Shared albums compared: WhatsApp, Google, iCloud

Family photos usually go round through the group chat, an album in Google Photos or a Shared Album in iCloud. We set out, channel by channel, what happens to the same photo: the quality, who can get at it, what you find back later and what you pay with.

In most families the photos of a birthday or a holiday go round through one of four channels: the group chat, a shared album in Google Photos, a Shared Album in iCloud or a service like Ohhi. From the outside they look alike, but they do different things with the same photo. Below we set out, channel by channel, what happens to the quality, who can get at it, what you can still find years later and what you pay with. We stick to what can be checked, and where Ohhi does the same as the rest, we say so.

What happens to the quality

The photo that arrives is rarely the file you took. Each channel makes a different choice there.

WhatsApp shrinks photos and videos considerably by default so they send quickly. The HD setting reduces that, but still does not deliver the original; only sending as a document does. Video drops a lot in standard quality and reaches 720p at most in HD.
Google Photos keeps what you upload, in the quality you choose in the settings: original or the smaller storage-saver variant. Whoever views the album sees that version.
iCloud long reduced Shared Albums to 2048 pixels on the long edge, with video up to 720p and fifteen minutes at most. Since iOS 27, which Apple released on 14 September, new Shared Albums keep the full resolution.
Ohhi keeps the original as you uploaded it, and the people you invite can download it in that quality; in Ohhi itself you look at a sharp preview. Video plays back up to 1080p and the original file stays available for download. If you turn off Keep originals in your profile (the welcome wizard suggests this compact setting), we keep just the playback versions of video and photos may be shrunk to 2048 pixels.

Who can get at it, and who can pass it on

In a group chat everyone in the group has every photo on their own phone straight away. Forwarding to another group is one tap, and what has been sent cannot be taken back.
Google Photos shares an album with chosen accounts or via a link. That link works for anyone who has it, even without a Google account, and there is no password or expiry date on it. Turn the link off and everyone loses access at once.
iCloud invites people on their Apple account. For those without an Apple device you can enable a public website; it is then viewable by anyone with the URL. With iOS 27, people on Android and Windows can join and contribute photos themselves.
Ohhi shares only with the people you invite, and that person has to accept the invitation first. There is no discover page. Whoever looks along can still download a photo or send it to another app with Share. If you want to show a folder to someone without an account, you create one read-only link per folder yourself, which you can revoke at any time.

What an invited person has saved stays outside your control on all four channels. The difference is in how many copies come into being by default, and whether you can still stop access afterwards. How the capture location inside the file itself behaves is covered in does a shared photo carry its location.

What you can still find a year later

The group chat keeps photos on the date they were sent, in between all the messages. A chat's media gallery helps a little, but you cannot search by person or place, and whoever joined the group later does not see what came before.
Google Photos searches well by person, place and subject, for photos in your own library. What others put in a shared album has to be saved first for that.
iCloud shows a Shared Album as a plain list in order of adding. Search and the map work on your own library, not on what others have put in the Shared Album.
Ohhi puts your posts and what others share with you in one timeline, newest first; with an import, posts get the capture date. You search by tag or filename, also in what others share, and, with recognition on, by person in your own photos. Photos with a capture location appear on the map. A shared trip merges the whole group's photos day by day. What you don't share yet sits in a private archive with its own timeline; the phone backup in the app puts your photos there on its own.

What you pay with

WhatsApp is free. Meta earns from ads, which since 2026 also appear in the Updates tab of WhatsApp in Europe. Meta says the content of your chats is not used for that.
Google Photos gives up to 15 GB free, shared with Gmail and Drive; new accounts in some regions get 5 GB until they confirm a phone number. Beyond that you pay for Google One. Google says your photos are not used for ads and not to train generative models outside Photos; when connected to other Google services, derived data can be used.
iCloud gives 5 GB free and sells iCloud+ beyond that. For a long time Shared Albums did not count towards that storage. Since iOS 27 that has changed: everything in a new Shared Album, including what others add, counts against the creator.
Ohhi gives 1 GB free, and looking along in shared albums is always free. You buy more storage with a plan you share with five others. There are no ads, we sell no data and we train no AI on your photos; how we put that on record is in why we'll never use your photos to train AI.

On all four channels a saved copy stays outside your reach. The difference is in how many copies come into being by default, and whether you can still stop access afterwards.

When the group chat is fine

For a photo that is fun today and not needed tomorrow, the group chat is the fastest route, and it stays that way. An album pays off as soon as you want to keep something: the first weeks of a baby, a holiday, a party where several people took photos. Then you want the full quality, one place where everyone sees the same set, and a way to find it again a year on. Google Photos and iCloud do that well within their own environment. If you go with them, pay particular attention to who can open the link and whose storage it is charged to. If you are considering moving away from Google Photos, the page on the European alternative to Google Photos sets out what changes.

How to set up one family album

On Ohhi you create a folder for your family, invite the people who belong in it and choose which folders they see. Whoever accepts looks along and reacts. Whoever wants to contribute their own photos shares a folder of their own back, or for a holiday you set up a shared trip. The steps are in sharing an album with family. How that works alongside the family group chat is in sharing family photos without the group chat, and for a baby's first photos there is sharing baby photos with grandparents. Everything sits on servers in Europe. You can start for free and pick a roomier plan later as the family grows.