Get Everyone's Thanksgiving Photos in One Album, Without Filling iCloud

Every year it goes the same way. Twelve people take photos at Thanksgiving dinner, and by Sunday the good ones are scattered across twelve phones. Someone texts forty pictures into the family chat, the Android cousin gets blurry copies, and Grandma never sees any of them. Here's the short answer: if you have iOS 27, make a temporary shared album before dinner and drop its link in the family chat. According to Apple, it doesn't use anyone's iCloud storage, holds up to 5,000 photos and videos, and expires 30 days later. Save the keepers before then, and clean out the copies afterwards.

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026. An album you make that day runs out around Christmas, so you'll want to save the keepers before then.

Why not just text them?

Group texts are the default because everyone's already in the chat. They're also the worst way to collect photos:

• Quality. Since iOS 18, texts to Android phones can go over RCS, which keeps photos at high resolution, but only when both carriers support it. Otherwise they fall back to MMS and get compressed heavily. If Low Quality Image Mode is on in the Messages settings, it shrinks the photos you send to iPhones too. Long videos often won’t send at all; here’s how to send a video that’s too large to text.
• Storage. Every photo in a group chat is saved on every phone in the chat. Forty photos to ten people is four hundred copies.
• Finding them later. By December the pictures are buried under three weeks of messages. If you then save the ones you want, you end up with two copies of each, one in Photos and one in Messages.

AirDrop keeps full quality and is great at the table, but only works phone to phone, in the room, for people with Apple devices.

Your options, and what each one costs in storage

iOS 27 changed Shared Albums, so advice from last year is out of date. From Apple's Shared Albums limits and upgrade pages:

• Temporary shared album (iOS 27): doesn't count toward anyone's iCloud storage. Up to 5,000 photos and videos, no per-file size limit. Gone after 30 days unless saved. Best for a single weekend.
• Regular shared album made on iOS 27 or upgraded: keeps original resolution, but everything added counts toward the album owner's iCloud storage, including what other people add. Twelve people's 4K videos can fill the owner's plan fast, and on a family plan that fills it for everyone (here's how to see who's using a family plan).
• Older-style shared album (made on iOS 26 or earlier, not upgraded): doesn't count toward storage, but scales photos to 2048 pixels on the long side and videos to 720p.
• iCloud Shared Photo Library: for up to six people who want one library all the time, not for one dinner. Anyone in it can delete anything, and it all counts toward the creator's storage. If you're already in one, read how to clean up a family Shared Library without deleting their photos.

Step 1: Make the album the night before (2 minutes)

Apple's steps for creating a temporary shared album on iPhone:

1. Open Photos and tap Collections.
2. Scroll down to Shared Albums and tap it.
3. Tap the Add button and give the album a name, like "Thanksgiving 2026".
4. Add a photo or two, then turn on Make Album Temporary in the sharing options.
5. Tap Done.
6. Tap the Share button to invite people. You can send invites through Messages or Mail, or copy a link.

The sharing options let you choose between inviting and approving each person, or letting anyone with the link join. For family, the link is easier. Paste it into the group chat once, instead of forty photos. (If the group chat itself is the problem, see how to leave or mute a group text.)

Step 2: Get the relatives in

• iPhone on iOS 27: they tap the link and add photos straight from Photos.
• iPhone on iOS 26 or earlier: Apple says they need to update, or open the album on iCloud.com.
• Android or no Apple account: Apple says people can join from a link and add their own photos on the web, even without an Apple Account or an Apple device.
• Kids with a child account: they can only join a shared album if an adult in your Family Sharing group is in it too.

One thing to ask for in the chat: "your best few, not all 60." Burst shots and ten nearly identical group photos make the album harder to look through for everyone.

If someone brings out the old shoebox of prints after dinner, the same album is a good home for those too. Here's how to scan old family photos with your iPhone without glare, with the right year on each one.

Step 3: Before the 30 days run out, save only the keepers

When the album expires, anything nobody saved is deleted. To save a photo or video, open it in the album, tap the Share button, then Save Image or Save Video (Apple: How to use Shared Albums). Saved items stay in your library after the album is gone.

Want the whole album to stay? Open Manage Shared Album and turn off Make Album Temporary. From then on it counts toward your iCloud storage, so it's usually better to save the 30 you love than to keep all 600.

Choosing a card photo from the pile? Find your holiday card photo fast covers getting the full-quality original to the printer.

Step 4: Clear out the doubles

This is where your phone fills up. Most people save photos from the album and still have the same shots from the group chat, AirDrop and their own camera roll. That gives you exact copies plus near-copies: five versions of the same table shot.

• Exact copies: Photos has a built-in Duplicates album under Utilities that merges them. How to find and delete duplicate photos walks through it.
• Near-copies: the Duplicates album doesn't catch these. Pick the sharpest group shot by hand, or use an app.
• Then empty Recently Deleted. Deleted photos stay there for 30 days and keep taking up space until you empty it.

Saved photos also land in the group chat's attachments. If Messages is big in iPhone Storage, delete old text messages and attachments.

Where Phone Diet helps, and where it doesn't

We make Phone Diet, so here's what it does for this job, checked against the app's code.

• It works on your own library only. The scan reads photos in your library, not shared albums. It can't see, save or delete anything in the Thanksgiving album. It only sees photos once you've saved them to your library, and that's where the doubles are.
• Similar Photos groups near-identical shots and marks the best one "Keep", so you can clear the other four table shots in one go. Duplicates finds exact copies. It also finds bursts and blurry photos.
• Recover keeps anything you remove for 30 days by default, in case you cleared the one Grandma wanted.

What it won't do: it can't collect or share photos, and it can't touch Messages. If you're in an iCloud Shared Photo Library, it can't tell shared photos from your own, so deleting through it deletes them for everyone in that library. The scan is free, and so is your first cleanup up to 1 GB. After that, cleanups need Premium.

Quick answers

Does a temporary shared album use my iCloud storage?

No, per Apple. It also doesn't need iCloud Photos turned on. It starts counting toward your storage only if you turn off Make Album Temporary to keep it.

What happens after 30 days?

The album expires, and anything nobody saved to their own library is deleted. Photos you saved stay in your library.

Can relatives with Android phones add photos?

Apple says people can join the new Shared Albums from a link and add photos on the web without an Apple device. Relatives on iOS 26 or earlier need to update or use iCloud.com.