How do you use apps on mulitple Windows phones?

[omegatek]

Hello,

I'm coming from iOS and Android phones so I'm pretty new to Windows phone.
I recently bought 4 Nokia Lumia 521's
1 for me, 1 for my wife and 2 for the teens.

When we used our Android phones, anytime I made a Google Play purchase, I could share it with our family. We each had our own gmail account, but we all shared 1 gmail account for any google play purchases.

I can't figure out how to do the same with these Windows Phones. I don't want to pay 4 times for the same app to be on all our phones.

Any advice on how to set these phones up is greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Paul May]

There is no way to do this on WP really except to use the same MS email account as the main account on all the phones. It is technically against the terms of service to use one MS account on multiple phones. Each device is meant to buy its own apps. There are issues with using the same MS account on all the phones, mainly being the sms and contact backup, all texts that are sent and received are backs up and then synced to all phones, so your child sends a text to a friend, it backs up to the server and syncs to all other devices.

EDIT: Technically this is also not supposed to happen on the other OS's you mentioned because it is also against their terms of service too.

 

[omegatek]

Shoot... guess I'll have to see how this experiment with Windows Phones goes.
If it becomes too costly, I'll have to switch back to Android. That would be unfortunate, cause I'm really liking the platform so far.

 

[Ashish Saraf1]

Hello,

I'm coming from iOS and Android phones so I'm pretty new to Windows phone.
I recently bought 4 Nokia Lumia 521's
1 for me, 1 for my wife and 2 for the teens.

When we used our Android phones, anytime I made a Google Play purchase, I could share it with our family. We each had our own gmail account, but we all shared 1 gmail account for any google play purchases.

I can't figure out how to do the same with these Windows Phones. I don't want to pay 4 times for the same app to be on all our phones.

Any advice on how to set these phones up is greatly appreciated, thanks!

Just create a new Id eg family.outlook.com

Buy an app and share on all phones !!

sent either from my Nokia Lumia 820 or HTC Desire HD

 

[hopmedic]

Just create a new Id eg family.outlook.com

Buy an app and share on all phones !!

sent either from my Nokia Lumia 820 or HTC Desire HD

You really shouldn't be encouraging people to violate Microsoft's terms of use. They are there for a reason. Additionally, as a developer, I can say that developers didn't write apps so that people could pirate them, which is what you're doing by using apps that are not rightfully obtained.

I'm not going to get pulled into another discussion like this one beyond this. The subject has been beaten to death.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Interesting.

Paul, are you sure it's against Android TOS?

 

[Tre Lawrence]

I was actually curious, so I went up to read Google Play TOS:

License to Use Products. Following payment of the applicable fees for a Product, you will have the non-exclusive right, for the period selected by you in the case of a purchase for a rental period, and in other cases for as long as Google and the applicable copyright holder have rights to provide you that Product, to download or stream, in each case, solely as expressly permitted by Google via the Play user interface and subject to the restrictions set forth in these Terms and associated policies, copies of the applicable Product to your Devices, and to view, use, and display the Product on your Devices or as otherwise authorized by Google as part of the Service for your personal, non-commercial use only.

Further down, it mentions that Google reserves the right to limit devices. So to this layman, it seems Google/Android allows it.

 

[Paul May]

Tre. This is a gray area here, because this falls into the realm of who owns the device, the person that bought it, the person that uses it, or the person that pays the bill? The TOS clearly states on YOUR devices, not YOUR FAMILY'S Devices. The TOS is meant to be for one owner who owns multiple devices, such as an android tablet and android phone, the app can be installed on both up to the allotted devices allowed.

Edit:
Here is a good link to a discussion on this subject.
http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8/206363-sharing-apps-between-two-accounts.html

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Tre. This is a gray area here, because this falls into the realm of who owns the device, the person that bought it, the person that uses it, or the person that pays the bill? The TOS clearly states on YOUR devices, not YOUR FAMILY'S Devices. The TOS is meant to be for one owner who owns multiple devices, such as an android tablet and android phone, the app can be installed on both up to the allotted devices allowed.

Edit:
Here is a good link to a discussion on this subject.
http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8/206363-sharing-apps-between-two-accounts.html

Thank you.

It's easy to understand how developers view this. I appreciate the link.

 

[Paul May]

It is a long conversation with good arguments on both sides. I agree that I don't think a family of 4 should have to pay full price for 4 copies of the app, maybe a 50% discount on every copy after the first one at full price would be a good incentive/fair. Or if MS introduced a family account where you buy family access for 2x the price of the app. Something that would generate more sales for the developers but still be fair to consumers.

 

[hopmedic]

It is a long conversation with good arguments on both sides. I agree that I don't think a family of 4 should have to pay full price for 4 copies of the app, maybe a 50% discount on every copy after the first one at full price would be a good incentive/fair. Or if MS introduced a family account where you buy family access for 2x the price of the app. Something that would generate more sales for the developers but still be fair to consumers.

