[CharlesW]

> They don't offer an appropriate API to get photos out.

There's this: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photokit ("The framework provides access to photos on the person’s device and in iCloud.")

If you want to use undocumented APIs on non-Apple devices directly, there are projects like https://github.com/steilerDev/icloud-photos-sync and https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do... that appear to be able to do this.

[eli]

Yes, you have to build an app that runs on a device owned by someone with access to the album.

Google Photos, by comparison, has a REST API.

[jmelloy]

I've got an app that uses that to upload to S3. It's pretty straightforward.