Similar to how some excellent cases can shield your iPad Pro, Apple Keychain is a digital vault that stores and protects your passwords. At first, this feature was very basic, allowing users to save usernames and passwords only. Throughout the years that followed, though, it gained support for 2FA code generation, notes, Passkeys, and more. Though, one core functionality had been missing until now — the ability to share passwords with other people.
While you could always copy and paste a password, sharing it as plain text isn’t a wise idea. That’s not to mention that 2FA codes are regenerating continuously, making it challenging to provide someone with access for a long time. Fortunately, iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 introduce Shared Password Groups. Whether you have an iPhone 14 or any other compatible iDevice, all you have to do is follow the steps below to utilize this feature.
- Launch the Settings app on your iDevice running OS version 17 or later.
- Scroll down, and go to the Passwords section.
- Tap the plus (+) icon in the top right corner.
- Hit the New Shared Group button.
- Give the group a name, and invite people using the Add People button.
- Click Create when you’re done.
- Select the existing passwords you want to share with this group and tap on Move.
- Anyone in the group can now view/use shared accounts’ usernames, passwords/passkeys, 2FA codes, and notes.
- To delete a group, tap on Manage.
- Hit the Delete Group button. This will stop sharing the passwords with everyone and delete the group. You’ll still have a private copy of the passwords, though.
As you can see, Shared Password Groups are a handy offering that makes it easy to share accounts with others. So, for example, you can create a work group in which you share company accounts with coworkers while having a separate family group that includes streaming services’ passwords. You decide what is seen in each group and by whom.
Though, keep in mind that deleting a Shared Password Group is not enough to revoke someone’s access to an online account. After all, they could secretly copy then paste it elsewhere before you delete the group. So a wise idea would be to revoke all sessions of an account and change the password after deleting a group.