This is a good suggestion that has been brought up, but unfortunately this isn't something Microsoft supports right now. Maybe in the future, but as a developer, this is something I could support. Freebies for the whole family because you bought one copy? No.

 

[sammy_boy]

Not sure if this is the same issue but does that go for someone having 2 WP devices on the same account?

For example, if I get a Lumia 520 as a backup/alternative to my 925, would i have to buy the Mehdoh Twitter app I have on my 925 again on the 520 or can I sync it across, along with any free apps I've downloaded?

Sorry if this is a silly question or off-topic, I'm new to WP too.

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 925 using Tapatalk

 

[klias1983]

Go to Windows Phone Store and download App Reinstaller. Once downloaded, follow the instructions on signing in and searching your app purchase history. You should be able to download any and all previous apps for all phones. I say this, because you would be logging in with the email address/account you used to purchase the apps. Hope that helps.

 

[hopmedic]

Not sure if this is the same issue but does that go for someone having 2 WP devices on the same account?

For example, if I get a Lumia 520 as a backup/alternative to my 925, would i have to buy the Mehdoh Twitter app I have on my 925 again on the 520 or can I sync it across, along with any free apps I've downloaded?

Sorry if this is a silly question or off-topic, I'm new to WP too.

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 925 using Tapatalk

No, you would not have to repurchase apps. App purchases are connected to your Microsoft account. You can install those apps on up to five devices. If you end up with more devices than that (some of us have), you go into your account online and delete phones from the account, and then you'll be able to add the apps to the next new phone.

The subject being discussed in this thread is not the same issue - that subject is people who want to buy an app and have their spouse/family/others be able to have the app free. Unless they are using the same Microsoft account (which violates the Terms of Use of a Microsoft account), they cannot "share" apps.

 

[John20212]

Shoot... guess I'll have to see how this experiment with Windows Phones goes.
If it becomes too costly, I'll have to switch back to Android. That would be unfortunate, cause I'm really liking the platform so far.

Maybe Microsoft could eventually do a family account thing like they have on Xbox, I believe.

But I somehow don't see how buying apps can be excessively expensive, unless you buy 10+ Xbox WP games. The prices have gone down also since WP7 started out.

As for the apps your kids use, make them buy it from their allowance, it might even be a teachable moment about being responsible what and how much they spend on something.

 

[Mr Lebowski]

Those who are without sin cast the first stone -sharing an app ?
How many people /(developers are people too :wink who sell -lets say a used car for $5000. dutifully report that as income ?
-which they are required to do by US Tax law.
Few...
Is sharing an app just as bad (or insignificant if that's your take) as that ?
Oh please.

 

[Paul May]

Those who are without sin cast the first stone -sharing an app ?
How many people /(developers are people too :wink who sell -lets say a used car for $5000. dutifully report that as income ?
-which they are required to do by US Tax law.
Few...
Is sharing an app just as bad (or insignificant if that's your take) as that ?
Oh please.

Where did you get the money to buy that car? Job? income with which you got taxed on already. Why should you be double taxed just because you turned cash into a car and then back into cash again without making profit? If you make a profit then you should be taxed on the profit.

 

[Mr Lebowski]

Where did you get the money to buy that car? Job? income with which you got taxed on already. Why should you be double taxed just because you turned cash into a car and then back into cash again without making profit? If you make a profit then you should be taxed on the profit.

I stand corrected.

Someone gives you a car, your parent, your GF etc and it's more than the allowable gift - and you sell it and it happens all the time and no one reports it as income.
And who reports ALL income on their taxes... Warren Buffet maybe. An app share is no big deal -we're not talking about bootlegging or counterfeiting an app.
Do you ever get your money back on an app that crashes, is "never" updated or is buggy or gets pulled from the store ? Heck no, you eat the loss.

 

[Paul May]

I stand corrected.

Someone gives you a car, your parent, your GF etc and it's more than the allowable gift - and you sell it and it happens all the time and no one reports it as income.
And who reports ALL income on their taxes... Warren Buffet maybe. An app share is no big deal -we're not talking about bootlegging or counterfeiting an app.
Do you ever get your money back on an app that crashes, is "never" updated or is buggy or gets pulled from the store ? Heck no, you eat the loss.

It may be not a big deal to you. That is your opinion which you are entitled to, but the developers and MS do count this as stealing/against TOS and their opinion is more important, in my opinion.

 

[Mr Lebowski]

I don't share apps but developers should refunds the price of the app when it's buggy & when they make false claims, but they don't.
The falsehood every developer says (who claim this) is LIVE updates are restricted by the OS and their "live" tile update every 30 minutes
-truth is not ONE app in the store has live updates EVERY 30 minutes, not a one, and it can be off 50 min to 2+ hours from the 30 min claim.
Every battery meter developer makes that claim which isn't true, so developers have no moral authority to
complain imo - #1 because of that falsehood and #2 because you never get a refund on an app that doesn't completely
function as it says it will, and that covers every app I've purchased and I bet every app sold.