Apple urges developers to opt-in to upcoming Family Sharing program

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited June 2014
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.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 36
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    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.  ;) 

  • Reply 2 of 36
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    We already do this in a simplified manner, under a single id. I like the location feature, however, and I am sure the parental control feature will be welcome in many families. My guess is that the photo sharing feature will be the least utilized. 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.
  • Reply 3 of 36
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member
    Finally. I thought this was one of the highlights of the keynote, but I hadn't seen anyone mention it yet.

    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.
  • Reply 4 of 36
    sporlosporlo Posts: 143member
    As with the above, I've been looking for this exact feature for nearly a decade (ever since we first bought something from the iTunes Store).
  • Reply 5 of 36
    Perhaps I'm missing something, but how with Family Sharing be different than this: I currently have an Apple ID that I use to purchase apps and music. I have that same ID on my kids and my wife's devices to purchase the same. If I bought something, they could therefore also "redownload" the same on their devices and computers. They each also have their own Apple ID for their email, signing into game center, iMessages, etc. The only difference is that I don't see a "permission" when my son wants to buy an app.

    What am I missing on this?
  • Reply 6 of 36
    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.
  • Reply 7 of 36
    rgh71rgh71 Posts: 125member
    malax wrote: »
    Finally. I thought this was one of the highlights of the keynote, but I hadn't seen anyone mention it yet.

    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.
    On each device just turn off the auto-download feature and that solves your problem. Apps, music, etc are separately toggleable too!
  • Reply 8 of 36
    konqerrorkonqerror Posts: 685member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nicwalmsley View Post



    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.

  • Reply 9 of 36
    rgh71rgh71 Posts: 125member
    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.
    Not normal, but apple's way of controlling us. I would guarantee we still can't merge accounts and account assets. Totally pisses me off. I still own songs from years ago I can't have since my family is all under a different unified account. Wish I had the time and money and patience to sue.
  • Reply 10 of 36

    Originally Posted by paxman View Post



    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.

     

     


    Originally Posted by paxman View Post



    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!!

  • Reply 11 of 36
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    rgh71 wrote: »
    Not normal, but apple's way of controlling us. I would guarantee we still can't merge accounts and account assets. Totally pisses me off. I still own songs from years ago I can't have since my family is all under a different unified account. Wish I had the time and money and patience to sue.

    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.
  • Reply 12 of 36
    iaeeniaeen Posts: 588member
    rgh71 wrote: »
    Not normal, but apple's way of controlling us. I would guarantee we still can't merge accounts and account assets. Totally pisses me off. I still own songs from years ago I can't have since my family is all under a different unified account. Wish I had the time and money and patience to sue.

    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.
  • Reply 13 of 36
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by rgh71 View Post

    Not normal, but apple's way of controlling us.

     

    Nope.

     

    I would guarantee we still can't merge accounts and account assets.


     

    ‘Course not.

     

    I still own songs from years ago I can't have since my family is all under a different unified account.


     

    Of course you can have them.

  • Reply 14 of 36
    nicwalmsleynicwalmsley Posts: 117member
    konqerror wrote: »
    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.

    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?
  • Reply 15 of 36
    petripetri Posts: 118member
    rgh71 wrote: »
    Not normal, but apple's way of controlling us. I would guarantee we still can't merge accounts and account assets. Totally pisses me off. I still own songs from years ago I can't have since my family is all under a different unified account. Wish I had the time and money and patience to sue.

    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?
  • Reply 16 of 36
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nicwalmsley View Post



    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 :-)

  • Reply 17 of 36
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    charlituna wrote: »
    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.

    Or he could actually contact Apple to see if they can do something about it, instead of being a bitter troll.
  • Reply 18 of 36

    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.

  • Reply 19 of 36
    techprod1gytechprod1gy Posts: 838member
    I love this new feature. I have been doing like others and using one ID for my family. However, there is a device limit to doing this so I have to pick and choose which ones have it. Maybe I am not the norm but it is a big deal in our household. I just hope when our kids are old enough and move out that you can then separate their purchases tied to their account...That would be a great feature. Maybe it is there just unclear at this point.
  • Reply 20 of 36
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member

    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.

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