How to share photos with the people in them

After every holiday, wedding and birthday party comes the same message: "can you send me those photos?" Someone forwards forty, someone else forgets, and the photos of you end up on everybody's phone but yours. This article looks at how to send each person the photos they're in, without a group chat and without remembering, using the Photohawk app as the example.

The problem with sending photos

Most ways of sharing photos make you do the sorting:

• Group chats send everything to everyone, compressed, and bury it in conversation.
• Shared albums need someone to choose and add photos.
• Links go to whoever has them, and are easy to forward.

What people want is narrower: the photos they're in, from the people who took them.

How sharing by face works

An app that groups faces can do the sorting for you:

1. It finds the people in your photos. Faces are grouped into people on your phone, and you name the ones you care about.
2. You link a person to someone you invite. "This is Ana" becomes "send to Ana".
3. Photos go to them. Either once, or automatically from now on.

That's the idea behind Photohawk Family, our app for your family's photos, coming soon to iPhone. Its tagline is a fair summary: never ask "can you send me those photos?" again.

One time, or from now on

In the Photohawk app you can:

• Share one time. Send someone a whole day of photos, or the ones you pick.
• Share with a group. Everyone from the weekend gets the weekend's photos.
• Share automatically. New photos of Ana go to Ana from now on.
• Use trip mode. Every photo you take goes to the group until the trip ends.

And to keep it pleasant for the people receiving:

• Only the best of similar shots is sent, not the whole burst.
• You can check first. Ask to review new photos for an hour before they're sent.
• You can stop at any time, and so can they.

For the people receiving

People you share with get an invite on iPhone or Android and tap Accept. Receiving and viewing photos is always free. They'll need a Photohawk account to receive, which is the same account whether they use the app for their own photos or not.

Privacy, for everyone in the photo

Sharing photos of people with those people is as fair as it gets, but it still deserves care:

• Photos leave your phone only when you share them. Nothing goes anywhere until you choose.
• Only the people you share with can see them. Sharing is end-to-end encrypted.
• Faces are found on your phone. Face grouping is off until you turn it on, and cloud face matching is a separate choice that sends only small face cut-outs, never photos.
• Children are never recipients. Photos of a child can go to adults you choose, but a child can't be invited or sent photos.

More in keeping family photos private.

Good sharing habits

Whatever app you use, a few habits make shared photos welcome rather than overwhelming:

• Send the best, not everything. Three good photos beat thirty similar ones.
• Ask before sharing group photos widely. Someone in the background might not want to be.
• Be quick. Photos sent the same evening are enjoyed; photos sent a month later are filed.
• Don't post what was shared privately without asking.

A few situations

Family holidays. Turn on trip mode for the family group, and everyone ends the week with everyone's photos.

Grandparents. Set new photos of the grandchildren to go to them automatically. Our article on sharing photos with grandparents automatically has tips for setting it up with less tech-minded relatives.

A friend's birthday. Share the evening's photos one time with the people who were there.

A partner. Set new photos of the children to go to each other, so both of you have them all.

Getting started

Sharing by face starts with your photos being in one place and grouped. If photos arrive by WhatsApp, save them to your camera roll first, so the app can see them. If you'd rather avoid feeds altogether, see family photo sharing without social media.

Photohawk Family is coming soon to iPhone, with Android to follow. Keep an eye on photohawk.com for the launch.