Family Sharing on Apple devices is a way to make your apps, movies, subscriptions, and more available to people in your family. You can also use it to control screen time or content restrictions for your children's devices. What's more, it even lets you keep an eye on the location of all your loved ones.

We've written this guide to explain everything you need to know about setting up and using the Family Sharing feature on Apple devices. Let's take a look at how it works.

What Is Family Sharing?

Family Sharing lets you connect up to six different Apple ID accounts together. These accounts form your Family Sharing group, which you can use to save money by sharing various Apple purchases and services, including:

  • Apps, subscriptions, movies, TV shows, songs, and books
  • Apple Music family plan subscriptions
  • Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple TV+, and Apple One subscriptions
  • iCloud storage

Since everybody has their own account, you don't need to share your password with other people. You can also access content in your Family Sharing group from any device with your Apple ID.

Features or service shared across Apple devices via Family Sharing
Image Credit: Apple

Besides shared purchases and services, Family Sharing automatically creates a shared reminders list, shared calendar, and shared photo album for all of the group members to use. With permission, you can even use Family Sharing to see the location of everyone in your group, thanks to all their Apple devices.

Finally, with Family Sharing, parents can limit their children's iPhone usage by managing the Screen Time settings or Content & Privacy Restrictions. With Ask to Buy turned on, they can also approve or deny App Store and iTunes purchases their kids want to make.

You Can't Share Everything

Not all apps support Apple's Family Sharing feature. So, make sure to scroll down to the Information section on the App Store to check if the app or subscription you're buying is eligible for Family Sharing.

App Information indicating Family Sharing SupportHow to Set Up Family Sharing

Whoever creates the Family Sharing group becomes the Family Organizer. This person chooses who is and isn't allowed in the group and also chooses which services or purchases you share with Family Sharing.

If the Family Organizer chooses to share App Store and iTunes purchases, they must also agree to pay for new purchases that anyone in the Family Sharing group makes.

Set Up Family Sharing on an iPhone or iPad

Head into the Settings app on your iOS or iPadOS device and follow the steps listed below:

  1. Tap on [Your Name] at the top of the screen to access Apple ID settings. If you don't see your name, choose to Sign in to your [device] using your Apple ID account.
  2. Tap Family Sharing to begin the setup, and once you've read the prompt explaining the available features, hit Continue.
  3. You will now see options to add more members to your group or create a child account for the ones below the age of 13.
  4. After creating your group, Family Sharing settings appear beneath your name in the Settings app.

Set Up Family Sharing on a Mac

Follow the steps listed below to set up Family Sharing on your macOS device:

  1. Click the Apple menu in the menu bar and choose System Settings,
  2. Select your Apple ID name at the top.
    Apple ID settings page in macOS
  3. Click on Family Sharing, and you'll see an on-screen prompt explaining the various features. Click on Set Up Family to complete the setup.
    Family Sharing setup screen in macOS
  4. Once the setup is complete, you will receive a prompt to invite people to your family. Click on Invite People to send out an invitation—this can be done via AirDrop, Mail, Messages, or an in-person invite.
    Family Sharing setup invite screen in macOS
  5. If you choose not to add any members (up to five) or customize the available features at the time, you can use the Family subsection in the sidebar of System Settings to edit these later.
    Family Sharing menu in macOS

Children under the age of 13 cannot create their own Apple ID accounts. However, with Family Sharing, the Family Organizer can create a Child Account for them. To do this, you can use the Create Child Account prompt that's available when adding new members to the group.

Apple's Family Sharing Features Explained

After creating your Family Sharing group, you will see a lot of different features and services you can choose to use with it. These many options can seem a little overwhelming at first, so we've explained each Family Sharing feature below.

Subscriptions

The Subscriptions section in Family Sharing settings will help you review all active subscriptions shared between the family group. Eligible Apple subscriptions, like Apple Music family, Apple TV, or Apple Arcade, to name a few, are automatically shared with those in the group. As for iCloud+, you'll need to manually share it across the group, just like with other App Store subscriptions you may have purchased.

Purchase Sharing

If you want to share apps, movies, TV shows, songs, and books in your Family Sharing group, you need to turn on Purchase Sharing. When doing this, the Family Organizer must agree to pay for any future purchases people in your Family Sharing group make. Members get to keep their purchases after leaving the Family Sharing group, even if the Family Organizer paid for that purchase originally.

To view another person's purchases, open the App Store or iTunes Store app and go to the Purchased page. You should see each of your family members' names; tap one to view or download their purchases.

Purchase Sharing lets your family access everything you've ever bought or downloaded, even if you did so before joining the Family Sharing group. If you want to hide a particular purchase from your family, swipe on that purchase and choose to Hide it.

Location Sharing

With Location Sharing turned on in Family Sharing, you can use the Find My app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to check where your other family members are. You can also use Find My to locate your family members' missing Apple devices.

Each family member can choose whether they want to share their location from the Family Sharing settings on their device.

You should be careful with this setting. When Location Sharing is turned on, anyone in your Family Sharing group can use the Find My app to mark your devices as lost or remotely erase them.

Screen Time

Turn on Screen Time to monitor any children in your Family Sharing group under the age of 18. You can choose to set App Limits, Communication Limits, Downtime, and Content & Privacy Restrictions on your children's devices.

Family Sharing also gives you regular usage reports, so you can keep an eye on how much your children use their devices.

Apple Isn't the Only Company to Offer Family Sharing Features

Plenty of other companies offer services similar to Apple's Family Sharing. Now that we've explained how to use Apple's Family Sharing feature, it's worth taking a moment to learn what's on offer elsewhere as well.

That way, you can be certain you're getting the best service for your particular needs. For instance, if you use more Google apps than Apple ones, you might gain more from setting up a Google Play Family Sharing group instead.