Apple’s Passwords app won me over with this one unique feature

Apple has offered password management features for years, but never until iOS 18 has there been a dedicated Passwords app. The new app has a lot going for it, but there’s one feature in particular that’s stood out for me above the rest: Shared Groups.

Shared Groups solves a difficult Passwords app problem

The Passwords app in iOS 18 takes much of the functionality previously available in the Settings app for iCloud Keychain and expands it.

One new addition I’ve enjoyed most is Shared Groups.

Simply put, you can create a group of passwords, passkeys, and more that can be shared with anyone in your contacts.

From an Apple support page:

Shared password groups are an easy and secure way to share passwords, passkeys, and Sign in with Apple credentials with your family and trusted contacts. Anyone in the group can add passwords, passkeys, and Sign in with Apple credentials. When a shared credential changes, it changes on everyone’s device.

I used to share iCloud Keychain passwords with my wife via AirDrop. It was always a convenient option, but it quickly proved problematic. Why? Because logins would change, and we each had our own out-of-sync data that caused a lot of confusion over time.

Shared Groups are easy to create and add passwords to, and flexible enough that you can use them in whatever way serves you best.

Want to share logins with a significant other? Or some co-workers? Maybe your kid’s school’s PTA? Whoever you need to share with, you can create a group for that purpose. And whenever login details change, everyone gets the new data instantly.

This versatility of Shared Groups—which are entirely free—is a unique advantage over competing products that require paid plans for sharing, and usually with more restrictions on who you can share with.

Apple’s pre-installed app advantage

The Passwords app being automatically installed on iPhones, iPads, and Macs also gets Apple over a major hurdle its competitors face.

Most users you want to share with won’t have the same password manager as you—or they won’t use password software at all. Thus, two-way sharing with live updates is an extremely difficult feature for anyone else to match.

But Apple has the unique ability to offer an effective sharing feature because the Passwords app is pre-installed, whether your friends and family know it or not.

What do you think of the Passwords app? Have you used Shared Groups? Let us know in the comments.

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