this way you can share apps with your family

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

All about Apple Family Sharing and app sharing 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 therefore not only go through what it is, but also how to set up the function and what the possibilities are in five chapters.

1. What is Apple Family Sharing?
2. Set up family division and choose a household head;
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 can exchange all their digital Apple purchases for free, thanks to Apple Family Sharing. Handy, because this allows you, your partner and children to set up their own Apple ID, but you don’t have to pay for the same apps, movies, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus and Apple Arcade over and over again. You can only be a member of one family at a time.

Family Sharing allows up to six Apple IDs to share data. 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 the size of the family 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 Head of Family

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 head of the household. This is the person who will pay for the purchases made by affiliated family members. For this, a payment method must be linked to your Apple ID, such as a credit card or PayPal account.

Also read: Pay with PayPal in 7 steps 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 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 householder, 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 e-mail address of the family member;
5. Follow the instructions on the screen;
6. Send the invitation through 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 ‘Share with family’ 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. So you are its administrator, and your email address is the one you use to recover or change the account. You can also manage these accounts remotely through the Family Sharing settings.

For children under the age of 13, Ask to Buy is set by default. Notify the family head if a child wants to purchase a paid app or rent a movie from iTunes. The householder can then authorize or deny permission from his or her device and complete the payment. This prevents a child from making countless purchases with your linked payment method.

Please note that a child Apple ID can download the same movies, apps and books as you by default. You will have to introduce restrictions yourself to protect minors from adult content, for example. In the tip below we show you how to do this.

Also read: Set 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 together, 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 to open a window with all purchased apps, both free and paid.

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

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 expansions of games or other purchases that you make directly in the app for each family member.