Comment by jasongill
2 days ago
I wish that this had a "family sharing" option, like "Apple One" does. My kids have iPhones with AppleCare+ but the only way to manage it is from their phone (despite being billed to the Family Sharing plan); would be nice to manage all of the family AppleCare+ stuff from one place.
(Or, Apple could fix the larger issue which is that subscriptions for family members can only be managed from the family member's account/device, despite being shared with the family)
Family Sharing is such a "bolted on" experience. Its obviously been hastily glued together. I really wish it was a more polished product, because I run into annoying issues constantly.
It's also annoyingly "bolted on" in the other direction of the experience, too. A family of grown adults sharing is much less interested in things like central billing. There's definitely a sense that Family Sharing sort of assumes a young "nuclear" family with kids in that 1950's stereotypical 2 married adults sharing a bank account, 2 and a half kids and a dog.
I get the vibe that Apple doesn't really want people to use family sharing in the way a lot of people use family plans. Like, it's there so kids with their first iDevice can get some stuff from their parents, but once that kid is older Apple wants them off your family sharing group and on their own personal everything.
I stick through the hassle cause when Google killed Google Play Music I tried out Apple Music by getting on my parents' family sharing and don't mind having one less subscription to pay for as long as they don't care. But it is annoying it puts my account in a state where I can't buy any subscriptions or in-app purchases without it getting charged to daddy's credit card. The workaround I've found is you can go on the Apple Store app/website and gift yourself an Apple gift card and claim it on your account. Then it'll charge to those funds first before the family organizer's credit card.
You can disable purchase sharing and still do subscription sharing, which completely solves this problem.