HBO Max doesn’t currently offer a family plan but that doesn’t mean a subscription can’t be shared with others. If wanting to share with people outside the same home then there are some additional caveats to be aware of. For sharing with family members in the same home, it is as simple as setting up some additional profiles.
HBO Max is not one of the cheapest standalone subscriptions around, although it is now cheaper than it used to be. The standard subscription still costs $15 per month, the same as the original HBO service did, but there is now also an ad-supported plan available. So long as the consumer is willing to watch commercials, the ‘with ads’ HBO Max plan costs just $9.99 per month, making it a much cheaper option, and especially if sharing with other people.
Officially, there is no HBO Max family plan available. A subscription is only available to individuals and someone will need to assume responsibility for the individual account. However, HBO Max does allow account owners to create up to 5 profiles for each subscription. Each of these profiles can be used by a different family member and can be classified as an adult or kid profile to further tune the profile to the needs of the user.
With additional profiles set up, each family member will be able to personalize the experience similar to a family account. This includes adding videos to an individual’s personalized watch list and the ability to keep track of what the individual member has already watched. In spite of the similarities with a family plan, there are some aspects that account holders will want to take into consideration before setting up porfiles.
Before sharing HBO Max with others
One of the benefits of a family account is how easy it is to share a streaming subscription with others. While profiles offers a similar experience to a family plan, it is not exactly the same. The main difference is the log in process and this is where HBO Max’s ability to share with other people may not prove as useful to some account holders.
Unlike with a family account, anyone sharing their HBO Max subscription will also need to share their username and password. If sharing with others in the same home, this is not necessarily going to be an issue considering the account holder can simply log in to any devices in the home and help other family members set up their own profile. However, if considering sharing with others in another household, then that information will likely have to be shared with them. Sharing such information also makes it possible for other people to access the user’s account, potentially raising a privacy issue. Those with the log in details will even be able to make changes to the account, including upgrading or downgrading the subscription.
Another point to be aware of is simultaneous streams. Like many other streaming services, HBO Max does allow a single subscription to be streamed on multiple devices at the same time. However, the exact number of simultaneous streams is less than the number of profiles that are available. Therefore, the more people a single subscription is shared with, the higher the chance that the original account holder might run into issues when attempting to use the service themselves.
HBO Max family plan summary
HBO Max does not offer a family plan. Anyone signing up to the service will need to create an individual account and choose between the ad-supported or ad-free plans. However, HBO Max does come with profile support making it much easier to share a single subscription with others. With up to five profiles available, each user can create their own custom HBO Max experience, including their own watch list.
In reality, profile support is designed for the use within the same home where household members are likely to be watching HBO Max on the same devices. While it is possible to share the subscription with family members in another home, this does come with some additional risks. Most notably, providing others with account-level access. Due to this, HBO Max account holders will need to consider whether the use of profiles is enough of a family plan replacement for their individual needs.
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