Apple’s digital legacy lets you pick who gets access to your information when you die

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Apple kicked off its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on Monday, and fans of the Apple ecosystem were given a sneak peek at a bunch of new features coming as part of iOS 15. One of those features is the addition of a “digital legacy” service, which will let an administrator access your phone’s information after your death.

This feature will allow you to choose legacy contacts. The contacts you choose will have access to any password-protected information, except payment info, found on your device or in your iCloud account storage.

Legacy contacts will have to sign in using a “legacy contact Apple ID,” and also provide proof of death before they will be able to access your information. Once they’ve completed these steps, your legacy contact will then be able to access any important information stored on your account.

This is just a snippet of what was introduced at the start of this year’s WWDC on Monday. This comes as a feature of the brand new iOS 15 update, which also includes upgrades to FaceTime and Apple Wallet. The company also announced new operating systems for the Apple Watch and Mac computers.

It is still not clear exactly when these new operating systems and features will be coming out, but all signs point to a fall release.

Apple’s releases are generally done in a cycle, and most of its OS upgrades come after the September event that showcases upcoming hardware. For now, we will just have to wait and see.

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