How to easily share your Wi-Fi password on Android and iOS

If you have a guest over to your house for any amount of time, there’s a fair chance they’ll ask you for the Wi-Fi password, which may begin a dreaded dance of you trying to remember what it is or read out a complicated string of numbers, letters, and symbols.

Of course, you could always buy a Wi-Fi password sign or write it on a sticky note that you can quickly point guests to, but that’s not always the most convenient solution; if your password is long or contains hard-to-read symbols (is that an O or a 0?), it can be a pain to get your friends and family connected.

It’s worth noting that if you frequently have people you don’t know very well or large groups over, you should really look into setting up a guest or temporary Wi-Fi network, which many routers will let you do. That route is significantly more secure than handing out your password to anybody that enters your house.

However, for the people that you trust, both Google and Apple have built-in ways to quickly and securely share your Wi-Fi password. Here’s how to use them.

The easiest way to share your password using an Android phone is by generating a QR code that people can scan to automatically join the network. If you have a Pixel or most other Android phones:

• Go to Settings > Network and Internet > Wi-Fi.
• Tap on the settings cog next to your network.
• Tap the Share button and authenticate yourself. A screen should come up with a QR code, the name of the Wi-Fi network, and the password.

Given the wide range of Android skins and versions, the path to your Wi-Fi settings may be slightly different. For example, the process on a Samsung phone is slightly different.

• Go to Settings > Connections > Wi-Fi.
• Tap on the settings cog.
• Tap QR Code in the bottom-left corner. Samsung’s QR code doesn’t include the written password.

As long as the person’s phone is relatively up to date, they should be able to scan the QR code to automatically join the network. And yes, it even works for people trying to get on your Wi-Fi with an iPhone.

If scanning the code doesn’t work for whatever reason, you can have the person manually enter the password.

Since iOS 11, Apple has included an easy way to share your password with other iPhone, iPad, and Mac users. To use it, make sure you both have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on — by default, the toggles are in Control Center, which you can access by swiping down from the top-right corner on a phone with Face ID or from the bottom on a phone with a home button. You’ll also have to be connected to the network they’re trying to connect to.

• Tell the person to go to Settings > Wi-Fi. Then tap on your network.
• On your device, you should get a pop-up asking if you want to share your password. Tapping the Share Password button should start the process of getting them online.

If you’re not seeing the prompt, it may be due to Apple’s requirement that the person requesting the password has to have your Apple ID email saved in their Contacts app and vice versa. So, if you’re having problems, you can both go to Settings, tap your name at the top, and check to make sure your listed email addresses have been added to each other’s contact cards.

At that point, however, it’ll probably just be easier to show them the password and have them type it in. If you don’t know it offhand and you’re running iOS 16 or later, you can access the password by going to Settings > Wi-Fi, tapping on the blue i button next to your connected network, and then tapping on the password field. After you authenticate yourself, you’ll be able to see your password. 

You could theoretically then copy and paste it into a message and send it to the person you’re trying to share your Wi-Fi with. Personally, I’d rather just show them the screen and have them type it in so my password isn’t going through SMS or some other messaging service, but feel free to do whatever you’re comfortable with.

Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, iOS currently doesn’t have a built-in way to easily share your password with someone who uses Android. If you want to share your password with them, you’ll have to go through the manual steps described above.