The FamilyAlbum App Review: Easily Share, Organize and Print Family Photos

If you’re like me, you probably have a smartphone jam-packed with videos and photos of your kid, but finding a specific memory requires so much scrolling and guesswork that it almost doesn’t feel worth the effort. Enter the FamilyAlbum app. I recently started using this photo-sharing application that organizes your pics and videos by date and arranges them into monthly digital albums.

As the tired mama of a 19-month-old, I appreciate that it spares me the mental gymnastics of sorting photos into folders on my phone. The app makes it so much easier to keep track of all of my daughter’s milestones and precious moments and I can also share those memories with loved ones — without using social media.

What is the FamilyAlbum app?

Launched in Japan in 2015, the FamilyAlbum app is available for download worldwide (and in eight languages). It boasts an impressive, near-perfect 4.8/5 rating on both the App Store and Google Play, and has more than 18 million users.

The app is a safe and secure way to share your kiddo’s highlights with family and friends. It offers free unlimited storage, too, which is a godsend for those (like me) who snap dozens of photos a day. Plus, it’s intuitive and easy to navigate. I’m not the most tech-savvy person, but I quickly became comfortable with uploading and sharing photos; and your child’s grandparents, great-aunts and great-uncles will figure it out, too.

Our review of the FamilyAlbum app

The app gives you complete control over who has access to your content. So, if you’re not too keen on sharing your kid’s face on social media, this might be the perfect option for you. Free users can share photos with everyone they’ve invited or just the account administrators (likely your partner) while premium subscribers can curate group lists and decide who to share each upload with. And, if you’re so inclined, you can grant your account members permission to upload their photos of your kid(s), so it’s all in one place.

Fair warning: it might take a bit of coaxing to convince some people to download another app (one of my relatives asked, “Why not just post it on Facebook?”), but once they’re on board, they’ll appreciate how easy it is to see all your latest pics and to leave comments. If they’re really hard to convince, there’s a handy browser version they can use.

FamilyAlbum also offers some features that social media sites don’t: free unlimited storage, no third-party ads, photos organized by date and your child’s age, video collages created from your memories and of course, free prints and affordable photo books. The app is available for iOS and Android, and photos can be viewed online.

One of my favourite features on the FamilyAlbum app is the video collages that highlight some of your digital memories (it appears quarterly for those using the free version, or monthly if you have a Premium account). I’ll admit, I teared up a little when I got my first little video collage of my daughter.

FamilyAlbum also offers eight free monthly prints — you can choose from three different sizes (Retro, Square or Rectangle), seven border colours (white, pink, yellow, green, blue, gray and black) and select a matte or glossy finish. I was impressed with the quality of the prints.

I also checked out the photo album options, which are essentially albums that you can add your free monthly prints to throughout the year. I ordered the Original Album in linen (with a personalized cover) and the Simple Album (colour: mint).

Pros

• Easy to navigate, even for those who aren’t tech-savvy.
• Allows relatives and friends to leave comments on your uploads.
• Automatically organizes your photos and videos by the month and year taken. You can even upload older photos and they’ll be properly categorized.
• No third-party ads. I repeat — no third-party ads.
• Ability to see who has viewed your photos in the Recents tab.
• Free unlimited uploads and storage for photos and videos less than three minutes long (or up to 10 minutes if you upgrade to a Premium account).
• Interested in the Premium account (for $5.99CAD/month)? You can give it a free one-month test run. There’s also a Premium Pro option for $10.99CAD/month, which gives users the ability to upload high-resolution videos.
• The app remembers all the photos and videos you’ve already added to your album, so you won’t upload the same content twice.
• Eight free prints per month (there’s a small shipping fee).
• Lost your phone? Don’t panic — the app will have retained all those precious memories.

Cons

• Since products are made and shipped from Japan, it can take up to three weeks for print photos and albums to arrive.
• It can be difficult to convince some relatives to download an app, especially if they aren’t tech-savvy. Luckily, there’s also a web browser version.

Final verdict

If you’re looking for a safe, secure way to share precious memories with family and friends, it doesn’t get much easier than the FamlyAlbum app. The eight free prints per month and the photobook options are a bonus, but even if you’re just looking for a useful tool to help you organize all your family photos by date, you can’t go wrong with FamilyAlbum. Download the FamilyAlbum app now.