If you have a lot of photos, videos, and other files to back up on your Apple devices, you may well have decided to fork over $0.99 per month for 50GB of iCloud storage—or more to get additional space.
As soon as you pay for iCloud storage though, you’re also signed up for iCloud+, and there are a lot of features behind that plus symbol. Make sure you know all about the additional perks you get included with your subscription.
These features can be accessed by opening Settings (on an iPhone or iPad) or System Settings (on a Mac), then selecting your account name and iCloud.
iCloud Private Relay
iCloud Private Relay is a privacy feature that hides your device’s IP address when you’re browsing the web with Safari—that’s the information that tells websites where in the world you are, and which can be used to build an anonymized profile of you for advertisers to target.
In addition, your browsing data gets encrypted, making it much harder for anyone else to snoop on your online activities. You can, if you want, share a general location with websites to make it easier to use services like maps and weather forecasts.
While it’s pretty close to being a Virtual Private Network (VPN), it’s not quite the same, so you’ll still need a VPN to stay as safe and secure as possible. iCloud Private Relay doesn’t offer protection that’s as comprehensive, and it can’t spoof your location.
Hide My Email
You’ve no doubt noticed that many websites, apps, and services are keen to get hold of your email at the earliest possible opportunity—with that email then being used to spam your inbox with special offers and updates you don’t really want.
That’s where Apple’s Hide My Email comes in. It’ll generate random and unique email addresses for you that you can give out as needed, which means the apps and services you’re signing up for can’t see your actual address.
All messages sent to these Hide My Email addresses will appear in your inbox as normal, and you can reply to them and filter them as needed. Whenever you’re done with a particular account, you can simply turn off the email address.
Custom Email Domain
If you’re a member of the iCloud+ club, you can also use a custom email domain—something like [email protected]—with your iCloud email services. Up to five custom domains are supported, and up to three addresses for each domain.
The actual domain name itself costs extra: You can either buy it from a third-party provider and give Apple the details, or pay for one through Apple. There’s more information here on how to purchase a domain through Apple.
Apple Invites
Launched in February, Apple Invites is a dedicated app for arranging events and making sure people get to them. You can put together listings that include location, timings, a guest list, and even photos once the event is underway.
Anyone can respond to Apple Invites, even Android and Windows users, but only iCloud+ subscribers can create events and manage the necessary details of them. You can download Apple Invites for iPhone for free.
HomeKit Secure Video
HomeKit is Apple’s smart home platform, and if you buy any HomeKit-compatible security camera, it’ll come with a bonus extra if you’re paying for iCloud+: You can store secure and encrypted video recordings in the cloud (specifically, iCloud).
Every security camera will ping your phone when motion is detected and let you tune into a live view, but most of the time you need to pay to keep archives of recorded events. With iCloud+, it’s included as one of the perks.
Family Sharing
Remember that you can share your iCloud+ subscription with up to five family members besides yourself. You’ll each get a private slice of the cloud storage to use, and access to all the apps and features mentioned above.
To set up Family Sharing, select your account name in Settings (iOS and iPadOS) or System Settings (macOS), then pick Family and follow the instructions. Other subscriptions, like Apple Music, can also be shared between family members as well.
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