When you're living abroad for studies or a working holiday, you naturally want to let your family back home know that you're doing well. Daily life in a new country, memories with friends, beautiful scenery — sharing photos of your overseas experience is something everyone wants to do.
However, choosing the wrong sharing method can lead to privacy concerns or the frustration of photos not being seen. In this article, we'll introduce the best ways to safely share your study abroad photos with family.
The Limitations of Social Media and Chat Apps
While most people commonly use social media and chat apps, they have surprising drawbacks for sharing photos during time abroad.
Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, etc.)
- Too wide an audience: Posting to Instagram or Facebook makes photos visible to all your friends and acquaintances. Sometimes you want to share photos only with family, but managing privacy settings is a hassle
- Everyday photos don't feel "post-worthy": Social media creates pressure to post only polished, "Instagram-worthy" content. But the everyday moments are exactly what your family wants to see most
- Family may not use social media: Grandparents often don't have social media accounts, so they can't see your posts at all
Chat Apps (WhatsApp, iMessage, LINE, etc.)
- Photos get lost in the conversation: When you send photos within a chat, they get buried by other messages and become hard to find
- No way to organize: Chat apps aren't designed for managing large collections of photos
- Quality degrades: Most chat apps automatically compress photos, reducing the quality of your beautiful scenery shots
Using Private Albums to Share Only with Family
With PicTomo, you can create a private album accessible only to people who know the URL. Your photos won't be exposed to the general public like on social media — they're delivered exclusively to your family.
- Just send the URL to family: Share the album URL via WhatsApp, iMessage, email, or any messaging app, and your family can view photos in their browser
- Password protection available: For extra security, set a viewing password on the album
- Family can add photos too: It's a two-way street. When family back home uploads their photos, you can see each other's daily lives even while apart
Album Ideas: Monthly or Event-Based
Study abroad or working holiday stays can last months to over a year. When photos pile up, organizing by theme makes them much easier to revisit.
Monthly Albums
Creating albums like "January 2026" or "February 2026" shows how your life evolves over time. Your family will enjoy regularly checking in on new albums.
Event-Based Albums
- Arrival and first day: The airport, your new home, first day at school
- Weekend trips: Visits to nearby attractions or beaches
- House parties: Dinners and barbecues with local friends
- Seasonal events: Christmas markets, Halloween, local holidays and festivals
- Graduation or completion: Language school graduation ceremonies and certificates
Giving each album a short, descriptive title makes it convenient to look back on later.
Easy for Grandparents to Use
The people who may look forward to your study abroad photos the most might be your grandparents. But asking grandparents to install an app or create an account is a tall order.
PicTomo is a fully browser-based service.
- No app installation required: Just tap the URL and the album opens
- No registration required: No tedious sign-up process at all
- Simple interface: Photos are displayed in a clean, easy-to-understand tile layout
- Tap to enlarge: Tap any photo to view it full-size
Just send the URL to your family group chat, and everyone — including grandparents — can enjoy the same photos. You might just hear back, "So glad to see you're doing well!"
Sharing Memories with Fellow International Students
Beyond sharing with family, PicTomo is also great for sharing photos with friends you've made abroad.
- Easy sharing with multinational friends: PicTomo supports 10 languages, so friends from any country can navigate it intuitively
- Download memories before heading home: Before your program ends, use the ZIP bulk download to save everyone's photos
- Share with friends you don't have contact info for: Classmates at language schools and other friends you haven't connected with on social media can easily share photos via QR code
Photos with friends you made abroad become lifelong treasures. Be sure to download them before you head home.
Summary
Relying solely on social media and chat apps for photo sharing during study abroad leads to problems like overly broad audiences, messages getting buried, and quality degradation. PicTomo's private albums let you safely deliver photos to family only, and even grandparents can easily view them through their browser.
Share your precious overseas memories with the people who matter most. No app needed, no registration required — just share a URL and you're set.