Google Password Manager Guide: How To Securely Share Login Info With Family Members

While you don't want to share your passwords with just anyone, there are probably some people in your life, like your partner or your grown-up children, that you're happy to trust with your eight-to-twelve-digit letter, number, and special character combinations. For example, your partner could need access to the shared online bank account, your teenagers might want to log into Netflix, or your parents have asked for the passwords for the Nest thermostat or home security app when they're babysitting at your house.

If you have passwords stored in Google Password Manager, you might not be aware that they can be shared securely with your trusted inner circle. We'll talk you through how to set up a Google Family Group (if you don't already have one) and share a selected password with the minimum of fuss. We'll also cover the security measures behind Google's password sharing feature.

If you don't already have a Family Group set up on your Google account, you'll need to do this bit first. If you're already the manager or member of a Family Group with the person you want to share passwords with, you can skip right to the next section.

To set up a Google family group, go to your Google account and select People and sharing. You will then see your family group. If you're using an Android phone rather than a desktop or iPhone, you'll need to select Settings before you can see the People and sharing option. To begin with, your family group just includes you, but you can invite up to five other people. Click the button that says Send invitations to open a new window. You can now invite a family member or friend by selecting their name from the list (if they are one of your Gmail contacts), typing their email out in full, or pasting their email address in from somewhere else.

An invitation is then sent to the email address you provided. When your family member receives their email, they just need to follow the steps provided to accept their invitation. You'll receive a notification that your group has a new member, and your family group list will update to include their details. The person who sets up the group is the family manager, and everyone else is set up as a member. Only the manager can invite new members or remove people from the group. However, for the sharing passwords feature, which we'll cover in the next step, it doesn't matter whether you're a manager or a member. It works the same for everyone.

Although you can open Google Password Manager from any browser, if you want to share your passwords, you'll need to access it in Chrome. Go to Chrome, click on the three dots at the top right, and select Google Password Manager from the Passwords and autofill list. If you're accessing it on your phone, you'll find it under Settings. This opens the Password Manager page, which displays the names of all the websites you have saved passwords for. They're listed in alphabetical order, but there's also a search bar at the top to help you locate the one you want.

Select the password you want to share. This opens a new screen displaying the details for that password. On a desktop, buttons for Edit, Delete, and Share are underneath. On an Android or iOS phone, you'll see icons instead. Click the share button or icon, select the family member you want to share your password with and click share again. After a few seconds, Google confirms that the sharing is complete, and the password will now be available in the Google Password Manager list of the person you've shared it with.

Sharing passwords this way is safer than, for example, emailing or texting the information to someone. Saved and shared passwords in Google Password Manager use on-device encryption, so your passwords are encrypted on your device before being sent to Google's servers. Only your device holds the decryption key. Google claims they never have access to your actual passwords in plain text, only the encrypted version. This means only you and the intended recipient can access the shared credentials. 

If you want to add extra security to your Google Password Manager, you can enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). That way, even if someone gains access to your password manager, they would still need the second verification step to log in. Google notifies you if a saved password has been exposed in a data breach. If a shared password is compromised, you'll both receive a notification.

It's worth bearing in mind that Google isn't the only Password Manager available. Other products, like Bitwarden, 1Password, and FastLane, also offer the option to share your passwords with selected people. A reputable password manager, including Google's, will provide you with better protection if you get hacked than not using one at all.