Little-known iPhone trick lets you share your log-ins with other people – it’s perfect for Netflix and takes seconds
DON’T miss an easily-overlooked iPhone trick that makes sharing passwords so much easier.
It’s possible to set up sharing groups that sync your log-in info with your friends and family.
The iPhone feature was added in iOS 17 last year, and is available as part of Apple’s iCloud Keychain feature.
That creates strong passwords, stores them, and then syncs them across your Apple devices – auto-filling on websites and apps when you need to sign in.
But there’s also a feature to create groups for your passwords, letting others see and edit them too.
“For easier and more secure password and passkey sharing, users can create a group to share a set of passwords, and everyone in the group can add and edit passwords to keep them up to date,” Apple explained.
“Since sharing is through iCloud Keychain, it is end-to-end encrypted.”
It’s the perfect solution for anyone who might be sharing the same log-in.
For instance, Netflix allows you to share your account within your household.
So this is a great way to sync your log-in for your entire family, letting people easily sign in on their own devices.
And if one person changes the password, it’ll update for everyone else too.
It doesn’t just work for Netflix either: you can use this feature for any password that you have saved.
For instance, it might also be useful for a couple sharing a joint bank account.
Or you could use it for an Amazon Prime membership in your household.
HOW TO USE PASSWORD GROUPS ON IPHONE
First, make sure you’re updated to iOS 17.
Do that by going into Settings > General > Software Update and installing any pending downloads.
Make sure iCloud Keychain is turned on by going into Settings > [Name] > iCloud > Passwords and Keychain.
Next, go to Settings > Passwords and tap the + (plus) icon at the top of the screen.
PASSWORD RULES – DON'T BREAK THEM
Here are some important tricks to follow, as revealed by Keeper Security…
- Make sure to use a combination of upper and lowercase letters. It’s much easier to “crack” a password if it only uses lowercase letters.
- Never include personal data like your birthday, street address, and certainly not your name.
- Ensure that every password has at least 12 characters. This will significantly increase the time it would take a hacker to crack your login.
- Include symbols whenever you can. Not all services allow this, but if you can add question marks, exclamation marks, hash symbols, and slashes, your password will be far safer.
- Ensure that you’re using varied and non-sequential numbers. So, rather than having 1234 at the end of your password, mix them in and use a random order.
- Avoid, where possible, using words found in the dictionary in your password.
Now choose New Shared Group, give it a name, and add people.
You can then add any existing (or new) passwords to this group.
And they’ll be automatically shared with other people who have joined your group.
If you edit one then it’ll update for other members automatically.
And you can remove people from your group at any time.
Your groups will also appear on other devices synced to your iCloud Keychain, like an iPad or Mac computer.