In November, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels confirmed that HBO Max (which was known as “Max” for a few years but is now HBO Max again) would soon start cracking down on password sharing. The news, while disappointing, was far from shocking, seeing as rival platforms like Netflix and Disney+ had already rolled out similar policies.
Wiedenfels said HBO Max would begin shutting down password sharing over time, starting with “very soft messaging” over “the next few months,” then clamping down harder moving into 2025 and through 2026. You might have noticed this, if yours is among the accounts HBO Max has targeted with a warning.
But if you’re used to being able to easily dismiss messages about not sharing passwords, things are about to change.
HBO Max’s anti-password sharing policy
HBO Max’s “gentle, early messaging” on password sharing has been in effect since December, with the company targeting password-sharing users it believes are “in the higher tier of usage.” HBO Max hasn’t been guessing who that is, either; rather, the company has been collecting data on its users to figure out which ones are actually sharing their passwords, versus the ones using their accounts while traveling. (Personally, nothing makes me feel more valued as a customer more than being spied on, especially when the end result is potentially charging me more money.)
In practice, that means if HBO Max detected your account was being used frequently, especially across multiple devices outside your “household,” you were more likely to experience this “gentle messaging,” as opposed to someone who watched their HBO Max account sparingly at home.
We now appear to be nearing the end of the “gentle messaging phase.” On the company’s earnings call this week, JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games for Warner Bros. Discovery, announced that this messaging is about to get “aggressive.” Perette says the company now has a good idea which users are legitimate account holders, and which are not, and that’s giving the company the confidence to push its plans further. Perette didn’t go into specifics about the messaging itself, but reading between the lines, it’s likely some users can soon expect to be blocked from accessing HBO Max accounts that they aren’t directly paying for.
Perette is sticking to that original timeline, too: He expects by Q4, the crackdown on password sharing will be continuing “in a much more aggressive fashion,” and will likely extend into 2026. So if you’re still sharing a password with someone outside your household, savor it while you can.
What do you think so far?
How you might be able to get around HBO Max’s password sharing crackdown
Based on the info we have now, HBO Max isn’t yet planning to start locking users out of an account if they try logging from outside the household. However, it’s good to be prepared.
While HBO Max has yet to detail how exactly it plans to enforce its rules, we can expect the strategy to mirror the one Netflix employs. Netflix considers the TV or streaming device you use to log into your account as your “household.” Any device connecting to your account within the household (i.e. via your home wifi) will work fine. It’s when you try to access the account on a device outside of your household where things get tricky.
While Netflix is a stickler for logging in on smart TVs, it’s more lenient for mobile devices like phones, tablets, and computers: As long as you use your mobile device to access Netflix while its connected to the account holder’s household wifi, it should work when you’re outside the household for at least the next 30 days.
Though there are no guarantees, I imagine HBO Max will employ a similar process, so if you’re sharing passwords with friends or family across town who you visit often, you might not have much to worry about. If you’re using the password of someone who lives a few states away, however, it might be time to get your own account.
