The FamilyAlbum app Review

In partnership with FamilyAlbum

About the FamilyAlbum app

These days, it’s easy to snap a million pics, and it’s almost instinctive to document every moment. But when it comes to sharing, organizing, and treasuring these moments, things aren’t nearly as simple.

Enter the FamilyAlbum app, a private photo and video sharing app designed for families to stay connected..

The idea came to Kenji Kasahara when, as a new parent back in 2014, he realized that he had taken thousands of photos of his daughter and couldn’t find a seamless way to share the photos and videos with his loved ones. He set out to design an app that was organized, intuitive, user friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and most of all—secure.

Users of FamilyAlbum can upload and share media with family members and friends who can view and, comment on, the content. The app also allows you to order prints and photobooks that showcase the family milestones in your ongoing story.

If you find yourself endlessly scrolling your camera roll every time you feel nostalgic, keep reading this FamilyAlbum review. I’ll cover the brand’s products, how everything works, some FAQs, and more. First, let’s take a look at some quick highlights.

Highlights

• Makes it easier for family members to stay connected by  viewing and leaving comments on their favorite photos and videos
• Great solution for keeping important family photos and videos in one place and in chronological order 
• Free and Unlimited storage
• Allows users to upload media securely and in high quality
• Flexible plan options (free version available)
• 8 free prints every month
• Customization options available for prints & photobooks

How Does FamilyAlbum Work?

We all have a friend who constantly posts dozens of pictures of their children on social media, to the point that you almost want to mute them on everything. On the other hand, you might have a sibling whose life is a total mystery and you find out during Thanksgiving that they adopted a new pet. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a happy medium?

Offering unlimited storage for free, FamilyAlbum allows you to upload photos and videos at high speed so all your media stays in one place and remains accessible to loved ones without worrying about storage costs.

FamilyAlbum automatically sorts your photos and videos by the month, stitches together narratives, and makes recommendations of which moments might be great to order as prints and photobooks. You can see who has viewed your albums and cherish their comments for years to come.

It is available as both an app and browser version. While FamilyAlbum admin accounts are exclusive to the app, inviting people to the browser version allows them to effortlessly view and comment on your album without app downloads. Simply create an account on the app, log in, and start uploading!

Prints and Photobooks

Apart from its digital features, FamilyAlbum provides services to turn your memories into tangible objects such as prints and photobooks.

If you’re feeling like you’re buried under an avalanche of cute photos of your newborn or your last vacation was so breathtaking that you simply don’t know which photos to frame, don’t worry. FamilyAlbum sends you monthly suggestions of the gems to print out.

There are customization options for both the prints and photobooks, such as colors around the image or a unique album cover with a title and photo of your choosing.

Available for around $0.33 in glossy and matte, you can select photos to make prints of in the following sizes:

• Square: 3.5 x 3.5 in (8.9 x 8.9 cm)
• Retro: 2.8 x 3.4 in (7.2 x 8.6 cm)
• Rectangle: 3.5 x 5 in (8.9 x 12.7 cm)

The photo albums are sold in two options: Simple and Original, for $19–$28.

• Simple: A minimalist design with 7 colors
• Original – Standard: A large photo cover with a title
• Original – Linen: High-quality fabric with a photo and title

For $12, you can also add a set of Photo Pocket Pages (10 additional sheets with extension posts) for your Simple and Original photo albums.

Price and Value

Apart from the standard affordable prices for their prints and photo albums (and their deal of 8 free prints a month), currently, FamilyAlbum offers a free version, as well as premium and premium pro plans for your digital content.

The free version allows you to upload videos that are up to 3 minutes in length, shows up to 3 curated slideshow moments from the past (e.g. 2 years ago today, last month), and curates 3 months of memories into 1-second movies every quarter. Your photos and videos are visible to family and album admins only.

The Premium and Premium Pro plans have some similarities and a few more perks than the free version, such as:

• Videos of up to 10 mins can be uploaded
• 1-second movies curated for you every month, every 3 months, and every year
• Free shipping for the most part (with some exceptions)
• Photos and videos are visible to all family, album admins, and custom groups
• Unlimited slideshows

Pretty sweet! The only differences are that the Premium plan is $5 per month whereas Premium Pro costs $9 per month, and that Premium Pro allows you to upload high-quality videos in full HD and display them on your smart TV with Chromecast-connected devices..

Who Is FamilyAlbum For?

