As of iOS 15.2, your iPhone has a ‘Digital Legacy’ feature. You can designate someone as an inheritance contact. This person will have access to your photos, messages, notes, and more after your death.
New iPhone Feature: ‘Digital Legacy’
Until now, if a loved one or family member dies, there has been no easy way to access the Apple ID account. There is also no way to unlock iPhone without knowing the passcode. However, Digital Legacy makes it possible to securely pass on your iCloud data—such as your photos, videos, documents, and other personal data—to your friends and family.
The feature was added to the iOS 15.2 beta, so there’s a good chance the option will be available to everyone soon. With ‘Digital inheritance’ you designate a maximum of five people as inheritance contact. You do this with your iPhone via the Settings app, where you tap your Apple ID and choose ‘Password and security>Legacy contact’.
Then Apple generates an access key for your account, which you share with your legacy contact. You can do this, for example, by taking a screenshot of the QR code, or by printing it. After death, an inheritance contact needs this digital key and a copy of a death certificate to use the data from an Apple ID account.
An inheritance contact gets access to a lot of data. These include photos, messages, notes, files, contacts, calendar events, downloaded apps, and backups. Access to your iCloud passwords or licensed media will not get a legacy contact.
iOS 15.2 Legacy Contact
“Digital Legacy” was announced back in June at the iOS 15 launch event, but it hasn’t appeared in the official release yet. The feature has now been added in the beta of iOS 15.2, so there is a good chance that the option will be available to everyone soon.
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