How to Share Digital Media
When you consider that more than one trillion digital photos are taken every year, this opens the door to a wide array of ways to share photos online. The statistics for videos are just as mind-boggling, with 720,000 hours of video uploaded to YouTube alone each day.
A diverse array of photo-sharing apps and social media sites makes it easy to share videos and photos from your smartphone and desktop with anyone you want, as well as create digital photo albums and other personalized gifts.
Best Photo Sharing Platforms
The best online photo storage solutions may also provide the best way to share photos with family and friends, depending on your needs. With so many sharing apps and platforms, doing some research will help determine the best one to fit your needs.
Flickr: This online image and photo-sharing site had 100 million users and housed more than 10 billion photos and videos, as of December 2019. The free version of Flickr is limited to 1,000 photos, although a Pro account available at a cost includes an unlimited number of uploads, storage of videos up to 10 minutes in length, ad-free browsing, and advanced statistics.
Google Photos: Google Photos will automatically upload and back up every photo you ever take on a smartphone (when it's on Wi-Fi), and copy every image it finds on your computer. Storage is unlimited, but it comes with a rather big caveat regarding image restrictions. The stipulation is that photos can only be as large as 16MP and videos must be 1080p HD or less.
Amazon Prime Photos: If you’re a Prime member, this platform allows storing and sharing unlimited photos saved on your desktop, smartphone, or tablet. Photo prints, cards, calendars, and other gifts can be ordered using your stored photos — all with free shipping. Users can also invite up to five friends or family members to receive unlimited photo storage and collect photos in a Family Vault.
Social Media Platforms
When you want to share digital media, one of the most obvious choices is to post them on social media sites, however, these aren’t necessarily the best family photo-sharing apps due to inherent limitations.
Facebook: With more than 2.7 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2020, this is the biggest social network worldwide. Before you post photos on Facebook, you need to consider privacy issues and how to manage account settings. For example, you can make everything public or only allow Facebook friends to see your posts. If you choose the latter, family members need to have an account and be one of your friends to see what you post, including photos.
Instagram: Owned by Facebook, this platform has one billion monthly active users, with more than 40 billion photos shared on this app and counting. You need to have an account to see more than thumbnails or interact with others through tags, likes, comments, or direct messages. Another downside is that it’s subject to continual changes including censorship (e.g. the recent tags function was disabled for months due to the U.S. Presidential election). While it’s a great option to show off photos to anyone who has an account, it isn’t an optimal choice for sharing with family and friends that don’t have accounts.
TikTok: This video-sharing app has 800 million users worldwide, providing users with the opportunity to create and share short-form videos with friends, family, and the entire world. The app provides several ways to customize interactions based on personal privacy and safety preferences.
If you still have vintage prints, negatives, or slides, getting them digitized first makes it easier to share and create gifts for family members. Getting them professionally digitized also protects fragile media from fading and other damage.
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