How to Share a Wi-Fi Password from iPhone

A friend wants on your Wi-Fi and the password is 20 random characters on the back of the router. If they have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, your iPhone can hand over the password without anyone typing it.

Prepare both devices

Unlock both iPhones. Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on each, and keep them within a few feet of each other. Your iPhone must already be connected to the network. The other person's Apple Account email address or phone number must be saved in your Contacts, and yours in theirs. If either of those is missing, the sharing card never appears.

Have the other person open Wi-Fi settings

On the device joining the network, open Settings, Wi-Fi, and tap the name of your network. The password prompt appears. Leave it on this screen.

Wait for the Share Your Wi-Fi card

On your iPhone, a card slides up from the bottom of the screen with a Share Password button. It can take a few seconds. If nothing shows up, lock and unlock your iPhone while the other device stays on the password prompt.

Tap Share Password

Tap Share Password. The password is sent to the other device, which fills it in and joins the network on its own. Tap Done on your iPhone. The other person never sees the password in plain text, and it is saved on their device for next time.

For Android phones, Windows laptops, or a TV. Read the password off your iPhone instead. Open Settings, Wi-Fi, tap the (i) next to the connected network, then tap the Password field. Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode and the password appears in full, with a Copy option. This requires iOS 16 or later. On iOS 18 and later, the Passwords app also has a Wi-Fi section where each saved network can be shown as a QR code that the other device scans with its camera.

If the card never appears. Both devices need a reasonably recent version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS, and Personal Hotspot must be off on the iPhone doing the sharing. Check that the contact card for the other person contains the exact email address or phone number they use for their Apple Account, not a work address or an old number. If all of that is in place and it still fails, turn Wi-Fi off and on again on both devices and retry.