How to use 1Password Families with both friends and relatives

How to use 1Password Families with both friends and relatives

Stacey Harris by Stacey Harris on

Over the years, we’ve heard of many creative ways friends and families use shared vaults to manage their private information. While “Families” is in the name, 1Password supports every kind of family – whether you live together or separately, and whether you’re blood relatives, friends, or roommates. We want to make sharing personal data easy and secure for you and those you care about. Below, we show off some great ways to make the most of shared vaults and item sharing through your 1Password Families membership.

Sharing is caring

Many friends and families exchange logins to enjoy TV streaming platforms, online news subscriptions, and play-what-you-like gaming services. Fewer people own physical copies of movies, games, and magazines these days. In an increasingly digital world, ‘sharing’ usually means giving out your username and password.

A 1Password Families membership lets you create unlimited vaults for sharing credentials with five of your closest friends and family members. It’s a great way to give loved ones access to streaming services, or let them read an interesting article behind a paywall. Using a password manager makes it easy to create unique passwords for each account, so sharing your Netflix password with your roommate doesn’t accidentally give them access to your bank account, too.

Need more than five accounts? You can add additional people to your 1Password Families membership for $1 per month.

For simpler, shorter-term needs, there’s the Password Secure Sharing Tool (psst!). It lets you share anything in your 1Password account with anyone – even people who don’t have a password manager. Psst! lets you generate a link to share nearly any item from your vaults. The link expires in seven days by default, but you can choose 30 days, 14 days, one day, one hour, or after a single view instead. You can also choose whether anyone with the link can view the item, or only the people with specific email addresses.

Secure your online spending

Sharing credit card information with friends you trust can make booking movie, concert, or play tickets a breeze. But texting a photo of your credit card, or typing out the number in an email, can also increase the risk of your personal information being exposed. If you’re already storing your credit card information in 1Password, you can use a shared vault to securely pass that information to your friends, or use item sharing with an expiry date so they don’t have access to the information indefinitely.

To be extra safe, 1Password members in the US can keep their real credit card number private thanks to our partnership with Privacy. This integration lets you create and save an infinite number of virtual payment cards with the option to set a monthly, annual, or total spending limit.

Every house has secrets

If you have housemates, you probably share all sorts of things with them: fridge space, keys, rent… but you might also share alarm codes, smart thermostats, Wi-Fi and a streaming service or two. But writing a password on a sticky note and sticking it to the fridge, or sending it through a group chat or email isn’t the safest way to share that information.

With 1Password Families, you can add all of your housemates to your account and create a shared vault with house-related credentials. And if you have visitors, you can share your Wi-Fi password by inviting guests to a shared vault, or with item sharing.

Add shared vaults to your travel checklist

If you’re traveling with friends, a shared vault is a great way to store personal information for easy access. Whether it’s your travel insurance, a copy of your passport, or your medication history, shared vaults are a secure way to give your friends the information they need to support you while traveling.

1Password lets you share instructions with whoever is feeding your pets, watering your plants, or collecting your mail while you’re away.

When traveling alone, a shared vault lets you share all that important information with family back home in case there’s an emergency. It also lets you share instructions with whoever is feeding your pets, watering your plants, or collecting your mail. Your shared travel vault is perfect for information like the garage door code, alarm system, or even details about how much water to give your ficus so it’s still green when you get back.

One is the loneliest number

If you currently use 1Password as an individual, you might not realize there are many other benefits if you upgrade from an individual account to 1Password Families. For example, you can allow other people to recover your account. By switching to a 1Password Families account, you can recover accounts for family members, but they can also help you recover your account. Additional account members can’t access your private vaults, but they can help you get back into your account if you’re ever locked out.

While we’re on the topic of recovery, have you ever considered how your digital estate will be handled after you pass away? We recently outlined how you can use 1Password to safely transfer your digital accounts to trusted friends and family members.

Access control

While you can have multiple people in your 1Password Families membership, you get to decide who you share your information with and what they can do with it.

And remember: only share passwords with people you trust. While the ability to share private information securely is great, it’s also completely up to you who you share it with.

Whether you use it with family or friends, 1Password is always better together.

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Use 1Password Families to protect your accounts and share important passwords with the people you trust and care about.
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Content Marketing Manager

Stacey Harris - Content Marketing Manager Stacey Harris - Content Marketing Manager

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