Just a couple days after announcing Family Sharing, a feature that allows families to share iTunes and App Store purchases, Apple has begun emailing developers to ask them to turn on the feature in their iTunes Connect developer portal.
While Family Sharing is a significant addition to the App Store, the opt-in requirement for developers could see some declining to allow their apps to be shared amongst as many as six accounts with no extra charge.
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To make your apps available as part of Family Sharing, agree to the updated iOS Paid Applications and/or Mac Paid Applications agreement in Contracts, Tax and Banking on iTunes Connect. To ensure that Family Sharing is also enabled for previously purchased apps, leave the appropriate checkbox selected on the agreements page.
Family Sharing also allows families to share calendars, reminders, photos and locations. It also allows parents to monitor and approve downloads and purchases made by their children remotely. The feature is likely to get turned on and tested in the iOS 8 betas before going live when iOS 8 is available for the public later this year.
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Also MacRumors should clarify that from now on, it appears Family Sharing is required when selling in the App Store. There is nothing to turn on or off for developers. The only thing the checkbox applies to is for previously purchased apps.
That said, I'm really looking forward to this for iTunes music/movies purchases.
Reflecting back on many years ago, it is a good thing to share.
First... Family Sharing doesn't enable anything new. Between Home Sharing and just plain syncing apps to a device, it was possible to do much of this before. This just makes it simple, ubiquitous and adds explicit protection against "my kid send $2,000 in gumdrops in his game".
From the bit of text in the article and what I've experienced at Apple, this won't be opt-in in the sense you think; I read this as allow sharing or don't agree to the new terms and you're not a developer any longer.
WTF?