How to Accept a Shared Album Invite on iPhone 2023 Guide

This article explains how to accept a shared album invitation on the iPhone. While anyone can create shared albums, you must accept an invitation in order to view those made by others.

Quick Answer:

• To accept a shared album invitation, tap notification > For You > Accept.

• To leave a shared album, go to Photos > For You > album > person icon > Unsubscribe > Unsubscribe.

Shared albums are helpful, but if invitations are not immediately accepted, it can be simple to lose the notifications about them. We’ll show you how to accept invitations to shared photo albums from your friends and family, whether the invitation was sent five minutes ago or five months ago.

What is a Shared Album?

With iCloud Photos, you can share your photos and videos with family and friends without having to tag them in a private post on social media. This is because iCloud Photos allows you to share albums privately through Shared Albums (formerly called iCloud Photo Sharing)

One of the features included by default in the iOS Photos app is shared albums. You can share photos and videos with selected people and ask them to comment on them. You can allow anyone you’ve shared images and videos with to add their own images and videos.

You must have Shared Albums enabled on your iCloud account in order to use it.

By going to Settings-> Your Name-> iCloud-> Photos and toggling the Shared Albums switch ON if you have an iPhone with your iCloud account set up, you can enable shared albums.

Once the Shared Album is enabled on your iCloud account, you can start creating a new shared album and choose to invite people who can view your shared album.

If someone invited you to view a shared album, you’ll typically get a notification regarding the invite. By then, it would be up to you to accept or deny it.

How to Accept a Shared Album Invitation on iPhone

Are you prepared to say “yes” to a request to join an iPhone-shared photo album? Just follow these steps:

You need to have Shared Albums enabled in your Photos settings at Settings > Photos > Shared Albums to accept invitations.

1. You should see a notification on your screen or in Notification Center after the album’s owner sends you the invitation. Once it does, tap it.
2. If the notification doesn’t appear, tap the Photos app. Depending on your notification settings, you may see a badge on the Photos app icon when there’s a pending invitation.
3. If you’re not taken to it right away, tap For You.
4. Here, the invitation for the shared album, is explained. Tap Accept to join the album.
5. A new item is added to the screen’s top: the shared album. To view an album’s pictures, tap on its name.
6. All of the photos in the album are displayed here. Depending on the settings of the album, you may be able to add your own photos to it by tapping the +.

You have control over how you view the pictures in an album once you’ve accepted an invitation to share it. Tap … and the menu gives you options including Sort, Filters (to see only photos or videos), to see where all photos were taken on a map, or to play the photos as a slideshow, among other choices.

How to Leave a Shared Photo Album on IPhone

If you’ve decided you no longer want to be part of a shared album, you can leave the album by following these steps:

1. Tap Photos.
2. Tap For You.
3. To leave an album, tap it.
4. Tap the person icon (or … > Shared Album Details).
5. Tap Unsubscribe.
6. In the confirmation pop-up, tap Unsubscribe.

Want to stay in a shared album but find the notifications for new photos or other changes to be inconvenient? You can turn off notifications for an album by going to the album > person icon > moving the Notifications slider to off/white.

Creating Your Own Shared Album

Additionally, you can make your very own Shared Album to share with your friends and family.

To do this, simply open the Photos app then tap on the Albums tab. On the next screen, tap the Plus (+) icon on the top-left corner to start creating a new album. Enter the name you want for your shared album after selecting New Shared Album from the list of options. Tap Next then enter the email addresses of the people you’d like to invite to your album then tap You can enter the recipient’s name or phone number in addition to their email address, depending on their contact information.

You can include more users in your collaborative album. As long as you share your photos as Public Website, anyone can view and access your Shared Album, regardless of iCloud usage. If you choose to do so, your photos will be shared to a public website, allowing anyone in your friends’ and family’s who do not have iCloud to still view them.

And that’s how, on an iPhone running the most recent iOS version, you use iCloud Photo Sharing and accept a shared album invitation.

Conclusion: Tap the Accept Option in the Notification

You can quickly share your albums via iCloud if you and the people you want to share with have Apple devices! You must accept an invitation to join a shared album, so tap the Accept button in the notification.

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