North Raleigh Today

Amazon has introduced Amazon Family, a service designed to help users manage and share their Amazon services, subscriptions, and digital content within a family setting. Previously known as Amazon Household, this feature allows families to set up shopping profiles for each adult member and share select Prime benefits.

Amazon Family acts as a central hub for managing shared services. Users can access it through their account settings on the website or via the Amazon Shopping app. The service allows users to add family members by selecting "Add Adult," "Add a Teen," or "Add a Child." Adults can join by email invitation or by signing up together, while teens require an email invite which they must accept. No invitation is necessary for adding children.

The platform accommodates up to five additional people: one adult with their own Amazon account, up to four teens aged 13-17, and up to four children who cannot shop on Amazon.

Prime benefits that can be shared among family members include fast, free delivery; Prime Video streaming; access to eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, comics, and manga; exclusive deals events like Prime Day; and everyday discounts on thousands of items.

Amazon Family also offers personalized shopping experiences through individual shopping profiles that provide tailored recommendations based on personal history. A Family Library enables easy sharing of digital content such as Kindle eBooks and audiobooks across family members without purchasing multiple copies.

Parental controls are available through individual child profiles in the Amazon Kids Parent Dashboard. Parents can manage accessible content on Fire tablets and Kindle e-readers by approving books, games, videos, and setting screen-time limits.

Adults in an Amazon Family cannot see each other's orders or content if they use separate accounts. They can review teen orders' items, shipping details, payment information and set spending limits without approval. Adults can also manage children's viewed content using the Parent Dashboard.

With Alexa-enabled devices linked to an Amazon Family account, users can switch between accounts using voice commands like “Alexa, switch accounts” or inquire about the current account with “Alexa, which account is this?” These devices allow viewing of Amazon Photos on Echo screens and sharing notifications across all linked accounts unless turned off individually by each member.

Setting up an Amazon Family is free but requires at least one adult member with a Prime membership to share its benefits.