Add a Legacy Contact
It looks like another promised iOS 15 feature will be going live in iOS 15.2 in the form of Legacy Contacts, which allows you to tell Apple who can access your Apple ID and related data after you die.
While this is mostly a back-end feature tied to your Apple ID, like almost all of your other account management tools, Apple wants to integrate this into the iOS experience as much as possible. To that end, iOS 15.2 offers new screens for adding and managing your Legacy Contact. Here’s how to access these in iOS 15.2.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap your name at the top of the screen to open your Apple ID settings.
- Tap Password & Security.
- Tap Legacy Contact.
- Tap Add Legacy Contact.
- Read the information screen and tap the Add Legacy Contact button at the bottom.
- If you’re in an Apple Family Sharing group, you’ll be shown a list of your family members to choose from. Either pick one of these people or tap Choose Someone Else to open your full contact list.
- Once you’ve selected a Legacy Contact, tap Next.
- Tap Continue after reading the information on the next screen.
As the information screens explain, your Legacy Contact will have access to all of your data after your death, except for the passwords in your iCloud Keychain and your licensed media purchased from the iTunes Store. You’ll be provided with an access key to give to your Legacy Contact, which they’ll need to present to Apple, along with a copy of your death certificate, before they’ll be given access to your data.