New in iOS 11.3: approving family purchases using Face ID

Among the more than a dozen new features and enhancements coming to your iPhone and iPad as part of this Spring’s release of iOS 11.3 is an expansion of Face ID on iPhone X, which can finally be used to approve family purchases.

This wasn’t possible before, angering iPhone X owners who use iOS’s Family Sharing.

With Family Sharing, the family organizer can share their purchases, iCloud storage, Apple Music subscription and more with up to five additional users. A feature called Ask to Buy is especially useful, making it a breeze for parents to approve their kids’ family purchases.

When it’s on, the family organizer sees a push notification on their device as soon as their kid taps the Buy button in App Store, iTunes Store or iBooks Store. A parent can then approve or reject the purchase from the notification.

On devices with Touch ID, approving a family purchase is done by scanning a finger. iPhone X, however, did not support approving family purchases using Face ID at launch. This is going to change when iOS 11.3 releases for public consumption sometime this Spring.

iOS 11.3 does not seem to have a related toggle to turn this feature on or off.

Instead, enabling iTunes and App Store purchases in Face ID settings will prompt your iPhone X to ask whether or not you’d like to approve family purchases using Face ID the first time an Ask to Buy notification appears.

Are you glad about this small yet important change in iOS 11.3?

Let us know in the comments section down below.