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Find out how to quickly react to a shared photo with your preferred emoji in the new and upgraded iCloud shared albums in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, and iCloud beta.

iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 have made changes to shared iCloud albums, like counting the space used by shared albums against your allocated iCloud space, the option to create temporary albums that auto-delete after 30 days, the removal of shareable iCloud photo links, filtering photos by members, and the ability to share photos in full resolution. You can learn more here: iOS 27: Shared iCloud photo albums will now take up your iCloud space

Another handy feature added to the iCloud shared album is the option to use a specific emoji to react to a photo. This ensures you aren’t limited to just the thumbs-up button or to sharing your thoughts in the comments. You can now use the smiling face, heart, thumbs down, fire, or any of the hundreds of emojis.

Before the latest update, if you wanted to share your view about a photo in a shared iCloud album, your options were to leave a comment or hit the like button, as shown in the screenshot below from my wife’s iPhone running iOS 26.

Important: The emoji reaction is only visible on the member’s device if it’s updated to iOS/iPadOS/macOS 27.

React to a shared iCloud photo with emoji

1) Update your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate (all three are currently in beta).

2) Open the Photos app and go to the Shared Album, as shown in the screenshot below.

3) Tap or double-click to open a single picture or video in full-screen.

4) Hit the emoji icon, as shown in the screenshot, and select a suggested emoji. Or, tap the plus button (+) to select from hundreds of emojis.

Here’s how it looks in macOS 27 Photos app.

See reactions to your shared photos

Open a photo in the shared album and tap the same emoji button to see who all have reacted to that image.

Change or remove the emoji reaction

Tap the selected emoji to open the reactions pane, and then tap the currently selected emoji to remove it.

You can also pick another emoji to replace it (other members of the shared album receive a new notification if you react with a different emoji).

React to a shared phone with an emoji on iCloud web

You can also use emoji reactions in shared albums on iCloud.com.

Plus, if you have shared a new/upgraded shared album with people whose devices haven’t been updated to OS 27, they will have to view your shared album in iCloud (instead of their device’s Photos app), and they can react with emoji there.

1) Visit beta.icloud.com/photos (not just iCloud.com) and sign in with the same Apple Account you generally use.

2) Expand the ‘Sharing Albums’ section.

3) View a picture and then click the emoji icon to react, as shown in the screenshot below.

If you don’t see the emoji react button…

You can’t react to a shared iCloud photo with custom emojis if:

• Your iPhone, iPad, or Mac isn’t updated to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or macOS 27 Golden Gate.
• The shared album was created before iOS, iPadOS, or macOS 27, and you have not upgraded it. To upgrade, just go to this shared album, start editing it, and tap Upgrade Shared Album. But note that upgraded iCloud albums count towards your iCloud space.

Can people with non-OS 27 devices view your emoji reaction or add their own?

Not in the Photos app, but in iCloud Web.

You can create a new shared album in iOS 27 and add participants to it. However, this new album will not appear in the participant’s Photos app if their device is still running iOS 26 or earlier. When they click your invitation to join the album, it will take them to beta.icloud.com in their browser, where they can sign in with their Apple Account to view the album and share their photo reactions.

Also, check out: How to save a slideshow as a video on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2026/07/06/emoji-reaction-icloud-shared-albums/

Use touch to interact with Mac app windows while using Sidecar on an iPad running iPadOS 27 and Mac running macOS 27 Golden Gate.

If you own a Mac and an iPad but don’t know what Sidecar is, let me quickly get you up to speed.

Sidecar is a built-in Apple Continuity feature that lets you use your iPad as an additional companion display for your Mac. You don’t need to buy third-party software, cable, or adapter. It works both wirelessly and via a standard USB cable (the same one you use to charge your iPad).

You can mirror your Mac’s display on your iPad, and both screens will show the same content. Or you can use your iPad as an extended display to show another app, effectively having two screens with different content. On top of that, in some apps like Photos, Sidecar also offers more fine-grained editing options with an Apple Pencil. We have explained all of this with several screenshots in our dedicated tutorial: How to use iPad as Mac’s secondary display or mirror display

Up until iPadOS and macOS 27, you could only control the Mac app window on iPad’s display using Apple Pencil or Mac’s own trackpad or mouse, thanks to yet another built-in Continuity feature called Universal Control.

iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 simplify things and now allow you to just use your finger on the iPad’s display to interact with the Mac’s screen there.

What makes this amazing is that you no longer have to drag Mac’s pointer to the edge of the display onto the iPad to make quick changes. You can simply use your left or right hand to scroll the window, play, pause, or do most other actions – right on the iPad. It’s not as perfect as what a touchscreen-first macOS-optimized experience would have been, but it’s decent.

Touch the iPad screen to control the Mac app during Sidecar

We already have a tutorial on using Sidecar, so we’ll keep things brief here.

1) Update your Mac to macOS 27 Golden Gate and iPad to iPadOS 27 (currently both are in beta).

2) Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on both your Mac and iPad and keep them near, like on the same desk.

3) Now, go to Mac’s System Settings > Display.

4) Click the plus button and select your iPad under the ‘Mirror or extend to‘ heading.

You can then click the iPad icon at the top and use it as an extended display, a mirror display for your Mac, or the main display.

If you’re using the iPad as an extended display, place the Mac pointer on the green traffic light button for an app and move it to your iPad.

5) Once you have an app on the iPad display, just use one finger to scroll, swipe, and tap.

Note that not all touch gestures you’re familiar with on iPad may work during Sidecar. For example, on an iPad, touching and holding the video player in YouTube plays the video at 2x. However, if your muscle memory does the same during Sidecar, it will just show the usual black YouTube player menu (see the screenshot below). Additionally, I found that I cannot drag the video progress bar when watching YouTube in Sidecar.

What do you think of touch support in Apple Sidecar?

Also, check out:

• 3 iPhone Mirroring improvements I love in iOS 27
• How to undo or redo Home Screen changes in iPadOS 27

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2026/07/03/touch-controls-sidecar/