Apple currently offers two photo-related services: My Photo Stream and iCloud Photos. My Photo Stream is an iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch feature that lets you share recent photos between your iOS and iPadOS devices. iCloud Photos is a cloud storage service for your entire photo library. We explored these two Apple services to help you better understand how your iOS and iPadOS devices store and share photos and videos.

These two Apple technologies are similar in many ways. By default, photos you take on your iOS and iPadOS devices are automatically uploaded to My Photo Stream. iCloud Photos, on the other hand, gives you all the options of My Photo Stream plus the ability to use more image file formats, store video, and keep images safe in the cloud forever.

When you take a photo while My Photo Stream is turned on, the photo is uploaded to the cloud and then downloaded to other devices that use the same Apple ID. For example, if you take a photo on your iPhone, you can view it on your iPad without having to manually copy it to the tablet.

You can change the default setting so that you have the option to manually upload photos. This way you can select the best photos and choose which friends and family can see them.