Google Play Family Library Allows Cross Platform App, Book And Music Sharing Between Six Accounts

Google Play is trying to become more family-friendly. Most families have multiple devices in their households and it can be frustrating attempting to share media between family members. Google just released Google Play Family Library which allows up to six family members to share purchases on Google Play.

Customers can now buy eligible apps, games, movies, TV shows, and books in the Play Store, which can now be shared across multiple devices for no additional fee. Customers need to simply add their purchases to their “Family Library”. All purchases added to Family Library are supported in all Android devices, while movies, TV shows, and books can be accessed on iOS devices and on web browsers.

Customers can also choose what to keep in their personal library and what to place in the Family Library. This means little ones will not have any access content such as rated-R movies. Customers may also select a specific credit card for the Family Library and a different credit card for their personal libraries. Parents will also be able to approve of all of their children’s purchases.

Music-loving families can subscribe to the Google Play Music Plan -- for $14.99 a month, up to six family members can streams songs on demand. This feature was launched this past December, however, it is now available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Google Play has made quite a few changes recently. Google rolled out a new delta algorithm “bsdiff” that reduces patch sizes by 50% or more. Google also made information about data usage and download sizes more clear. Users can now see the actual download size, not just the APK file size. If the user already has downloaded an app, they will only see the update size.

Google Play has also made it easier to read comic books. Last week Google introduced Bubble Zoom which identifies speech bubbles and enlarges them on the page thanks to machine learning and image recognition technology. Comics with the Bubble Zoom feature could potentially be added to the Family Library as well.