Dumb Question: People Sharing iTunes Accounts

Rat-Boy said:

So, does anyone know how this will effect iCloud, etc?

Me, my wife and my son all share one iTunes account on 3 iPhones with one Apple ID.

How is this going to work?

When I text someone, due to iMessage, will people think it is my wife?

So many questions... LOL...

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thats the $1000 question, I'm in the same boat as you, wife, daughter and my self all share 1 itunes account.

I don't think anyone knows for sure yet, and I feel like Steve should have talked about this when he was presenting iCloud today. We'll have to wait and see how things are on the final release. But I think Apple will basically force people to have separate accounts, seeing as how they're offering a free @me.com address with iCloud. It would also make things a lot easier for people to have separate accounts as far as syncing goes.

I am totally in the same boat. My wife and I have the same apple ID for apps and games. She uses her own apple ID for gamecenter purposes.

It would be fine if they forced the use of seperate apple IDs....if they somehow allowed you to share you apps/games with your immediate family. Like I could see them allowing you to share you apps/games with your family somehow?

IDK it just seems like one of those things that Apple will be like ... wow you shouldn't have been doing that way all this time ... tough ****! lol.

As far as iMessage goes...
In the settings for iMessage there is a section called "Receive At". In here you can add and remove emails that are associated ALONG side the phone number..
So I think it will try the phone number to contact you first. If that doesn't work it will use one of the emails you added.
By default the email along with the phone number is the apple id.

Honestly, I would totally see Apple doing that. Cuz honestly I don't think they ever wanted to allow apple ID sharing between family members.

It's a bunch of crap ... they seriously need to figure out an elegant solution to family's using iPhone's. Cuz I agree the biggest use case if a bunch of family members have iPhone's is for the mom or dad to have a apple ID and the kid's and/or husband or wife to use the same ID so it's all in one place.

I don't think is going to go our way tho.

VPrime said:

As far as iMessage goes...
In the settings for iMessage there is a section called "Receive At". In here you can add and remove emails that are associated ALONG side the phone number..
So I think it will try the phone number to contact you first. If that doesn't work it will use one of the emails you added.
By default the email along with the phone number is the apple id.

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Hmmm so you could change it to a different email? I wonder how that works....

I'm in the same suitation as well.

This might give an indication as to how multiple accounts would work. In the iCloud settings, you have your Apple ID just like in previous iOS's, but then you set up an @me.com account for your individual phone.

luked14 said:

This might give an indication as to how multiple accounts would work. In the iCloud settings, you have your Apple ID just like in previous iOS's, but then you set up an @me.com account for your individual phone.

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I would delete that pic as it seems to have ur personal email in it. Just sayin

spidertaker23 said:

Hmmm so you could change it to a different email? I wonder how that works....

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Well, you can add and remove emails right from the phone. But remove is greyed out on the default email. I am assuming if you add another email account you can remove the original. But I never tried (don't have an available email and don't feel like signing up for one).

I am guessing it is very similar to how face time works on the mac/ipod/ipad.

I'm in the same boat here. Multiple devices under the same iTunes store account with different users. I hope they will have an elegant solution.

As mentioned, maybe they should just keep iCloud/iMessage similar to Facetime and associate it to a distinct .me email address and keep purchases to the iTunes account.

I also have a Gmail.com address for my iTunes account. How will that be handled and migrated to a new .me address? I've been a mobileme member for some time as well and have a .me address already. Will the accounts be merged? Its a complicated situation and I guess we'll have to await word. I REALLY don't want to purchase apps like Slingplayer (30 bucks) again for two devices just to gain the extra functionality.

Rat-Boy said:

Separate accounts?

So, now, my wife, me, and my son all have to buy the same songs 3 times?

Lord I hope that is NOT what you mean.

If that happens, I will be pretty livid.

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Hmm.. good point, I didn't think of that, sorry
That would be pretty annoying, but even if you're forced to make separate accounts, you can send your wife and your son the song you bought by creating a AAC version in iTunes which will let you share that song, or even album with anyone. But I could see how that would be annoying to do :/

Count me in the same boat. Wife and 2 daughters all share content using 1 Apple ID. We have 3 iPhones, 2 iPads, 2 iTouches, and 2 iPods.

For those arguing that Apple would not approve of families sharing content, I direct you to read up on Apple's website about "Homesharing." Apple absolutely understands households use the same Apple ID tied to a single credit card. It makes no sense at all to make someone buy 3 or 4 times the same song/app.

I can buy a CD, rip it, and share it with my immediate family. Apple also understand iTouches and iPads are in the hands of children...why would we now allow them to have adult purchased content in the iCloud cue for downloading. Think explicit songs, sex apps, etc. These apps/songs are now sitting in each respective iStore for anyone to view. This is totally UNSAT!!!

