Apple introduced iOS 16 with a redesigned lock screen, undo send for iMessages, and updates to Live Text at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on Monday. Alongside these updates, the company also showed off several new features for its Photos app, which will allow it to better compete with Google Photos.

With iOS 16, Apple’s Shared Photo Library offers a new way to store photos and videos captured by family members in one place — like photos of pets and events. It's a separate iCloud photo library from your main library.

Shared Photo Library coming to iOS 16

Up to six users can upload photos to this collective photo feed. You can manually select photos or rely on the intelligent suggestions feature to share photos of a particular person or a place. This could be useful for parents who want to share their photos of the kids automatically, for example, and is similar to Google Photos' years-old Live Albums or partner sharing features. 

iOS 16 will also bring a handy toggle in the camera app to directly share snaps to the Shared Photo Library.

The camera app in iOS 16 will have a toggle to directly share images to the Shared Photo Library

Apple said that all contributors can add, delete, and edit photos and videos in the library.

In comparison, Google Photos' partner sharing feature has options for sharing all photos, photos of specific people, and only photos since this day.

You can also create a shared album to collaborate with more users. Plus, you can auto-upload features for select people and pets.

Another feature coming in iOS 16’s Photos app update will bring a nifty cleaning feature that will automatically detect duplicate images. You can review those images and delete the ones that are not needed and free up some space on your device. (The functionality will be available under Albums > Utilities.)

Google Photos doesn’t have an in-built duplication remover, but it has a storage manager that lets you clear out large photos and videos, blurry images, and screenshots, and tools to remove photos from the device if they're already backed up to the cloud.