Trove vs Apple iCloud Shared Albums: Which Should Your Family Use?
Short answer
Trove sends your family one curated edition a week — the best photos, laid out, with a short written summary — to anyone with an inbox, on any platform, free with no cap on photos, children or recipients, and the same month can be printed and posted for $4.99 a month. Apple Shared Albums are free and already on the iPhone, so try them first; we would rather you did that than pay for something you do not need. iOS 27 made them considerably better — albums created since then keep full resolution with no photo or album cap, and Android and Windows relatives can join and contribute in a browser without an Apple Account. The catch moved rather than disappeared: all that full-resolution content now counts against the owner's iCloud storage, including whatever other people add. And the old limits still bind every album made before iOS 27 — 5,000 items, 200 albums, downsized to 2048 pixels. What has not changed is that nothing is composed. Apple sends a notification for every upload, comment and reaction, and the photographs stay in the album. Apple built you a shelf, and made it a better shelf. Trove writes the week up and posts it.
We will start with the unhelpful-for-us advice: if your whole family is on iPhone, use Apple Shared Albums first. It is free, it is already there, and two taps from the Photos app gets a shared album running. Do not pay for anything until you know that is not enough.
iOS 27, released in September 2026, rewrote most of what was previously wrong with them. If you read a comparison of these written before then — including the first version of this one — assume the limits it quotes are the old ones. Here is the current picture.
At a glance
| Trove | Apple Shared Albums | |
|---|---|---|
| What arrives, and how often | One curated edition, emailed every Sunday | A push notification per upload, comment and reaction |
| What the recipient needs | An email address | An Apple device — or, since iOS 27, just a browser |
| Laid out, with a written summary | ||
| Free plan | Everything, free — unlimited photos, children and recipients | Free; iOS 27 albums use the owner's iCloud storage |
| Printed edition posted | Paper Edition, posted monthly, $4.99/mo | |
| Cost | Free app; print from $4.99/mo | Free; iCloud+ from $0.99/mo if the album outgrows your plan |
| Photos per album | Unlimited | Unlimited on iOS 27+; 5,000 on older or temporary albums |
| Number of albums | Unlimited | Unlimited on iOS 27+; 200 for older albums |
| Full resolution | Yes on iOS 27+ (uses the owner's storage); older albums 2048 px / 720p | |
| Works for Android relatives | Fully | Join, add and comment in a browser — no Apple Account needed |
| Curation | AI picks the best of the week | Everything you add |
| Milestones | First steps, words, tooth, birthdays, custom | |
| Automatic face grouping | In your own library, not the shared album | |
| Search by child and date | General Photos search | |
| Reactions and comments | ||
| Contributor and viewer roles | Admin, contributor, viewer, newsletter | Manage / add / view-and-comment, set per participant |
| Share links with expiry | Whole album can expire after 30 days; invite links are one-time | |
| Photo book ordering | Via third-party extensions in Photos on Mac |
What iOS 27 fixed, and what it cost
Gone: the 5,000-photo cap. Albums created in iOS 27 or later have no limit on photos or on how many albums you own. (Albums created before it keep the old rules: 5,000 items each, 200 albums, and the same 200 you can subscribe to.)
Gone: the downsizing. New albums keep the original format at full resolution. Older ones still reduce photos to 2048 pixels on the long edge and video to 720p.
Gone: the Android split. Apple's own release notes say Shared Albums now make it easier for Android and Windows users to join and contribute. A relative on a non-Apple device opens the link in a browser, joins without an Apple Account, and can add photos, react and comment. Windows also has a native iCloud Shared Albums app.
New: it costs storage. Full-resolution content in an iOS 27 album counts against the owner's iCloud plan — including everything participants add. The wall has moved from a count to a bill: iCloud+ starts at $0.99 a month for 50 GB, and a family album at original resolution will find the top of that faster than you expect. Temporary 30-day albums and pre-iOS-27 albums remain free of the quota.
What each one actually sends
Apple does notify. When you add photos, everyone in the album is told automatically, and there are notifications for comments and reactions too, plus an Activity tab. It is not silent, and comparisons that say nothing arrives — including ours, before this rewrite — are wrong.
What it sends is one alert per event. Not one per week: one per photo, one per comment, one per heart. That is the volume at which people either drown or mute, and once it is muted the album is back to being a place somebody has to remember to open. Relatives on the web get less than that — no app, no push at all, just a link they have to think of.
Trove composes instead. Every Sunday it emails one edition — the best photos of the week, laid out, with a short written summary — to everyone on your list, on any platform, with no app and no account required on their end. An email renders the same for an iPhone daughter, an Android grandfather and an aunt on a fifteen-year-old desktop. There is no cap on photos, children or recipients, nothing is drawn from anybody's storage plan, and the app is free.
For the relative who is on no platform at all, there is the Paper Edition: a printed edition of the month, posted as a folded self-mailer with no envelope, $4.99 a month including one mailing address and $4 a month for each extra address. US only for now. It buys print and postage, not features — everything in the app stays free. Photo books are the other printed option, from $29.99 as a one-off.
These work well together
Apple Shared Albums is a fine place for the family to put photos into on iPhone. Trove is what turns that into something the wider family receives, written up, once a week. Trove is free, so trying it alongside costs nothing.
The short version
- Pick Trove ifyou want the week composed and delivered rather than stored and announced, you want milestones and face grouping, or you would rather your archive did not grow your iCloud bill.
- Pick Apple Shared Albums ifeveryone is on iPhone, you already pay for iCloud storage, and zero cost and zero setup matter most.
Do Apple Shared Albums count against iCloud storage?+
It depends when the album was made. Albums created in iOS 26 or earlier are free of your quota but downsized to 2048 pixels and 720p. Albums created in iOS 27 or later keep full resolution and count against the owner's iCloud storage — including the photos and videos other participants add. Temporary 30-day albums do not count.
Can Android users see Apple Shared Albums?+
Yes. Since iOS 27 an Android or Windows relative can open the album link in a browser, join without an Apple Account, and add photos and comments. Windows also has a native iCloud Shared Albums app. What they do not get is an app on their phone or a push notification — they have to remember to open the link.
What is the Apple Shared Album photo limit?+
For albums created in iOS 26 or earlier, 5,000 photos and videos per album and 200 albums you own (and 200 you can subscribe to). Albums created in iOS 27 or later have no cap at all beyond the owner's available iCloud storage. The widely repeated "100 albums" figure was never right.
Does Apple notify relatives when I add photos?+
Yes — participants are notified automatically on every upload, and again for comments and reactions, with an Activity tab in the Albums view. It is one alert per event rather than a weekly summary, which is why it tends to get muted. Trove sends one email a week with the week in it.
Is Trove free if we already pay for iCloud?+
Yes. Trove's free plan includes unlimited photos, unlimited children and unlimited newsletter recipients, and it is independent of any iCloud subscription. You can keep iCloud as your backup and use Trove purely for the weekly edition.
Works for the Android side of the family too
Trove emails one curated edition of the week to everyone, every Sunday — any device, no app, no account. Free forever.
Try Trove — FreePricing and features were checked on September 21, 2026. Competitors change their plans — if you spot something out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
