As a parent, you've probably heard other moms raving about the FamilyAlbum app. But why do families choose this app to share photos instead of simply posting them on Facebook or Instagram? What features help families stay connected and share those adorable baby moments? In this blog, we'll do a thorough review of the FamilyAlbum app so you can decide if it fits your family and know what to expect before downloading it. Let's dive in!
What is FamilyAlbum? #
For an app as important as this one, something you and your family will use regularly, it's crucial to understand the developer's background and every aspect of the app. Let's dig into what FamilyAlbum is and who developed it.
The FamilyAlbum app was developed by Mixi, a Japanese gaming company.
It was first introduced by the company as a separate "lifestyle" business according to Mixi's financial reports (by the way, it's a public company, so lots of information is available online).
The app's main goal is to help families share photos more easily with family members. Over the past 10 years, it has attracted quite a few users, especially in its home country of Japan.
As we explained in our review of all family album apps on the market, FamilyAlbum is a bit unique in terms of branding. It essentially named itself after the entire category "family album", which has caused quite a bit of confusion. For example, many parents on Reddit ask "which family album app should I use?" and others reply, "hey, just use FamilyAlbum!" without realizing they're recommending a specific brand.
How does FamilyAlbum work? #
To use the app, you'll need either an Android phone or iPhone.
Download the app #
You'll need to download the app from the app store and then set up a family. Once you're in your "family space," you can start inviting grandparents, aunts, and uncles who are eager to see your baby's photos. Pro tip - do not invite people outside of your close circle.
Set up baby profile #
The next step is setting up your baby's profile. Note that FamilyAlbum does ask for some information like your baby's date of birth. According to the app description, this information is used to personalize how photos are displayed and organized. Since it's a private app that only you and your family will access, I wouldn't worry too much about sharing your child's birthday.
Upload Photos #
Once your baby's profile is set up, you can start uploading photos to your family space. All invited family members will automatically see the photos on their phones. Pretty easy and standard!
When it comes to uploading photos, it's as simple as selecting the ones you want to upload and tapping the "share with families" button.
One important thing to note: when signing up, you don't actually create an account yet. You'll need to do that separately in the settings to ensure the photos you upload are tied to your account. Otherwise, if you change phones, you won't be able to retrieve your photos because they're tied to your old device. Just keep that in mind and be sure to create an account when you have a chance.
FamilyAlbum Key Features #
Easy to Use #
Technically, this isn't a "feature," but since FamilyAlbum is really simple to use, I figured I'd include it here as a highlight. The developers clearly understand that it's important to keep things simple so non-tech-savvy family members can enjoy the family photos too.
You can think of FamilyAlbum as a baby photo dump that automatically organizes photos by month (see the screenshot below—"Aug" represents the month).
However, this simplicity does limit the app's ability to include richer features. For example, you won't have nicely organized "events" or "photo collections" like you naturally find in more modern apps such as TinyNest. The app can feel a little "too simple" and "too 2015" for many people.
Even simpler features like grouping photos by child (if you have multiple kids) can be problematic since you don't get to choose which child is in the photo when uploading.
That said, despite these limitations, the app is easy to use—and that's a thumbs up from me.
Reaction & Comment #
What mom doesn't love seeing grandparents' smiles and sweet notes when she uploads adorable photos? FamilyAlbum does have both reaction and comment features, but here's the catch: the reaction feature isn't free. Each member needs to pay to use it, which is a real bummer.
Luckily, the app does allow commenting on the free tier. So at least everyone can still leave comments with heart emojis!
Multiple Kids Support #
FamilyAlbum does support adding multiple kids to the family, but the multi-kid support is pretty basic.
When uploading photos, you don't get to choose which child the photos are for. For instance, if you have two kids—Jack and John—and you upload a batch of photos, you won't be able to tell the app that these photos are for Jack and those are for John.
Another limitation: multi-kid support is behind a paywall, so you don't get to use this feature for free.
So if you have one child, that's perfect. But once you have multiple kids, you'll probably want to consider an alternative app like TinyNest.
Auto Generated Memory Videos #
FamilyAlbum brands its auto-generated memory videos as "one sec videos." This is a great feature that helps you relive those awesome memories with your kids.
Here's how it works: every month (for paid users, otherwise every 3 months), you'll get a video compilation of the photos and videos you've uploaded. These videos are kind of magical because they help you cherish all those little moments you had with your kids. I think this is a fantastic feature, which is why I also included it in TinyNest.
