Amazon's Family Vault lets groups pool their photos for easy sharing

In the realm of photo sharing, Amazon wants to be king.

Amazon Prime subscribers already enjoy unlimited photo storage, although if your family members use different Amazon accounts, those pics have been walled off from each other. Not anymore, though: With the launch of Amazon Family Vault, Prime members can invite up to five family members (or friends) to share photos.

To make photo sharing easier, those additional members will be able to upload unlimited photos,too -- even if they're not Prime members. Users also get an additional 5GB for videos and other files.

Further, similar to Google Photos and the new Photos app for iOS 10, users of all six accounts can search for photos across content from all of them -- consolidating images by "faces, [and] even objects."

Family Vault will also give members the option of ordering prints from their expansive collection of photos, with free delivery. This service has already been available via Amazon Prints, but now Family Vault will let Prime members share the benefit with family members.

It's one small step for photo sharing, and one giant step for Amazon's attempt at online service domination.