We are also in the same boat. I sure wish I understood it better. I know of quite a few other families who also share an apple id as a family and ARE NOT tech savvy to say the least, so I gotta think Apple has a solution for this seemingly common scenario.

Since the new itunes TOA only allows you to change apple ids per device once every 90 days and iMessage allows you to specify a different email (versus requiring you to use your apple id) I am hoping it is setup like facetime, whereas all devices are logged in with that one apple id but each device has their own iCloud account (.me). Or something like to that effect.

Perhaps some Apple inquiry/feedback is in order.

iggypod said:

We are also in the same boat. I sure wish I understood it better. I know of quite a few other families who also share an apple id as a family and ARE NOT tech savvy to say the least, so I gotta think Apple has a solution for this seemingly common scenario.

Since the new itunes TOA only allows you to change apple ids per device once every 90 days and iMessage allows you to specify a different email (versus requiring you to use your apple id) I am hoping it is setup like facetime, whereas all devices are logged in with that one apple id but each device has their own iCloud account (.me). Or something like to that effect.

Perhaps some Apple inquiry/feedback is in order.

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I'm starting to agree. If you look in Settings under "store" only Music, Apps, & Books are listed. Directly below them, is the Apple ID we all share.

As such, I'm hopeful the other 6 apps (remember, there were 9 iCloud apps) are tied to the @me.com email address. This would make the most sense and would allow individuals to sync only their devices (iPhone to iPad, etc.).

Since the only "purchased" content is really from Music, Apps, & Books it makes since to use the same Apple ID. The only issues with the current implementation is:

1. Can't remove useless, unwanted content from the cue (think of all those junk free apps you've downloaded and subsequently deleted).
2. Can't prevent your children's iDevice from viewing all purchased content. I've check the parental controls, and it will prevent them from installing questionable content, but it will not remove it from their cue.
3. For the hundreds of songs purchased by those in the family with different music tastes, it makes searching for content more tedious on the iDevice because everything is in the cue. We really need a way to remove content from the cue.

If the (@me.com) email address allows individual device synchronization, for the remaining non-media content this will be a good implementation.

Only time will tell.

iggypod said:

Since the new itunes TOA only allows you to change apple ids per device once every 90 days

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I didn't notice that when I read the summary of changes of the new terms. What exactly can't we do anymore?

Glad I didn't have to make my own thread about this. I am, too, in the same boat. I hate that I can't play games against my girlfriend though since we share the same Apple ID and thus same name in Game Center.

I'd love to beat her in High Noon some time

brayhite said:

Glad I didn't have to make my own thread about this. I am, too, in the same boat. I hate that I can't play games against my girlfriend though since we share the same Apple ID and thus same name in Game Center.

I'd love to beat her in High Noon some time

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Actually you can share an apple id and have separate game center accounts, my family does this.

iggypod said:

Actually you can share an apple id and have separate game center accounts, my family does this.

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Oh? I did not know this.

And I think iMessages will be implemented in a per username basis. So I can go to iMessages on my iPhone, login with whatever username I chose (probably restricted to Apple IDs and @me.com names), and pick up the messaging where it left off. So I can go from my iPad to my iPhone messaging other iDevice users seamlessly, only requiring a login if I'm not logged in already.

Or at least hopefully that's how it works.

brayhite said:

Oh? I did not know this.

And I think iMessages will be implemented in a per username basis. So I can go to iMessages on my iPhone, login with whatever username I chose (probably restricted to Apple IDs and @me.com names), and pick up the messaging where it left off. So I can go from my iPad to my iPhone messaging other iDevice users seamlessly, only requiring a login if I'm not logged in already.

Or at least hopefully that's how it works.

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Yes, now you CAN go beat her at high noon.

There are far more questions than answers about IDs right now. I agree with cosmopilots thoughts.

iggypod said:

Yes, now you CAN go beat her at high noon.

There are far more questions than answers about IDs right now. I agree with cosmopilots thoughts.

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So do I, but can anyone confirm that it works like this?

i thought imessaged worked through the sms app so would it just be linked to your phone number and if your texting someon with an iphone it would just know. and the blue bubble appears. maybe im not understanding i message.

dave420 said:

I didn't notice that when I read the summary of changes of the new terms. What exactly can't we do anymore?

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The TOA states you can 'switch' the apple ID associated with a device once every 90 days.

This is why I think (hope) our families could still share an ID yet, with each device having it's own iCloud ID (.me) - kinda like how FaceTime and Game Center works.

That TOA text is in this post.