Jendk3r OP t1_itqvcw7 wrote on October 25, 2022 at 5:15 PM

Reply to comment by -bobak in Does saving iMessage image to iCloud double the size footprint? by Jendk3r

Yeah, that’s what I was asking about 😃 I wanted to know if I can expect some referencing mechanism.

By away, I meant not in the AirDrop range ☺️

-bobak t1_itqvxft wrote on October 25, 2022 at 5:18 PM

I guess it depends on how many images you’re trying to share at once. You can send a shared album like you mention, or you can just send them over Messages and—beyond a certain number at a time—the app will use an iCloud mechanism to share them in-message that expires in 30 days

Edit: actually, as you send the photos there’s an “Options” button that lets you choose how they are sent, too (as individual photos or as an iCloud link)

Jendk3r OP t1_its3ejh wrote on October 25, 2022 at 9:58 PM

That's all very helpful, thank you! Do you think that saving the shared album photos will use the referencing mechanism instead of copies when sharing?

-bobak t1_its42a3 wrote on October 25, 2022 at 10:03 PM

It depends on what you mean by “saving”. If you mean accepting the shared album request, it’s possible that this isn’t duplicating the storage, though I’m not 100% sure how that works (it may only “exist” once in iCloud, but it’s still taking up room when it’s viewed from the phone anyway, since the device needs to at least temporarily store the photo to show it).

If you’re talking about saving a photo from a shared album into your own library, that is without a doubt not referencing the original and is now a separate file in your own photo library