Pros of the FamilyAlbum #
There are quite a few aspects that users love about the FamilyAlbum app.
- First of all, the basic functionality of sharing photos and videos is free
- You can upload unlimited photos. However, there's a catch: for free users, photos are compressed
- You can invite (almost) unlimited family members. Technically there's a limit of 100 members, but it's very rare to have such a huge family
Cons of the FamilyAlbum App #
Of course, there are areas where the app could definitely improve.
First, the company might be under monetization pressure, which means a lot of features are behind a paywall. It's understandable that a company needs to make money to survive, but putting basic reactions behind the paywall is frustrating for grandparents who just want to like photos of their adorable grandkids. Unsurprisingly, other basic features like background uploading are also behind the paywall.
The other drawback is that the app doesn't seem to have added new features in a long time—it's been stagnant since the one-second video feature was added back in 2019. That means no new features are being developed. If you decide to become a paying customer, you're not paying for incrementally better features, but only for additional storage.
The third issue I have is with the design. In general, when your family uses the app, it just looks like photo dump after photo dump. The interface feels a bit dull and inactive, which might turn parents off. Maybe this is tailored toward the Japanese market, which emphasizes zen simplicity, but to me the app can feel a bit too basic sometimes.
And finally—oh, don't get me started on ads! If you're not a paying customer, the number of ads in the app can be really annoying.
FamilyAlbum Pricing #
The pricing of the app is—let's be honest—not cheap. To use all the features (they call it Premium Pro), you'd need to pay a whopping $109 a year. To be honest, I wouldn't even consider the lower-end tier that costs $59, because you still don't get many features on that plan.
Compared to other popular apps, this pricing is the highest, and I personally think it's hard to justify. Check out my detailed comparison of all the family photo sharing apps for more context.
If you don't want to be a paying user and just want to use the free features, there's some bad news for you too.
First of all, the unlimited photos you upload will be heavily compressed (to save bandwidth and storage). That means if you later decide to print those photos, you won't be able to get them in full resolution since they've been compressed. So if you're on the free tier, never delete your local photos just because you've uploaded them!
FamilyAlbum Premium Plan: Is It Worth It? #
To recap, the FamilyAlbum app has two paid subscription tiers:
- FamilyAlbum Premium Pro - $109 per year
- FamilyAlbum Premium - $59 per year
I'm excluding the monthly plans because no one's really going to use the app for just a month and then abandon it. Once you're a customer, you're always going to be a customer because migrating to another app is incredibly difficult. That's why you want to do enough research—like reading this article—before committing to pay for the app.
Premium Pro comes with a few added features:
- You can upload 1920 x 1080 videos
- You can select multiple videos/photos and bulk download them
- Background uploading
- You can edit 1-second movies (we mentioned this feature above—it's basically the auto-generated video)
- Search memories by tags
To be fair, these are good features to have. However, I wouldn't necessarily spend money on background uploading because it's kind of a given for apps like TinyNest. The upgrade in video quality is nice, but the price of $109 a year is still pretty steep.
For the FamilyAlbum Premium plan ($59 plan), I wouldn't even consider it because it's just too barebones.
So to summarize the premium plans: yes, they're worth it, but they're a little too expensive by my standards.
But if you have deep pockets and only need a cross-platform photo bulk sharing app without other fancy features, then yes, that's probably a good choice for you.
How FamilyAlbum Compares to Alternatives #
The FamilyAlbum app is a solid app that's been around for a long time. In the baby photo sharing market, it's been one of the best options since 2015, and you wouldn't go wrong choosing it.
However, if you want the following:
- A richer feature set (calendar photo view, "on this day" memory features, etc.)
- Much better photo organizing through photo collections (instead of being forced to organize by month)
- A fun and cute user experience
- Much cheaper annual subscription with more features
then I'd seriously recommend you consider our TinyNest App. You can check out our comparison article for more details on pricing, feature sets, and more.
Conclusion #
If you're a new mom or dad looking for a photo sharing app and sharing is the ONLY thing you care about, you wouldn't go wrong with FamilyAlbum. If you care about photo quality and don't mind spending $109 on a subscription fee per year, then you're also in good hands.
Overall, the FamilyAlbum app is a very good option on the market, and many parents love it over other apps like 23Snaps. But given the newer options in town like TinyNest, you're lucky to have more choices nowadays.
