Set up legacy contacts on Google, Apple and Facebook

Why the service's own setting matters most

Most US states have adopted a law on access to digital accounts after death. Under it, the choice you make in a service's own tool comes first, ahead of what your will says and ahead of the service's general terms. So if you want a particular person to have your photos or your email, the surest way is to say so inside the service.

Menus move around. If a step below does not match what you see, search the service's help pages for the name of the setting.

Google: Inactive Account Manager

Google lets you decide what happens when your account has not been used for a while.

1. Sign in and go to your Google Account, then Data and privacy, then look for Make a plan for your digital legacy. It opens the Inactive Account Manager.
2. Choose how long Google should wait before it treats the account as inactive. Google will try to reach you by text and email before that time runs out.
3. Add the people Google should notify, and choose which parts of your data each one may download: photos, email, documents and so on.
4. Decide whether the account should be deleted after that.

The people you choose get an email from Google when the time comes, with a link to download what you shared. They never get your password.

Apple: Legacy Contact

A Legacy Contact can ask Apple for access to the data in your Apple account after your death: photos, messages, notes, files and device backups.

1. On an iPhone or iPad, open Settings, tap your name, then Sign-In and Security, then Legacy Contact.
2. Add a person. Apple creates an access key for them.
3. Share the key. You can send it in Messages or print it. They will need this key and a copy of the death certificate to make the request.

Two things are worth knowing. A Legacy Contact does not get the passwords saved in your keychain, or movies, music and books you bought. And the access lasts for a limited time after Apple approves the request, so your person should save what matters and not wait.

Facebook: legacy contact or deletion

Facebook offers two choices: have the account deleted, or have it memorialized and looked after by a legacy contact.

1. Open Settings, then Accounts Center, then Personal details, then Account ownership and control.
2. Choose Memorialization.
3. Either name a legacy contact or choose to have the account deleted after death.

A legacy contact can write a pinned post, answer new friend requests and change the profile picture. They cannot log in as you or read your messages. Instagram accounts can also be memorialized or removed, on request from a family member with proof of the death.

Other accounts

Many services have no setting like this. For those, families go through a support process and are usually asked for a death certificate and proof that they are the executor or next of kin. A list of which accounts exist, and what you want done with each, makes that process much shorter.