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Comment by semenko | Hacker News Reader

Yet another service not available to Google Apps users. :/

"You can only set up a family group with a personal Google Account, not a Google for Work or Google for Education account"

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They're lazy. I use Google Apps for personal, family members. Google asked a few times if I'm sure I'm not a business. I said I'm not. In the end, without asking anymore they stopped billing VAT because I'm a business. Well... OK.

You might want to report that.

Knowingly profiting from crimes is still illegal, so you might be liable, too.

I doubt it's a crime to not charge VAT.

Tax fraud/evasion is very definitely a crime. VAT is just another tax.

If you can’t prove that you told Google that you are a private person using a business account, you might end up having to repay and end up with a fine.

I agree.

This reason made me to create new gmail account in order to use Project Fi. I really don't understand why Google releases product for gmail user only. They advertised google apps for work as custom domain at first.

It's a family plan...? Why would you expect to be able to use a Google for Work or Google for Education account?

Many such accounts are used by individuals for personal purposes. It's the only non-hokey way to use Gmail with a vanity domain.

By now, many of us have app and content purchases tied to those accounts, and migrating from Gmail/Drive/Photos isn't practical, so we're stuck getting new Google features later or never.

Is forwarding mail to your personal gmail account from the domain registrar, postfix, or whatever else you use considered hokey? It works really nice in all instances I've done that. It even replys from the same address mail was sent to once you verify you own the email address.

That only solves one thing, email. How about the email address that appears when you want calendar invites, or hangouts, or drive sharing.

The only good way to use a custom domain with Google is to pay. Clearly a lot of us are happy doing so. I know I pay around £200 per year to Google for my one account, the storage and media subscriptions (music, magazines, etc)... But for this I get incomplete features (Now) and locked out of some services (Play Family).

Forwarding to gmail often ends up with the forwarding mail server getting blocked from gmail, because you end up forwarding spam you've been sent as well.

In my Google Apps control panel I can declare a "gateway" where mail will come from which avoids this: https://support.google.com/a/answer/60730?hl=en

Back when Apps for Work was "Google Apps for Your Domain", non-business/vanity use was part of the marketing.

I use (paid) Google Apps for personal & family stuff - and this seems like a pretty arbitrary restriction on Play Music.

I agree, expecting to use an industrial arrangement for family purposes seems…strange to say the least.

Anecdotally - I was a longtime Rdio user, from beta until they recently closed. I did the trial of Google Play Music and it's not only the best good product I've ever used, but I have already gifted 6 months to my sister. Christmas is coming up, and I'm tempted to gift it again to other people.

If you enjoy music and haven't checked out Google Play Music, I'd encourage you to give it a shot. So far it's everything I've wanted plus more!

Just because it was rebranded as 'For Work' and 'For Education' doesn't mean all the previous 'For Domains' users should suddenly stop using their accounts.

Makes sense actually. Google Apps is for work users so you don't want to share it with your family I guess.

I'm using Google Apps actually but I don't expect Google allow me to share my account with my family.

Google Apps is the only way to get an email via Google at my own domain. They used to officially support this as a method to get a consumer account with a custom domain, but not anymore as they market it only for businesses.

And even if, as you say, it is "for work", why does Google force that decision upon me, the owner/operator/admin/sole employee of my one man organization? Why can't it just be a check box that says "I really just want a custom domain. Please let me use the cool things you make"?

It's infuriating. I have no problem paying $5/month just for a custom domain on a standard Gmail account, but it's not possible. This is the only other option, and if I had known how much frustration it would cause I'd never have used my Apps account as my primary for the past years as I now have numerous purchases, domains, email archives, photos, and so on attached to it.

+1. if in addition, you are non-US, even more services are out of reach. I love my Google Apps services with custom domain (especially gmail), but despite paying, you really are a second class citizen at Google.

Probably because it's not just a matter of marking it enabled. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if they used two separated branches of the codebase, only merging features from regular services into Apps after they are more stable.

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