Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will be ending its support for iTunes Allowances program by May 25, as announced by the company on Thursday. Users will not be able to create any new accounts and the remaining credits in the already existing ones will stay in the recipient’s account.
The program, mostly used by parents to transfer money to their children, is being cut off without any official reason, as the tech giant published a very short and direct statement on its website.
As an alternative to the 2003-program, users can manage iTunes purchases made by the family using Family Sharing, the company added in their post. This alternative to iTunes Allowances lets up to six people share media purchases, including iTunes music, movies, TV shows and apps, as reported by Techcrunch.
Family Sharing has, compared to the iTunes Allowance, the option of creating an account to kids under 13, which the previous program did not have. The only condition is that these kid have to be part of a family group and their parents can use parental control on them.
In addition, gifts can also be managed using iTunes Gifts, that functions just like a traditional gift card, but instead it transfers money to the recipient’s account without using any real-life product or code. For the gifts, there is money, books, audiobooks, music, movies, tv shows and apps available.
The down site of the shutdown
Even though Family Sharing can replace the ending program, there are some features that did not cover and that they will be missed by some of its customers, mostly the parents. Family Sharing does not support the in-app purchase, which is a common ask for kids and iTunes Allowances did.
Parents also have to approve every iTunes purchase request from their children, but they do actually have the option to disable the “Ask to Buy” button, although it may not be the best as it is known that children can spend thousands of dollars in the games without their parents knowing.
Source: Techcrunch