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Apple debuts new Family Sharing feature for iOS 8

Apple debuted a new Family Sharing feature during its WWDC keynote today. The feature allows family members who use the same credit card to also share a variety of other information, including iTunes purchases, photos and photo streams, location, reminders, calendars, and more.

One incredibly useful feature for parents included with this update is the ability to approve (or disapprove) purchases by minors. When a child in the family sharing account attempts to make a purchase, a notification will be sent to a parent asking them to approve the purchase. Parents will be able to review the item being purchased and decide whether or not to allow the charge.

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Comments

  1. As a parent of twins, I’m extremely happy about this one. Very cool.

  2. yes, very cool, but where is contact sharing????

  3. They already have contact sharing. Just go into your contact list, pick a contact, scroll down and you will see share contact.

    • @Mario – I agree…if FamilyShare shares contacts, I’ll be thrilled. It’s the one feature I’ve been wanting ever since the entire family switched over to Apple devices.

      @Kyle – That’s only to share a contact’s information one time. We’re talking about a shared set of contacts that can be maintained and synced by anyone in the family. Right now, if Grandma moves, everyone in the family has to update their individual/separate contact record; with FamilyShare, 1 person would be able to make the change and everyone gets the update automatically. There are ways to accomplish this today, but it’s difficult.