Overall Findings
These two Apple technologies are similar in many ways. By default, photos you take on your iOS and iPadOS devices are uploaded automatically to My Photo Stream. In contrast, iCloud Photos gives you all the options of My Photo Stream plus the ability to use more image file formats, save video, and keep images forever, safe in the cloud.
My Photo Stream Pros and Cons
When you take a picture while My Photo Stream is enabled, the photo is uploaded to the cloud, and then downloaded to other devices that use the same Apple ID. When you take a photo on your iPhone, for example, you can view it on your iPad without manually copying it to the tablet. You can change the default setting so that you have the option to upload photos manually. In this way, you can select the best photos and choose which friends and family can view them.
iCloud Photos Pros and Cons
iCloud Photos, which will eventually replace My Photo Stream, gives you all the options of My Photo Stream and more. Like My Photo Stream, iCloud Photos uploads photos to the cloud and syncs those photos across all your Apple devices. It also downloads photos to a Mac or Windows computer. Unlike My Photo Stream, however, iCloud Photos stores video and Live Photos. It keeps a full-sized copy of the photo or video in the cloud. The size of your image library is limited only by the amount of iCloud storage you have. Because iCloud Photos is a web-based storage service, you can also gain access to your photos by typing iCloud.com in a web browser address bar, then signing in with your Apple ID. In this way, you can reduce the amount of space your photos and videos take up on your mobile device by optimizing the photos for iPad or iPhone. The full-sized photo stays on the server, and you keep a reduced-sized version on your device.
Final Verdict: Use Them Both (While You Can)
The only real difference here is that you’ll need to move to iCloud Photos. If you recently created an Apple ID, you’ll notice that My Photo Stream isn’t an option. Only iCloud Photos gives you access to all your photos and videos from all your devices, superseding the abilities of My Photo Stream in most cases. For now, however, you can enable both features on your iPhone and use only My Photo Stream on your iPad. This will give you access to the latest photos on your iPad without storing every photo on your tablet. Even in optimized form, library mirroring consumes a device’s limited storage space. Turn iCloud Photos or My Photo Stream on through the iCloud settings in the iOS or iPadOS device Settings. You can share any photo in the Photos app on your device by tapping the up icon, then selecting how you want to share.
