Sharing streaming services

November 19, 2023 2:18 PM

I'm interested in sharing streaming services with friends but don't want to sign up and then find out that's not allowed. It appears to me that Apple One can be shared with friends who don't live together. Yes? No? What about Crave (which I think is Canadian)? Any downsides to sharing Apple One or Crave? Thank you.
posted by dobbs to Technology (8 answers total)

The Apple One family plan (“Premier”) can be shared among any 5 people, no apparent restriction on simultaneous usage. When you add people to your “family” you also get the option of sharing location with them, but that is off by default (as it should be!). Drawback is that it is US $38/month! But Apple News also gets your whole “family” access to a bunch of magazines and newspapers that are otherwise paywalled: New Yorker, most notably. Plus cloud storage, apple fitness, music, etc etc.
posted by xueexueg at 3:58 PM on November 19, 2023

I have one user of a Disney family plan and had one user of a Spotify family plan across borders with no problems. I have never researched the terms, but they didn't seem to be policing location.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 6:13 PM on November 19, 2023

I shared a Crave account with one other friend up until about a year ago, and never had any issues.
posted by mekily at 9:06 PM on November 19, 2023

Apple has no restrictions on who can be in a family group except the accounts all have to be from the same country. (Which is why about 10 times a year I not so subtly suggest my Canadian husband get a US account already and he not so subtly suggests where I can take my suggestion.)
posted by tubedogg at 12:56 AM on November 20, 2023

I can't say anything about what is officially ALLOWED, or if they will begin policing location at some point, but I currently share Max, Spotify, Paramount, Peacock, and Hulu accounts without a problem.
posted by metasarah at 4:54 AM on November 20, 2023

Okay, thanks folks.

I do have one more question about logistics in regards to Apple One. My understanding is that it allows the 5 chosen ones to share Apple TV, Music, etc. However, it also says they share iCloud storage and that you cannot see each others stuff stored there. That's all well and good but it doesn't explain how this works in the sense that if the people already have existing iCloud accounts. What happens? Does their existing iCloud stuff move over? Does it stay in place and they now have two places to access? Does it cease to exist?

In addition, as the person who creates the "family," do I have the power to simply not share the iCloud storage but share all the other things?

Drawback is that it is US $38/month!

In Canada there are different tiers. Cheapest is $29 Canadian a month and most expensive is $45. The cheaper one doesn't include fitness or news and has 200gb vs 2TB of storage.
posted by dobbs at 5:37 AM on November 20, 2023

I have Apple One that I share with my boyfriend and parents. My understanding is it just increases their own storage capacity, nothing on the account changes. Basically just like connecting an external hard drive.
posted by girlmightlive at 8:17 AM on November 20, 2023

Your credit card will me become the main form of payment for your App Store account if you share Apple One. And if you don’t trust your “family” enough to not spend a bunch of your money and do the other things you will be allowing them to do as members of your family, well, maybe they really aren’t your family after all.

Internally we called this “Dorm Mode”. And if it sounds like it was done this way on purpose to incentive people to only do Family Sharing with their actual family: no shit.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 9:55 AM on November 20, 2023