Home Sharing vs. Family Sharing?

[learning2]

OK, so itunes is asking if I want to update to the new version of "Family Sharing". We are already using "Home Sharing," but we're not heavy users of this feature (two adults and one teen).

Mostly, my spouse got the first family ipad and iphone, and as other devices joined the family it was a good way to seed the new device with apps and music. If one of us buys an expensive app, we do offer to share it with the rest of the family. Otherwise, we are rarely all running itunes at the same time, so we don't see each other's stuff all that much.

Can someone explain to me:

What is the difference between "Home Sharing" and "Family Sharing"? Does "Home Sharing" cease to exist now, or do these types of sharing co-exist?

 

[learning2]

They co-exist. Home sharing can let music and video be shared while on the same home network. I don't believe that it involves apps or ebooks. Family sharing involves everyone having their own Apple ID but they are linked by family sharing and all media including video, music, apps and ebooks can be shared (developer can opt out of allowing this). It is also not constrained by being on the same network.

Actually, we share apps on Home Sharing all the time. It sounds like Family Sharing then adds not having to be on the same network (not an issue for us) and subtracts some apps (that don't have developer approval.

If Home Sharing is staying the way it is, it may meet our needs just fine. (We're not all on IOS 8 yet.)

 

[learning2]

So while I was being cautious and making sure I wasn't going to break anything, spouse just went ahead an updated. Nothing broke!