The Best Family Photo-Sharing Apps

Tinybeans

The Tinybeans platform offers parents a private space to to share photos, milestones and other moments with their children amongst family and friends in a private social network. The modern family album app gives parents a happy space to enjoy their children's life stories with family. Effortlessly organize pics, videos & milestones, print cute keepsakes, and share with family in one safe space off social media. Parents can check it out with a free trial, and purchase premium subscriptions and photo books.

Available: tinybeans.com, iOS and Android

23Snaps

Created by parents for parents, 23Snaps is a well-made, private photo-sharing app and web service that lets you share family pics in a private and safe way. Designed to work like a digital photo journal that can be viewed by as few or as many friends and family of your choosing, the app lets parents document and share all of the special and not-so-special moments of their children’s lives. Parents also can add captions and stories to still photos and videos. Moments can be viewed through the mobile app as well as via web or e-mail. A useful feature lets parents share a single connected account, while neat photo filters and frames make jazzing up any pic or vid a snap.

blipo

If you don’t want pics of your kids floating around the Interwebs (even behind private photo-sharing accounts), but you still want to share high-quality digital photos of them with friends and family, the blipo app provides a fast and private way to do so. Forget about e-mailing low-resolution pics, users can transfer full, high-resolution pics with blipo simply by tapping together two iOS devices while both are running the app. Using a patented technology called RedEye, blipo also lets users quickly and easily share text messages and e-mails.

Cluster

Built around sharing pics among small groups or creating private albums for special occasions, Cluster is an app that privacy-inclined parents can get behind. The app’s intuitive interface will feel familiar to Facebook and Twitter users, with its standard notifications, comments and like functions. Cluster’s closed environment means parents always know exactly who they’re sharing photos and videos with. Like most other social platforms, however, in order to be part of a Cluster, all users need to have the app installed on their mobile devices to view what’s being shared.

Free for iOS and Android.

Daily Kiddo

Featured among iTunes App Store’s Best New Apps, Daily Kiddo lets users share photos and videos only with the people who really want to see every single one (I’m talking to you, Grandma Melissa). Using the app is simple: create a private digital scrapbook for each kid, invite friends and family to view the album, then share away! By limiting the audience and focusing on a single topic, i.e., one kiddo at a time, users avoid deluging their regular social feeds like Facebook with too many kid pics and Grandma Melissa gets to see her grandkids every day, if she wants.

Google Photos

For the more than one billion Google users worldwide, Google Photos is a no-brainer that serves as an excellent all-in-one photo storage, editing and sharing app. With free unlimited cloud storage that can handle high-resolution images up to 16 megapixels and videos up to 1080p HD, photos can be accessed from any mobile device and on the web. If you’re running out of space on your mobile device, photos can be securely backed up to your free Google account on the web. Advanced editing options lets users apply filters or adjust almost any part of an image. Best of all, sharing is simple, and the app lets you share either an individual pic or up to 1,500 pics at once.

Free for iOS and Android.

Notabli

Unlike many social media sites that can be about over-sharing family photos, Notabli takes the opposite approach, allowing users to strictly limit what they share and with whom they are sharing. In addition to sharing photos and videos of your kids, you also can collaboratively save and share audio recordings, notes and quotes with each post. The app makes it simple to create a single collection of pics and vids of any kid’s special moments. There’s even a subscription option that lets users automatically print collections of kid photos in premium hardcover books ($39 per book, which includes 50 photos). Other notable perks include unlimited photo storage and an ad-free environment.

Free for iOS and Android, with in-app purchases.

Photo Butler

Photo Butler lets users share pics in real time, creating a private photo stream that’s viewable by invitation only. Rather than having to snap a pic, then post it to a social media account or photo-sharing platform, this app does all of the work automatically. Users can set duration for a photo stream, i.e., a baby shower or birthday party, then invite friends and family to view or contribute to the stream. The updated version of the app includes a slideshow tutorial, updated designs and enlarged photo size for improved image quality.

Free for iOS.