Apple Family Sharing: This is how you share apps and subscriptions with family members

With Apple Family Sharing, families can share apps, music, movies, and books with each other. This means you only have to buy this content once for all family members. iPhoned shows in this guide how to set the function and what exactly you can do with it.

Everything about Apple Family Sharing and sharing apps with family

Sharing your Apple purchases with family members is a popular feature, but many people don’t know how it works. In this guide, we will therefore not only go through what it is, but also how to set the function and what the options are in five chapters.

1. What is Apple Family Sharing?
2. Set up family sharing and choose a householder;
3. Add family members to Family Sharing;
4. Family Sharing and Apple ID for Kids;
5. Share purchases.

1. What is Apple Family Sharing?

Since iOS 8, family members have been able to exchange all of their digital Apple purchases for free thanks to Apple Family Sharing. Handy, because this allows you, your partner and children to simply set up their own Apple ID, but you don’t have to pay again and again for the same apps, movies, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus and Apple Arcade. You can only be a member of one family at a time.

With Family Sharing, up to six Apple IDs can share information. This applies to the following Apple services:

• Purchases from the App Store
• An Apple Music subscription
• An iCloud storage plan
• Share location
• Share calendars

Depending on how big the family is and how many Apple services you use, you can save a lot by setting up Family Sharing properly.

2. Set up family sharing and choose a family organizer

You can easily activate family sharing on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. All you need is an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 8 or later, or a Mac with at least OS X Yosemite. In addition, you must have an Apple ID with which you are signed in to iTunes and iCloud.

If you have these two necessities, you must first determine who will be the family head. This is the person who will pay for the purchases made by affiliated family members. This requires a payment method to be linked to your Apple ID, such as a credit card or PayPal account.

Also read: Pay in 7 steps with PayPal in the App Store and iTunes

You can set up Family Sharing on both iOS and macOS by following the steps below:

Set up family sharing on iPhone or iPad

1. Open the Settings app;
2. Tap your name at the top of the screen;
3. Choose ‘Set Up Family Sharing’;
4. Choose which features you want to share;
5. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Set up family sharing on the Mac

1. Click on the Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen;
2. Choose ‘System Preferences’;
3. In the next window, click on iCloud;
4. Click on Configure family;
5. Follow the instructions on the screen.

3. Add family members to Family Sharing

Now that your Apple ID is a family organizer, you can add other family members’ Apple IDs. Chances are that your partner already has their own ID, which you can easily add on your iPhone or iPad.

1. Open the Settings app;
2. Tap your name and select Family Sharing;
3. Choose ‘Add family member’;
4. Enter the name or email address of the family member;
5. Follow the instructions on the screen;
6. Send the invitation via the Messages app or another service.

4. Family Sharing and Apple ID for Kids

If you also have minor children, we recommend creating an Apple ID for a child. You do this as follows.

1. Open the Settings app and tap your name;
2. Choose ‘Family Sharing’ and ‘Add Family Member’;
3. Now tap on ‘Create an Apple ID for a child’;
4. Enter the child’s date of birth and tap next;
5. Accept the privacy conditions and enter your payment method;
6. Enter the child’s name and create an Apple ID email address;
7. Enter a password and secure it with the steps on the screen.

This child ID has a number of advantages. For example, you are its administrator, and your email address is the one you use to restore or change the account. You can also manage these accounts remotely through the Family Sharing settings.

Ask to Buy is set by default for children under 13. This notifies the family organizer if a child wants to purchase a paid app or rent a movie from iTunes. The family organizer can then consent or deny consent from his or her device and complete the payment. This prevents a child from making numerous purchases with your linked payment method.

Note that a child’s Apple ID can download the same movies, apps and books as you by default. You will have to introduce restrictions yourself, for example to shield minors from adult content. We show you how to do this in the tip below.

Also read: How to set up parental controls on an iPhone or iPad: this is how you do it in 4 steps

5. Share apps and purchases

Now that your whole family is linked, you can start downloading. From now on you can find a new section in the App Store in the ‘Purchases’ tab with ‘Purchases from’ followed by the name of a family member. Tap this to open a window with all purchased apps, both free and paid.

From now on, all purchases are debited by default from the payment method set by the family organizer. If you also want to take advantage of a joint Apple Music subscription, you will have to take out a family subscription. A maximum of five family members can use this. You take out this subscription via the Apple Music settings of your account.

Please note that you can share app purchases, but this does not apply to in-app purchases. At the time of writing, you will therefore still have to purchase extensions to games or other purchases that you make directly in the app for each family member.