For a few days we already have with us the first iOS betas and iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur and the rest of the new Apple operating systems presented at WWDC 2020. Many of the new features of these systems appear hidden in Apple press releases or are discovered as developers review the betas. One of those important novelties is the Ability for developers to offer third-party purchases and subscriptions as a family. In other words, allowing a subscription made to a user of a family registered in Apple's "En Familia" program of a third-party app, is available in each of the family members.
Shared purchases and subscriptions in 'En Familia'
Developers can now also offer Family Sharing for their in-app purchases and subscriptions.
With this line, Apple announced one of the most important novelties of the program "In family" for a long time. This program allows families of up to 5 people to share a large amount of content by purchasing it only once by a family member. So far, this is all that could be shared:
- Music, movies, and TV shows from the iTunes Store
- Books from the Apple Books Store
- Most of the apps in the App Store
- Family subscription to Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple News + and Apple TV +
- Apple TV channel subscriptions
- ICloud storage plan
With iOS 14, iPadOS 14 and macOS Big Sur this changes completely. From the moment that family members have these systems installed, developers will also be allowed to integrate into their apps the possibility of share in-app purchases or subscriptions. In this way and with these updates, almost all the content that we can acquire in all Apple environments can be shared in "In Family".
This change is not required. In other words, a developer can freely choose whether he wants to share his application "shareable" in the family. Therefore, you can also decide whether or not in-app purchases can be shared among family members. But as some developer circles comment, There must be some compelling reason for a developer not to apply this novelty to their apps.
