The ever-growing Google Password Manager now offers password sharing feature. However, it only allows you to share passwords with people who are in your family group.
We’ve known about Google Password Manager’s family-sharing feature since it appeared as a Chrome flag in late 2023. The feature wasn’t formally announced until February of this year. It’s been a few months since then, but password sharing is now available to users with an active family group.
Google Family allows you to share content, including digital purchases and subscription services, across several Google accounts. You may also use Google Family to set up parental controls for your children. The addition of a password-sharing feature makes sense, although I should note that most password managers allow you to share login credentials with anyone, not just family members.
“Accounts that are part of a family group will soon have the option to share usernames and passwords for a particular website or service directly from Google Password Manager. Whether two members of a family are coordinating with daycare through a single account, or a child is letting a parent access their school assignments, sharing passwords securely has never been easier.”
If you’ve already set up a Google Family Group, you should now see a “share” button next to every entry in Google Password Manager. After clicking this button, you select a member of your Family Group, and Google will add your chosen login credentials to their account.
You can access Google Password Manager from an Android smartphone. Google Password Manager is also in the Chrome desktop browser, but password sharing is currently limited to mobile devices.
Google’s decision to limit this password-sharing feature to family groups is a minor inconvenience. And you could argue that this limitation will protect users from being scammed, especially as we transition to passkeys. On the other hand, users who want to share a password with a friend may feel compelled to paste their login credentials into an SMS message or social media DM, potentially exposing their credentials to bad actors.
Source: Google via Android Authority