Apple urges developers to opt-in to upcoming Family Sharing program
In the run up to the launch of OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iOS 8, Apple is now asking developers to make their apps available as part of Family Sharing, a new iTunes feature that allows family members to share purchased content.
According to AppleInsider reader Gregg, Apple sent out emails via iTunes Connect on Wednesday outlining Family Sharing and asking developers to opt-in to the new program.
Unveiled at WWDC 2014 on Monday, Family Sharing lets up to six family members who use the same credit card to share content purchased from the iTunes Store, including the iOS and Mac App Stores.
As noted in today's email, the program allows family members to share photos, a family calendar and even current their locations among devices registered under a single account. In a bid to thwart litigation, Apple also built in parental controls that allows parents to approve purchases and downloads made by their children. Parents have the ability to accept or reject purchases remotely.
With today's email, Apple is urging developers to agree to the new iOS and Mac Paid Applications Agreement in iTunes Connect regarding Family Sharing. Apparently developers have the option to keep past purchases out of the program, suggesting the same option will be available to future apps as well.
According to AppleInsider reader Gregg, Apple sent out emails via iTunes Connect on Wednesday outlining Family Sharing and asking developers to opt-in to the new program.
Unveiled at WWDC 2014 on Monday, Family Sharing lets up to six family members who use the same credit card to share content purchased from the iTunes Store, including the iOS and Mac App Stores.
As noted in today's email, the program allows family members to share photos, a family calendar and even current their locations among devices registered under a single account. In a bid to thwart litigation, Apple also built in parental controls that allows parents to approve purchases and downloads made by their children. Parents have the ability to accept or reject purchases remotely.
With today's email, Apple is urging developers to agree to the new iOS and Mac Paid Applications Agreement in iTunes Connect regarding Family Sharing. Apparently developers have the option to keep past purchases out of the program, suggesting the same option will be available to future apps as well.
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With today's email, Apple is urging developers to agree to the new iOS and Mac Paid Applications Agreement in iTunes Connect regarding Family Sharing. Apparently developers have the option to keep past purchases out of the program, suggesting the same option will be available to future apps as well.
Apparently parents will have the option to not buy apps from developers who don't agree to support Family Sharing.
This will be great for families like mine that have been sharing a single account for years across a number of devices. Now I can afford to give everyone their own personal Apple account without having buy multiple copies of apps and music. We were all get rather sick of random apps that other family members purchased showing up on our phones and iPads.
What am I missing on this?
So now, I'll setup my partner and our kids in my family share ....and she'll set me and the kids up under her's? Which won't work if as part of doing that I have to use her credit card, and she mine.
So we just pick one credit card and all use that?
I am obviously confused.
....is this something that you do in the States, share credit cards? In Oz the norm is each has their own.
Wondering why the family grouping needs to all use the same credit card?
....is this something that you do in the States, share credit cards? In Oz the norm is each has their own.
It's probably to prevent you from making a "family" with random friends to save money.
Yes, in the States, a credit card account will have one name on it. The spouse will order a authorized user card that has the same number but different name, and the liability rests with the primary account holder. You can also do the same with teens, often used if they travel without you.
We already do this in a simplified manner, under a single id.
Same here. The iPad used by my wife, my kid and I are on the same User Id.
But I like this new feature since it will still keep unique Ids, thereby ensuring separate emails, notes and documents, but not having to buy the same app within the family.
Who wants to share photos WITH their kids? I may want to share photos OF them, but not WITH them. And please, I don't want to see THEIR pictures. REALLY. People with pre-teen, or teen kids will understand.
I totally agree. Right now, my kid is only 4 so his dad is currently the greatest guy in the world. But soon he is not going to enjoy the same things I do, but I'm sure he'd opt out of family sharing then!!
If you really have a potential suit I'm sure you could find a lawyer willing to take it pro bono as a class action.
You'd lose the suit. Technically you never owned the songs. What you bought was permission to use the songs for your personal use subject to the terms and availability of the iTunes music store. This isn't really Apples fault so much that it is the record labels trying to maximize profit by giving you the least value for money you are willing to accept while minimizing your ability to share with your friends.
Nope.
‘Course not.
Of course you can have them.
Ah ok. We have joint account (same pool of credit/funds) but separate credit card numbers.
It does seem a big limitation to the whole thing. We're talking 5 to 10 years of purchases that we each own, and if we used family sharing we'd have to leave one half of that collection out.
Perfectly fine for a new family coming to iTunes. Pick one of your credit cards and go for it.
But for existing customers, if apple want to achieve their stated aims for family share, they would allow a family group to share content between each other, irrespective of whether each family member purchased the content with same or different cards.
No?
With less time and patience you could simply log into the other account, download the songs, burn them to CD and then do what you like with them?
Wondering why the family grouping needs to all use the same credit card? My partner and I each have our own. But home sharing has too many limitations.
So now, I'll setup my partner and our kids in my family share ....and she'll set me and the kids up under her's? Which won't work if as part of doing that I have to use her credit card, and she mine.
So we just pick one credit card and all use that?
I am obviously confused.
....is this something that you do in the States, share credit cards? In Oz the norm is each has their own.
The family doesn't have to use the same credit card. I have been doing that for years with my family members, kids and grandchildren. Just make a special Apple ID that is not connected to any credit card and which family members can use for buying through AppStore. Of course they also have their own Apple ID's themselves, but a special account used for buying from iTunes etc.
Then you can put as much credit to the account as you wish from your credit card and from any family members credit card if you wish so. You can even let your kids use theirs in some cases to buy their own credit on the account. Just shut off the automatic downloading of what others are buying ;-).
And to add, my family is spread over a few countries, all of them using their own aTV's, iPhones/iPads and Macs. Yes, just Apple's :-)
In that way we share films, apps and programs that we want, we could even share the songs, but.... you know ;-) If one rents a film, a good one, the others get a message that they have 24 hours to see it also if they want.
I just made the simple rule that the kids have to call me for my acceptance if they want to buy anything worth over a few dollars and they do! But you never say no, especially to the youngest ones :-) and it is really nice to hear their voices :-)
Or he could actually contact Apple to see if they can do something about it, instead of being a bitter troll.
I am surprised that you can just drag songs from your iTunes library into iMessages and send them to anyone you want without any DMR.
Nah, I'm still going to use 1 Apple ID for iTunes Store and App Store on all devices. Separate iCloud accounts for everything else. I suppose we'll benefit from some of the other sharing like Calendar.
My wife is never purchased anything with her Apple ID and I'm not buying the utility of Family Sharing enough to say she start making purchases on that instead of on my account as we always have.