Up until now, Google has only offered a family-friendly variant of Google Play Music. It allows you to purchase one music plan to cover all your family members, significantly reducing the overall cost of your subscription. Users have asked for more though, requesting a similar approach be offered for services like Google Play Books, Google Play Movies and the Play Store itself.
At its I/O developer’s conference earlier this year, Google announced it would honour the feedback and introduce a new “Family Library” feature. Family Library allows you to purchase apps once and grant your family members access to them, avoiding the cost of buying one popular app several times. This can quickly add up when purchasing pricier titles like games and guides.
The feature launched on July 2 and should be rolling out to users now. It’s simple to get started with Family Library. The person who will take on responsibility for the family and payment can create a new family from their Google account. Up to six family members can then be added as required.
Once they’ve been added to the family group, the individual users will be able to head to the Play Store and find the app they want to download. If it’s already been purchased for the family, they’ll be able to download it without having to pay again, effectively turning the app’s listing into that of a free app. It’s the simple solution families have been requesting for years.
Google has updated its Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement to explain how the system works to developers. Users are now granted a non-exclusive, worldwide and perpetual license to use purchased apps and games on their devices. Users who have the role of a family manager can purchase an app or game once and share it with other people in their family.
Google said family groups will be subject to “reasonable limits” to prevent abuse of the family sharing features. It has not disclosed what the limits are or how it determines when the mechanism is being abused to obtain paid apps for free.
To aid users who have already bought apps, developers will be able to optionally enable Family Library for previous purchases. If a developer chooses to turn this option on, you’ll be able to add apps to your Family Library even if you bought them before the feature was introduced.
Google Play Family Library has the potential to considerably reduce the cost of buying apps and games used by everyone in a family. You’ll no longer need to purchase multiple copies of popular games just so children can use them on their own devices, giving you more money to buy extra content with in Google’s store.
