Now You Can Share Apple Subscriptions And In-app Purchases With Six Family Members

Apple has announced that up to six family members can now use subscriptions and in-app purchases at the same time – if the respective app provider allows this.

At the developer conference WWDC 2020, Apple announced in the summer that it would provide a function for sharing subscriptions and in-app purchases with up to six family members for all users. As many users reported on Twitter, Apple has now made them aware that this function is available immediately.

App providers must allow sharing

The new switch “Share new subscriptions” can be found under the subscription settings in the “Apple ID” area and is activated by default. A prerequisite for sharing in family circles is that the respective app provider or developer allows this at all. In addition, a subscription or an in-app purchase must be processed via Apple’s payment interface. So-called “consumables”, i.e. consumables such as game currencies, are excluded from sharing, whereas in-app purchases, which activate certain functions, can be used free of charge by family members.

Good news for third parties

In-house subscription services such as Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud storage space, as well as purchases in the iTunes Store or Apple Books, have long been possible to share within the family. With this new feature, third-party providers can now easily offer a family subscription or collective in-app purchases to activate functions. In the meantime, transactions completed after the free download have become the preferred financing model for more and more apps.

Apple announced the expansion of Family Sharing for iOS 14. It is unclear whether users of older versions of the iOS operating system will have to expect limitations with regard to this function.