FamilyAlbum was designed for families who wish to streamline the way they share digital content with loved ones. You can do so with the peace of mind that everything you upload is private and encrypted.

FamilyAlbum is ideal for parents who run out of storage on their phone easily from snapping too many pics of their kids on the daily, and want a more curated solution for parsing through important family memories.

Lastly, those who prefer to have physical reminders of precious moments in their life can find value in the app too—as the app can ship you prints to frame for your home or photo albums that you can wrap up and send as a thoughtful gift to friends and family.

FamilyAlbum Reviews: What Do Customers Think?

With four awards, honors, and a mention in BBC and The New York Times, FamilyAlbum has only been rising in popularity since its conception.

However, I wanted to get a complete idea of the brand for readers of this FamilyAlbum review, so I set out in search of honest customer reviews. Let’s take a look at what people are saying!

On Apple, the app received a high rating of 4.9/5 stars from 216,861 reviews. One person wrote this review: “Highly recommend for the people looking to maintain privacy and control the environment in which they share their memories without having to resort to sharing over social media or being burdened with potential forgetting to include someone in a group text of pictures.”

Over on Google Play, I found a score of 4.8/5 stars from 232,314 votes. I compiled a few testimonials that echoed the sentiments of many:

“This app is just so awesome! Easy to use and all of the family can see our little girl grow! A great way to share and be connected! Love love love it!!!!

“Is AMAZING!! I love it!! I’m far away from my family and this is perfect so they can see my baby growing up.”

“Love this app. Good way to keep my family connected and they can see my son growing up even if they don’t live nearby.”

The publication Today’s Parent wrote, “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.”

All in all, it appears that you can find thousands of positive reviews for FamilyAlbum online! Most people are pleased with the versatility of being able to keep everything in one place and easily ordering physical products from the brand.

While there were a few complaints here and there about specific navigation options, these comments seem to be in the minority, and the company states that they are always optimizing the platform. It’s recommended that FamilyAlbum users make sure to update their devices to use the newest version.

Is FamilyAlbum Secure?

With FamilyAlbum, your content is completely safe. All photos/videos uploaded to the app belong to the user, and they can only be viewed by the user and the people that are invited.

There are no third-party ads in the app, and they don’t share user data with advertisers. Any photos/videos deleted from the app are also deleted from the company’s servers.

While doing further research for this FamilyAlbum review, I learned that data transferred between the user’s device and the company’s servers is encrypted, and their servers are protected by a strong firewall, secure passwords, two-factor authentication, and SSH key authentication. FamilyAlbum also has regular security inspections conducted by outside agencies.

Is FamilyAlbum Worth It?

To wrap up this FamilyAlbum review, I’ll share my overall verdict on the brand—it is absolutely worth checking out. Many users have shared that the app is a breeze to use and that even the free version offers many perks.

You can continue taking snapshots of life as it’s happening without worrying about storage filling up. I’d highly recommend signing up and ordering a curated, physical photobook or 8 free prints of memories that you can frame. You can send these thoughtful gifts to anyone who’s been asking about your little one or for grandma to keep on her bedside table.

FamilyAlbum App vs Browser

The app version of FamilyAlbum, available for iOS and Android, offers features such as:

• Timeline navigation
• Photo and video uploads
• Custom photobook orders

On the other hand, the browser version enables access from any device, allowing:

• Chronological viewing
• Saving, downloading, and commenting on photos & videos

FAQ

Where is FamilyAlbum based?

FamilyAlbum is based in Japan.

Who owns FamilyAlbum?

Kenji Kasahara is the founder and chairman of Mixi, Inc, a publicly traded technology company that owns FamilyAlbum.

Are the 8 free prints only available in the first month?

Good news: you receive 8 free prints on your first print order every month! The offer won’t carry over to the following month though, so be sure to keep an eye on the deadline so you get your order in on time.

The fine print is that a small shipping fee will be charged separately and some products under the Premium and Premium pro subscriptions may also incur minor shipping charges.

What is FamilyAlbum’s shipping policy?

Delivering internationally, all of FamilyAlbum’s products are shipped from Japan. Processing times are around 2-3 weeks, with fees calculated at checkout. To track a missing order, follow these steps:

1. Open the FamilyAlbum app and click on the Store tab
2. Tap “My Orders”
3. Select the relevant order
4. Contact the brand by clicking the “Questions about your order?” button

How to contact FamilyAlbum

For any lingering questions that my FamilyAlbum review didn’t answer, feel free to reach out to the company through their email inquiries form.

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