Adding Photos and Videos to Your Album

Adding Photos and Videos

Sharing a memory is easy — here's how to add something to your album:

1. Open your album and tap the + button.
2. Choose Photo, Video, or PDF.
3. Pick a file from your device. It starts uploading right away — you'll see the progress in a bar at the bottom of your screen, and you can keep working while it finishes.
4. Once it's up, you can add an optional caption to describe the moment.
5. The date is filled in for you automatically when your photo has one saved inside it — which most phone photos do. You can always change it if it's not quite right, or add your own if it's blank.

You can also drag and drop files straight onto your album — they upload the same way.

Bringing in photos from somewhere else

If your photos live in a cloud service, you don't need to download them first. Tap the + button — right alongside the usual choices, you'll see a tile for each app you can bring photos in from. You'll only see the choices available to you:

• Google Drive — files, photos, and videos you keep in Google Drive.
• Google Photos — pick straight from your Google Photos library.
• Paste a Link — if someone sent you a direct link to a photo or video on the web.
• More services — like Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box — appear here as they become available.

Tap the app you want and its picker opens right away — no extra windows in between. As soon as you've made your picks, your files start uploading on their own, and the progress appears in a bar at the bottom of your screen. There's no extra upload button to press, and you can keep working on your album while everything finishes.

If you bring in a single photo or video, the familiar caption-and-date window opens once it finishes uploading — just like a regular upload. When you bring in several at once, they go straight into your album so you aren't stopped for each one; you can add captions and dates from the album afterwards.

You'll be asked to sign in to each cloud service the first time you use it, so we can bring in your files safely. We never see your password — each service gives us a secure sign-in token that you can revoke any time from that service's settings, and we only use it to fetch the files you pick.

What you can upload

• Photos — JPEG, PNG, HEIC, and most common formats.
• Videos — MP4, MOV, and similar formats.
• Audio — Voice memos, recordings, and music clips.
• Documents — PDF files, like programs, announcements, or letters.

Tip: Large files may take a moment to process after you upload them. If your photo or video doesn't appear right away, give it a minute and then refresh the page.

If your album is already live

If your album is already live, your new photo is held back until you click Publish Changes (just Publish on a phone). That way you can take your time getting captions and ordering just right, then share everything at once. See our publishing changes to a live album article for the full picture.