Apple's My Photo Stream Announcement Sparks Concerns If Pics Will Be Permanently Deleted

Apple has announced it will permanently shut down its 'Photo Stream' feature next month, a move that could remove people's important memories from devices. The transition will come into effect from July 26, Apple said on its website. The feature has already stopped uploading pictures on June 26, according to news.com.au, and everything in the album will be deleted after the deadline. Apple's Photo Stream automatically stores pictures taken in the last 30 days. However, any pics uploaded to My Photo Stream before June 26 will be available on iCloud for users to save the memories.

"The photos in My Photo Stream are already stored on at least one of your devices, so as long as you have the device with your originals, you won't lose any photos as part of this process. If a photo you want isn't already in your library on a particular iPhone, iPad, or Mac, make sure that you save it to your library on that device," Apple said in its June 6 post on the website.

The company also said that iCloud Photos is the best way to keep the photos and videos users take across all their devices.

My Photo Stream has offered free storage for over a decade and is an alternative to iCloud Photos, which just got more expensive in some countries.

The move also led to discussions on social media with users expressing their sadness at the feature going away.

"I used it to get photos between my iPhone 6 at iOS 12, iPhone 4 at iOS 6 and macOS," commented one user.  "Think my Apple photo stream just went away. Lost a lot of photos," said another.

Others claimed they will switch to a Google phone.

Apple has, however, given a way for users to ensure they do not lose any photos. Users will have to go to the My Photo Stream album in camera roll and save pictures to their device or to iCloud.

The Photo Stream feature was introduced by Steve Jobs in 2011 and it automatically uploads 1,000 photos from the last 30 days.