Photo Stream: Explained: Apple’s My Photo Stream is ending soon and what iPhone users should do

Apple‘s My Photo Stream is shutting down on July 26. iPhone users only have a couple of days to save their photos in the image-storing platform also available on iPad and Mac. The Cupertino-based tech giant has ensured that it’s a slow-rolling shutdown. In May, the company announced the shutdown and uploads on the service have been stopped since June. This won’t have a big impact on users as both iCloud Photos and the device storage will still be available for them to store photos.

What is My Photo Stream
My Photo Stream is a part of iCloud. This service allows users to share 1,000 recent photos on their connected Apple devices. These photos also don’t take up storage on the device and are saved in the cloud storage.

How will it affect users?
As Apple shuts down this service, iPhone users will no longer have access to the images on their smartphones which aren’t locally saved on the device. This is not a major change but it may prove inconvenient for some users. However, there are ways for users to save their photos before the company shuts down the service.
With My Photo Stream gone, users will only lose the ability to access these images on any device unless their iCloud Photos is set up o that particular iPhone, iPad and Mac. Also, users will be able to find any existing pictures that were originally taken on that device.
Store pictures in iCloud Photos
iPhone users will be able to share photos across their Apple devices using iCloud Photos. However, these photos will take up iCloud space which users need to pay for. This means Apple users need to pay for a higher tier of iCloud to save all their photos.
Store photos locally or on other devices
Users can manually transfer images between devices. For this, users will need to save their photos on other devices. iPhone users can also save their photos on other devices like iPad or Macs using My Photo Stream as long the service is available.
How to save photos between iPhone and iPad
iPhone users need to tap the Albums heading in the Photos app. It will be on the second from the left at the bottom of the screen. For iPad users, the option will appear on the sidebar.

Here select the My Photo Stream album. This option appears near the top of your list on your iPhone’s Photos album. Select the photos that want to save on the device. Users can also select multiple photos by using the Select button.
Now, with the Share menu users can send the selected images to other devices using emails, AirDrop or the Files app. Users need to choose the destination as per their preference.
How to save My Photo Stream images on Mac
This process is a little different on a Mac. Open the My Photo Stream album in the Photos app. Select the photos that need to be saved on the Mac. Now, users can drag the photos to the Library header in the sidebar to save them.