Some Reddit users who utilize Partner Sharing initially reported the issue as a bug, but several comments made by a presumed Google employee say the change was intentionally made “to better align with most users’ expectations.

Partner Sharing lets you instantly share your Google Photos library with someone else, but now it won't work with external photos.

The Partner Sharing feature in Google Photos has received an update that prevents images from third-party apps from being shared.

There is currently no easy workaround for this Google Photos limitation.

Originally launched back in 2017, Partner Sharing is a form of sharing in Google Photos where you can share your library of photos automatically with another user. This can share all photos, photos of specific people, or time-based sharing after a specific date. It’s a handy feature, but it’s seeing a change right now.

Inside of Google Photos, the current Sharing page is where you access shared albums and conversations you have with other users. It can be messy at times, but to help clean it up, and also introduce new features,

Google is constantly working to upgrade/improve the Google Photos app as time goes on. Hopefully, it is always in response to user data in an attempt to clean up the UI in ways that make all of our experiences a bit better while in the app.

Right now, after this update, you will get a notification to "See recent sharing updates, including conversations and shared links" and you tap on it, a new "Updates" feed will open. You also have an overflow menu with "Sharing activity" and "Conversations".

Google Photos has started to roll out a new update that changes how users access activity on shared albums.

Google Photos gets a new Updates feed that lists user activity on shared photos and albums and lets you easily manage shared items.