May 25 will mark the end of a niche, yet beloved, feature among a few Apple users: iTunes allowance, a feature that - as the name suggests - allowed parents to give their children an allowance on iTunes, which directly influenced how much they would be able to spend within a certain timeframe.
It was a simple feature with an equally simple purpose. It would start by having parents setting their accounts to give their kids a fixed amount of iTunes credit every month. These credits, which would be determined by the parents, could be used by kids to buy apps, games and music. At this point, everything comes down to the kids. If they use all of their monthly allowance, then they have to wait until next month - or beg their parents for more money and explain why they spent so much in the first place. With all these measures in place, it was but a simple matter for parents to avoid charges on their credit card that is linked with their Apple ID.
However this convenience will be gone come May 25, Apple revealed on a support page. This doesn't mean that parents wont be able to regulate how much stuff their children purchase using iTunes, though. the company noted that Family Sharing, a feature available for iOS 8 and later that allows up to six people to share content without them having share accounts, will take its place.
With Family Sharing, one person is the family organizer who agrees to pay for all the iTunes, iBooks and App Store purchases and then invites the other family members to join. All purchases made appear in the "Purchased" tab in iTunes or the App Store so that each family member can download that content if they wish. Each member still uses their own Apple ID.
For those who may find themselves without iTunes Allowance come May 25, here's how the Family Sharing feature works (note that the process is different depending on whether you're using a Mac or a mobile device):
- Mac: Go To Apple Menu > System Preferences > iCloud, click "Set Up Family," then follow the onscreen steps.
- Mobile Device (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch): Go to Settings > iCloud, tap "Set Up Family Sharing," then follow the onscreen steps.
Assuming that the child (or anyone else you want to add to the plan) has a pre-existing Apple ID, then all you need to do is send them an invitation, and you're set. The only caveat is that the family organizer is required to have a valid method of payment on file. In other words, you can't use iTunes credit to pay for everything.
So which of the two is better? It depends on how you look at it. As far as purchasing goes, iTunes Allowances in comparison to Family Sharing is less involved. Whereas the former uses an automatic credit system, the latter is a completely manual process.
On the other hand, Family Sharing has far more features than iTunes Allowances could dream of. As far as purchases go, not only can the family organizer turn on the "Ask To Buy" feature so that every attempted purchase must be validated by them before it goes through, but they also have the ability to hide already purchased items on the app store by "Purchased" section in the store and swiping from right to left. Family Sharing also features location sharing, a family calendar and family reminders, as well as a shared photo album.
As mentioned before, iTunes Allowance isn't gone just yet, and Family Sharing isn't quite a necessity for those who don't wish to use it. Any unused allowance credit will remain in the recipient's account until it's used, while those who don't want to go the Family Sharing route or send money to people outside of their other family members can still send and use iTunes gift cards.
