> However when it came time to share those pictures, I informed everyone it would be best to get google photos where we could all dump the hundreds of pictures into one communal album. This was quickly met with "What? I don't want to deal with that, why don't we just share them the regular way?" (imessage).
My family, including myself, all have iPhones. We’ve done exactly this for our family trips to the Black Hills and Ozarks over the last couple years, but we just share them with Apple’s shared albums. It works exactly the same as Google’s shared albums but with the iMessage and other iOS/macOS integration niceties. That could be why your family didn’t want to download another app to do what’s “already built in” to the phone, so to speak.
Just speculating, you know your family better than I ever could obviously.
They are not even aware that iMessage or Apple shared albums are even an iPhone exclusive feature. They don't even know what iMessage is. The whole iPhone experience is so seamless that for me to suggest alternate apps doesn't even make sense. Like telling someone they need to get a coffee maker when they have a brand new keurig right in front of them. The statement is more confusing than informative to them.
To them, the reason I can't send them pictures is because Android phones suck. Which they complain about with "Anytime an android sends me a picture it looks like shit".
My family, including myself, all have iPhones. We’ve done exactly this for our family trips to the Black Hills and Ozarks over the last couple years, but we just share them with Apple’s shared albums. It works exactly the same as Google’s shared albums but with the iMessage and other iOS/macOS integration niceties. That could be why your family didn’t want to download another app to do what’s “already built in” to the phone, so to speak.
Just speculating, you know your family better than I ever could obviously.