gives families simple sharing tools for events, notes, photos

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 24 May 2017

introduced some fantastic sharing features for its otos app during I/O, letting you automatically send photos based on who’s in them or set your library to sync with your loved ones. at didn’t tell us is that it’s the start of a larger push to stay connected to your family.

ong with otos’ new sharing abilities, is also adding new features to YouTube, Calendar, Keep to help you stay in the loop. A new Family Group option will let you easily send things like shopping lists, important appointments, , of course, photos, with the people who need them most.

Family-centric groups aren’t new to —we’ve seen them in action inside the ay store ay Music app—but now it’s coming to more services. To get started, you’ll need to create a family group on with up to six people. Then, the things you share with them will be able to be edited or deleted as if they created them on their own phone.

In Keep, for example, when you share something with a family group, it will be marked with a new icon of a house with a heart inside it. In Calendars, a new Family calendar will be created, which will then be added to each person’s app. Any event created within the family calendar will be synced to all members’ phones, like Keep, everyone will be able to create, delete, edit events. You’ll also be able to send pictures videos to the people in your group through the otos app.

Calendar events can only be shared separately with people who aren’t part of your family group, but outsiders added to Keep will be able to see that you’re in a family group. l members of the family group will need to stay updated to the latest versions of the apps to properly share with each other.

Additionally, is also spotlighting the family groups in YouTube TV. Subscribers can share their membership with up to five family members, who will each get their own cloud DVR with unlimited space.

The new family groups feature appears to be limited to Android phones is currently rolling out to all users. New apps of the various apps don’t seem to be required for the family groups to work, so it’s likely a server-side switch.

y this matters: Most families are already hooked up with services, but family groups make it even easier to stay in touch. ‘d love to see it exped to include ‘s other apps as well, such as Drive Android Messages, to completely streamline our lines of communication.