course offers paid offers from 6 euros per month (for a one-year subscription) allowing you to find unlimited storage.
Dropbox
For years, Dropbox has helped us on a daily basis to share documents with loved ones, family members or colleagues. It made sense that the service would also be interested in photo sharing. And for this type of file too, Dropbox simplifies the process. Within the web interface there is now a Photos section in the left column. It gives access to all the image files saved in the online space in order to view them. But strangely, it is not from this section that we proceed to the sharing. You have to go back to the main file. There, by selecting a folder including images or individual files, one can then share them easily. Despite this flexibility of use, Dropbox suffers from a major flaw vis-à-vis its competitors. The free version (Basic) offers only 2 GB of storage space. It’s not much. And paid offers are not given. The first level allows you to benefit from 2 TB of storage space for 9.99 euros per month.
ComBoost
ComBoost is primarily a company specializing in printing and photo printing. That doesn’t stop it from also offering a free online snapshot sharing service that isn’t related to photo printing. Also, you can register without having to place an order. The platform thus makes it possible to create around fifty albums to store a total of 2,500 photos. It’s not much but enough if you just use it to occasionally share photos with loved ones or family. The web service interface deserves a good refresh but has the merit of being quite clear. Also, we couldn’t load all the images we wanted for some unknown reason. Once the photos are online, you can create galleries that you can share with loved ones either through a direct link or by giving them your member name. Well seen, the images can be locked with a password for more privacy. ComBoost does not offer paid offers and does not have apps for Android or iOS.
Amazon Pics
The galaxy of services offered by the Web giant Amazon continues to expand. For all those who have an Amazon Prime account (49 euros per year) which gives access to free and express deliveries, but also to music and video streaming platforms (Amazon Music and Amazon Prime Video), there is another brick: Amazon Photos. This service makes it possible to host an unlimited number of snapshots without any size restriction at no additional cost. Amazon Photos is actually one of the functions of Amazon Drive, the online storage service included in the Prime subscription. Its interface is very easy to handle both with the mobile app and from the website. The sharing of snapshots takes place in a few seconds by providing a direct link or by offering to send an email to its correspondents. Simple and efficient.
Download Amazon Photos for Android
Download Amazon Photos for iOS
