How to share a password with family on iPhone without sending it in a chat

• The message stays in the chat on both phones until someone deletes it, and usually travels into chat backups too.
• Anyone who borrows an unlocked phone can search the chat for the word "password".
• Copying it from the chat puts it on the clipboard. Anything you copy can be read by other apps and, with Universal Clipboard, other devices.
• You lose track of who has it. A password in five chats is five places to forget about.

On iOS 17 and later, Apple's password manager can share passwords and passkeys with people you choose, as a shared group. The group lives in the Passwords section of Settings on iOS 17, and in the Passwords app on iOS 18 and later.

1. 1Open Passwords (Settings > Passwords on iOS 17) and unlock it with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
2. 2Tap the New Shared Group button, usually shown as a folder with a plus sign, and give the group a name, for example "Household".
3. 3Add the people from your contacts. They need a recent enough software version, which Apple lists as iOS 17, iPadOS 17 or macOS 14 or later, and they must accept the invitation.
4. 4Choose which passwords to put in the group. Each password sits in one group at a time.

What to know first: only the person who created the group can add or remove members, any member can leave at any time, and members can usually add and change passwords in the group, so keep it to people you trust. Apple's own guidance says to decline an invitation from anyone you do not know.

Shared groups work between Apple devices that meet the version requirement. If your partner or parent uses Android or a Windows PC, the safest low-tech route is to say the password aloud, in person or on a call, and let them save it in their own password manager.

If they are next to you, AirDrop is better than a chat because nothing stays in a conversation. If you have to write it, send it once, ask them to save it and delete the message, and delete it on your side too.

For streaming and similar accounts, check whether the service has a built-in way to add household members or profiles. Giving someone their own profile or login is safer than handing over yours, because you can remove them without changing the password for everyone.

• Remove the person from the group: on iOS 17 go to Settings > Passwords, open the shared group, select it and remove the member; on iOS 18 and later open the group in the Passwords app and use its Info button. Only the group's creator can do this.
• Change the passwords afterwards. Apple's guidance notes that someone you remove may still have access to the accounts and passwords they saw while they were in the group, so removal alone is not enough.
• If you shared by chat, delete the message. Then change the password anyway, because deleting your copy does not delete theirs.
• Turn on two-factor authentication on the account where you can, so a leaked password is not enough by itself.

Yes, as a place for you to keep it, not as a way to share it. Lockboxy is a private, encrypted vault app for iPhone. Its Wallet keeps passwords as encrypted entries behind a passcode of their own, with no account and no server holding a copy. It does not have a feature for sharing entries with another person, so do not pick it for that part of the job.

1. 1Open Lockboxy with its passcode and go to the Wallet tab.
2. 2Tap Add entry and choose Account & password.
3. 3Fill in the service name, the username or email and the password. The password is masked by default, and Notes is optional, so you can write which family members use the login.
4. 4Save. Tap Show when you need to read it, or Copy to paste it. Lockboxy clears a copied value from the clipboard about 30 seconds later.

It suits the logins you share by saying them aloud, such as the router admin or a shared card on a streaming service, because you can look them up without searching old chats. See how to store passwords safely on your phone for choosing a master passcode and a backup.

• Sharing a password is only as safe as the people who have it. If you would not trust someone with the account, do not share it.
• A vault passcode that is forgotten cannot be reset by anyone, including us. Premium lets you create a Recovery Key in advance, so create one and keep it somewhere safe.
• Wallet entries are unlimited on the free plan. What Premium adds is on the Premium page, and the app shows the exact price before you buy.
• Do not share bank or card logins this way. Banks usually forbid sharing them in their terms, and many offer joint accounts or authorised users instead.

More answers are in the Lockboxy FAQ. For a Wi-Fi password in particular, see how to find and share a saved Wi-Fi password.