How to Share Photos with Friends & Family Without Using Google Drive

I love the ease with which we can share photos with family and friends these days.  Especially with something like a family trip, everyone is taking pictures, and someone always has that perfect shot that I want to "borrow."  

How do you like to share photos with family and friends?  Email?  Google Drive?  Dropbox?

There are many online options, and Google Drive is a popular way to share photos with friends and family, but there are two big reasons I don't do it.

First, my photos aren't private in Google Drive.

Yes, that last item at the bottom is correct.  Google's fine print allows them to host, reproduce, distribute, communicate, and use my content; publish, publicly perform, or publicly display my content, if I've made it visible to others.  Which, if I've shared it with my family, I just have. 

Second, Google Drive storage comes with a limit, unless I pay for it.  I certainly don't want to pay to expand my limit when my photos aren't even secure or private there in the first place.  And Google, of course, isn't the only one.

Let me tell you about my favorite way to not only keep my photos private but also share them easily with friends and family of my choosing.  This method comes with a lot of *perks that I'll detail in a minute.

And, by the way, this is exactly why FOREVER came to be!  

from the August 2024 All-Ambassador meeting

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post, from which I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.

Here's all you need:

First,  you only need a free Forever account, which you can open here.  Next, upload photos and organize them into albums and nested albums (like folders and subfolders on your computer).  You can find a tutorial video about uploading and organizing your photos here.

Your free Forever account comes with 2 GB of free photo storage, which can house hundreds of photos.  Most people take more photos than that, so if you need some you can purchase it here.  (That's right: purchase.  Not pay a monthly fee; you OWN it Forever!)

I'm going to tell you about the ideal way, where all parties involved have a secure Forever account, but this can go one-way, too.  

If, for, example, I want to share some photos and videos with you, but you don't have a Forever account, I can send you a link to the album where I've saved my photos and videos.  Like this:

https://www.forever.com/app/users/jennifer-wise--1/albums/learn-more-here/6g2jq937apd6tb0tg8c7ixfiw

Just click that and you can see an album I created of photos and videos about Forever!

From there, anyone can download whichever photos and videos they like from the album link you've shared.  You just need to make sure that album is set to the "public" privacy setting so others can see it (and you can change the privacy setting later).  There's even an option for others to upload their photos to the album if the album owner enables that.

The easier way, I think, is for everyone to have a Forever account so they can share through Connections securely and privately, guaranteed.  This 4-minute video walks you right through how that works!  It's so cool. 

Oh, and speaking of guarantees, it's time to look at all the perks that Forever Storage includes.  I made this list when I was first learning about Forever Storage and if I wanted to pursue Forever.  Turns out:  it's exactly what I want.

Keep in mind, too, that when you share your photos from your Forever Storage with your Connections and/or Groups as shown in the video, they can not only look at your photos from the albums you've chosen to share with them, but they can download the photos they want as well!  Say goodbye to 30 minutes of going through each other's phones and airdropping photos to yourself every evening of a trip!

And don't forget about the free Forever app, too!  We really need conveniences for our photos these days.  

Someone told me recently that he looks at storing his photos in a secure, triple-backed-up place like Forever that will guarantee they'll be passed on to another generation is like photo insurance.  Well said!

And there you have it!  This is how to share photos with family and friends privately and securely without using Google Drive.  Give it a try.  I'm guessing you'll love it as much as I do.

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