Apr 4, 2011 08:33 GMT  ·  By

iOS 5 will reportedly include an ability to set up Photo Streams for picture albums using the Photos application, in a way similar to that of creating playlists of songs in the iPod application.

According to a finding by 9to5mac reader Mario Piombo, these Photo Stream albums will be streamable to specified groups of people.

Piombo made his discovery after spotting references to Photo Stream albums in his iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3.

Although not visible to the naked eye, the references to this unannounced new feature emerge once you use the proper desktop application to browse for photos from the Photos.app library.

9to5 appropriately points out that iPhoto on Mac OS X used to include a similar feature called Photocast, which allowed users to share photos with their loved ones as long as they had a .Mac (dot Mac) account.

The latest builds of the iOS SDK indicate that Photo Stream will be part of the current MobileMe service which Apple reportedly plans to give a radical overhaul, while pricing it more attractively, or even make it completely free of charge.

The function is apparently tied to another unconfirmed addition to iOS - Find my Friends.

Discovered during the iOS 4.3 beta period, Find My Friends would enable users to find iDevice friends listed in their MobileMe address book.

A location-based friend-finding service, Find My Friends would also make a great addition to the revamped MobileMe service expected to emerge sometime this year.

The announcement is believed to come as part of the iOS 5 preview this summer at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

While no hardware announcements are expected (iPhone 5 is reportedly delayed to Fall 2011), an iOS 5 Developer Preview is very much likely.

WWDC 2011 is set to begin June 6 in San Francisco’s Moscone West, with a focus on “the future of iOS and Mac OS”.