How to share a Wi-Fi password on Android and iOS

Knowing how to share a Wi-Fi password on iPhone and Android devices can be super useful. If you’ve got friends over, it’s much easier to simply share your password instantly using your smartphone than it is to recite 20 random characters.
While iPhones can trade Wi-Fi details to other iOS contacts, and Android can use QR codes to share them with iPhones and other Android devices, getting a password from an iPhone to an Android phone requires a little more effort.
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.
How to share a Wi-Fi password on Android
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.
- 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.
How to share a Wi-Fi password on iOS
- 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.