Apple’s new service pack, Apple One, has started showing up to Apple users, bundling a variety of subscription combinations, including Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple News Plus, iCloud storage, and Apple Fitness Plus, just unveiled at one price.
The move, announced at Apple’s September online event, follows Apple’s increased investment in services over the past three years.
Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about Apple One, including costs, free trial periods, different plans, and available services. We’ll also let you know if your subscription will save you money.
What is Apple One?
Apple One is a subscription service that blends existing Apple services, allowing you to simultaneously pay a monthly fee for more services.
It’s a bit similar to Amazon’s Prime services package. You don’t need to subscribe to Apple One to access these services.
If Apple TV Plus is the only thing that interests you, you can still pay five dollars a month as usual for that.
When is Apple One available?
Now. At its September event, Apple executives said the Apple One would launch this fall.
But last month, during the tech giant’s quarterly earnings report, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the package would launch on Friday, October 30.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri previously broke the news to Bloomberg in an interview, in which he also said Fitness Plus would arrive later this quarter.
How Much Does the Apple One Cost? Is There a Free Trial?
Apple One offers three monthly plans (see below), ranging from $15 to $30. A 30-day free trial is available.
Apple One Plan Details
The launch is currently at an early stage, and not everyone sees the new subscription option on the Apple One. Here’s how to make sure it’s available to you:
- Open the App Store
- Tap your profile picture in the top right corner
- Touch subscriptions
- Look for a label that promotes Apple One.
You can also check the following steps in the Settings app:
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap your name at the top.
- Touch subscriptions
- Look for a label that promotes Apple One.
You can also open the webpage in Safari on your iPhone or iPad.
How Do I Register for Apple One?
Sign up for Apple One on your iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, or TV. iOS 14, iPadOS 14, or TVOS 14.
Later this fall, you can connect to your Mac with macOS Big Sur. To sign in, go to Settings, tap your Apple ID, then Subscriptions. Tap Get Apple One and choose the plan you want.
Suppose you sign up for an individual Apple service. In that case, Apple will automatically recommend that the Apple One subscription be of better value, taking into account any other services you are already paying for.
What Do the Different Apple One Plans Entail?
The three plans vary in terms of the number of services, the number of people who can reach them, and the amount of iCloud storage allowed.
Here’s how they breakdown (and you can read the full comparison of each Apple One plan here):
- Individual plan: $15 (£15, AU$20) per month for four services for one person: Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, and iCloud (50 gigabytes of storage)
- Family plan: $20 (£20, AU$26) for 4 services for six family members: Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, and iCloud (200GB of storage)
- Premier Plan: $30 (£30, AU$40) for 6 services for six family members: Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, iCloud (2 terabytes of storage), Apple News Plus, and Apple Fitness Plus (in 100 countries and regions where they are available)
What Do You Get for Each Service?
Here’s what you obtain with each service available in Apple One packages and their cost in the US.
Apple Music: Apple’s music streaming service, your alternative to Spotify, includes 70 million songs from famous artists without ads.
Autonomous cost: $10 per month; $15 per month per family.
Apple TV Plus: Apple’s movie and TV streaming service now offers 30 original shows, including comedies, dramas, documentaries, and talk shows.
Freelance cost: $5 per month.
Apple Arcade: Apple’s mobile game subscription service includes over 130 games that you can play on iPhone ($599 at Apple), iPad ($275 at Back Market), Mac, iPod Touch ($160 at Amazon) and Apple TV USD in Best Buy).
Freelance cost: $5 per month.
icloud storage: Apple’s cloud storage service automatically gives you 5 gigabytes of free storage and lets you upgrade to get more space for your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, or PC.
Standalone cost: Free up to 5GB, $1 per month for 50GB, $3 per month for 200GB, or $10 per month for 2TB.
Apple News Plus: Apple’s news service gives you access to articles from hundreds of magazines and newspapers.
Freelance cost: $10 per month.
Apple Fitness Plus: Apple’s new fitness streaming service, launching later this year, features guided workouts designed for the Apple Watch ($399 at Apple), similar to Peloton Digital and Fitbit Premium.
Freelance cost: $10 per month.
Will Apple One Save Me Money?
It depends on how many of the above services you have already subscribed to or want to subscribe to. If you subscribe to each individually, you will pay at least $40 per month, so the Premier plan would also pay off.
According to Apple, the Apple One individual plan offers savings of over $6 per month compared to standard monthly rates.
In comparison, the Family plan offers savings of over $8 per month, and the Premier plan offers savings of over $8 per month. $25 per month or more at $300 per year.
People are most interested in the least visible service: the iCloud service for photos and backups.
It’s already a popular service that virtually anyone who stores photos, videos, or downloads music needs.
If you’re already paying $10 monthly for 2TB of iCloud storage and subscribing to Apple Music, the Premier plan may be worth getting both and everything in between.
Do you need to register?
Sign up if …
You are already in the Apple ecosystem.
If each of your devices is from Apple and you have an Apple Watch, iPhone, Macbook, iPad, and more, you’re probably ready for the Apple One.
Many services only work on your devices, but they will all work best on Apple products.
You don’t need all Apple products to use the service, but if you have plenty of them, you’ll get the most out of the experience.
You’ll need, for example, an Apple Watch for Fitness Plus, and you’ll be able to easily play Apple Arcade games on your tablet and phone if you have both.
You already have most or all of the services.
If you’ve already signed up for all Apple One services, signing up for the program itself is no problem, as you will save money on the plan compared to individual prices.
Even if you only have most of the apps, but not all of them, it pays off—the price of the package will likely be equal to the amount you pay now, so you will get an additional app for free.
You don’t use a lot of fun apps.
The Apple One could be perfect if you’re among the few who haven’t subscribed to many entertainment apps, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Pass, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc.
It’s all in one place for many different media forms, with games, movies, TV shows, and music covering even the individual level.
This also extends to cloud storage – if you’re an Apple device user who needs a little digital storage space but still doesn’t pay for another service, it may be worth considering.
Do not register if …
You are an Android user.
Many Apple One apps, like Apple Arcade, only work on company devices. If you have an Android phone, you cannot take full advantage of this service.
Even if you are not loyal to the company and your devices fall between the Windows, Apple, and Android lines, you will be limited to what you can do on different devices, which is not exactly what you won’t expect from an all-inclusive package.
Instead, it may be worth opting for services that work on all devices, such as Netflix or Spotify.
At a time when all business has their subscription service, it can be too easy to think that there are “too many” of them, and with the Apple One bundled together, they could easily be straw camels for humans with loads.
If you already own Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, and more, you probably have more TV shows and movies than you could ever watch, so you don’t need Apple TV Plus. Likewise, Apple Music is not required when you have Spotify, YouTube Music, or Deezer because most people will find that the music service is sufficient.
So if you already have monthly bills pouring out of your bank account like water from a broken mug, you might not need an Apple One.
You only want one of the apps.
If you’ve looked at the apps Apple One offers and found only one or two that interest you, you might be better off subscribing to them individually.
Apple One offers a reduced subscription price, but that only applies to the cost of all its applications individually; if you don’t want them all, you’ll pay more for the services you don’t use.
