HOW TO Set up Family Sharing

1 Open up Settings

When you open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, you’ll see that Apple has done a little bit of decorating. The iCloud bit is the same as before, but the Family section has been moved to a more prominent position below it.

2 See your family

Tap on Family and you’ll be taken to the new Family page, which has thumbnails of you and your family members (if you’ve already got them set up) and then sections for each of you. There’s also the new Family Checklist.

3 Check it out

The Family Checklist area is designed to make the often convoluted Family Sharing options much simpler and more straightforward. As you can see, it provides fast access to the key settings and features.

4 Set the limits

Say your youngest has their first iPhone, and you’re wary about who they can call, and who can call them. In Family, tap the child’s name then Screen Time > Communication Limits to limit conversations to friends and family.

5 Set parental controls

The next page, Parental Controls, is more familiar. You can choose to enter your child’s age and set age limits based on that, or you can do what we’ve done here and set your own custom age limits for different things.

6 Share subscriptions

If you go back to the Family page and tap on Subscriptions. you’ll see a list of the apps and services that you’ve shared with family members. iCloud isn’t shared by default, but if you have iCloud+ or Apple One you can share it from here.

7 Manage subscriptions

If you scroll down to Subscriptions For Family and tap on that option, you’ll be taken to the App Store and shown a list of apps and services you own or subscribe to that you can share with family members.

8 Add a Recovery Contact

This is a useful one; you can nominate someone as a recovery contact, who can give the okay if your family member forgets their password or device passcode. The recovery contact must be 13+ and have an Apple device.

9 Say who pays

Be careful with this one: if you enable Purchase Sharing then your whole family’s purchases are charged to your payment method, such as your debit card. Choose Stop Purchase Sharing if you don’t want to share your purchases.