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A shared album in Google Photos is the fastest free way to get photos from several people into one place. It takes about a minute to set up, and most people already have the app. This walks through creating one, letting other people add to it, and turning it into a QR code, and then it is honest about the two situations where a shared album is the wrong tool.
Creating the album
1. Open Google Photos and start a new album
In the app, go to the Collections or Library area and choose to create a new album. On the web, use the left-hand menu. Give it a name you will recognise later.
2. Add your own photos first
Select the photos and videos you want in the album. Doing this before you share means the people you invite arrive to something rather than an empty album.
3. Turn on sharing
Open the album, choose Share, and create a link. This is the step that makes the album shareable rather than private to your own library.
4. Turn on Collaborate if you want people to add photos
Collaborate is a toggle under the album’s Options, not a step in the share flow, which is why it is easy to walk past. The owner controls it, and it is what decides whether the people you share with can add their own photos or only view what is already there.
5. Share the link, or make it a QR code
Send the link directly, or paste it into any free QR code generator and print the result for a table or a sign.
When this is all you need
For a small group who all use Google, a shared album is genuinely the right answer. It is free, there is no new tool to learn, and collaborating works well once the toggle is on. If you are collecting from five or ten people who are already signed in to Google on their phones, stop reading here and use it.
Two situations where it breaks
- Your contributors do not all use Google. To add photos to a shared album a person generally needs a Google account and needs to be signed in. At an event, the guests you lose to that step are usually the ones least likely to troubleshoot it. Verified July 2026.
- You want to see photos before everyone else does. A shared album has no approval step. Anyone with the link and collaboration access can add anything, and it is visible to the whole group immediately. You can delete afterwards, which is not the same as approving beforehand.
Worth knowing as well: whether what you keep is a smaller copy depends on the Google account’s backup setting. On Storage saver, photos and video are saved compressed; on Original quality they are not. It is a setting on the account, not something sharing does on its own.
If either of those is a problem
A purpose-built event album solves both. Cloudsnap gives an event its own page with a QR code, and guests upload from the phone browser with an email and a 6-digit code, so no Google account and no app. You approve each guest before they can upload, and files keep their original quality. Your first event is free. It is not free forever the way a Google album is, which is the trade.
The full Cloudsnap and Google Photos comparison goes through both side by side. If the occasion is a wedding, the wedding photo QR code page covers what changes when a hundred guests are contributing at once.
See how Cloudsnap works Guests scan a QR code and upload from their phones. Nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I let other people add photos to my shared album?
- Open the album, go to Options, and turn on Collaborate. Sharing and collaborating are separate settings in Google Photos and live in different places. Verified August 2026.
- Can I make a QR code for a Google Photos album?
- Yes. Create the shared album, copy its link, and paste it into any free QR code generator. The code then opens the album. What it does not add is an approval step or a way around the Google account requirement.
- Do people need a Google account to add photos to a shared album?
- Generally yes, to contribute rather than just view. Viewing usually works from a link alone. That difference is the single most common reason a shared album collects less than expected at an event.
- Does Google Photos reduce the quality of shared photos?
- It depends on the account’s backup setting rather than on sharing. On Storage saver, photos and video are saved as smaller copies; on Original quality they are not. For everyday use the difference is invisible. For photos from a one-off occasion, it is the difference between the original and a smaller copy of it.
- Is there a limit on how many people can add to a shared album?
- Google publishes limits on album size and collaborator counts, and they change. Check the current Google Photos help page rather than trusting a number in a blog post, including this one.
Your first event is free
Create your event page and collect everyone's photos in one album.
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