Google-Photos-grade sharing for self-hosted photo libraries
People who moved family photos off Google Photos onto self-hosted Immich keep hitting the same wall, that sharing is clunky compared to what they left. The single most-reacted Immich request is a meta-issue begging for better albums, partner sharing, shared links, and library sharing, and the maintainers openly froze sharing work pending a redesign. The opportunity is a frictionless sharing and collaboration layer for self-hosted photos, or a competitor that nails sharing first.
The trap is recommending features Immich already ships — it has partner sharing and shared links today, just poorly executed. The wedge is the UX redesign and reliability it publicly froze: seamless cross-device album collaboration, non-technical family member onboarding, and a sharing interface that doesn't require understanding Immich's internal library model. Build that layer on top of the existing Immich API rather than a new server.
landscape (2 existing solutions)
Self-hosted photo apps have nailed ingest, machine learning, and browsing, but sharing is the weakest surface across the board. The leading app publicly froze the feature, which turns a hunch into a validated, well-scoped gap.