Apple Legacy Contact vs Google Inactive Account Manager

Apple and Google are the two companies most people's digital lives depend on, and each now has a free, built-in way to hand data to family: Apple's Legacy Contact and Google's Inactive Account Manager. Under the RUFADAA three-tier access rule in the US, these platform tools sit at tier one — they override your will. This guide compares them head-to-head so you can set up the right one (or both).

The core difference in one sentence

Apple's Legacy Contact is triggered by proof of death and gives one named person a limited, time-boxed window to view your iCloud data; Google's Inactive Account Manager is triggered by months of no activity and automatically emails your chosen contacts with download links while you are still around to set expectations. One reacts to a death certificate, the other to silence.

Side-by-side comparison

• Trigger — Apple: contact submits access key + death certificate, Apple reviews and approves. Google: account inactive for a period you choose (3, 6, 12 or 18 months)
• People allowed — Apple: up to 5 Legacy Contacts. Google: up to 10 trusted contacts, each with individually chosen data
• Data covered — Apple: iCloud Photos, Messages, Notes, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, iCloud Drive, device backups, Health, Voice Memos. Google: Gmail, Drive, Photos, YouTube, Calendar, Contacts, Chrome bookmarks, Google Fit and more
• Always excluded — Both: passwords, passkeys, payment methods, purchased media. Apple also excludes Keychain and subscriptions; Google also excludes Google Pay and 2FA codes
• Access format — Apple: a separate Legacy Contact Apple Account for viewing/downloading, active about 3 years after approval. Google: email with download links, contacts verify by phone number, links expire after roughly 3 months
• Requires — Apple: your Apple ID with two-factor authentication, iOS 15.2+/macOS 12.1+ devices. Google: a Google Account and the person's phone number for verification
• Notification at setup — Apple: the contact receives the access key immediately. Google: contacts are NOT told during setup — tell them yourself

Apple Legacy Contact: what it covers — and what stays locked

Set up in Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact (the exact label varies slightly by iOS version). After you add someone, Apple generates an access key you share with them — print a copy and keep it with your estate documents, because they will need it together with your death certificate. Once approved, the contact gets a separate account and roughly three years to download data; after that Apple permanently deletes the account. What they can never reach: anything in iCloud Keychain (passwords, payment cards, passkeys), purchased movies/music/books, subscriptions, and app purchases. Apple's own setup walkthrough is in our Apple Legacy Contact guide.

Google Inactive Account Manager: what it shares — and what it never will

Set up at myaccount.google.com/inactive: choose an inactivity period (3, 6, 12 or 18 months), add up to 10 trusted contacts with a phone number each, decide per person which data they may receive, and optionally write the message they will see. Google judges activity from sign-ins, Gmail usage, My Activity and Android check-ins, and warns you on your phone and recovery email before anything fires. Trusted contacts are never notified during setup — they only hear about it after the plan triggers, by email with a verification link. Google states plainly that passwords, payment methods and two-factor codes are never shared. The full setup walkthrough is in our Google Inactive Account Manager guide.

The gap both tools share

Neither tool hands over passwords, and neither knows anything about accounts outside Apple and Google: banks, crypto exchanges, other email, cloud drives, social platforms, and anything protected only by a password you kept to yourself. Legacy tools give your family your data inside one ecosystem; they do not give them the keys to your life elsewhere. That is why both Apple and Google pages end with the same advice — keep a separate record your family can actually find. A password manager with emergency access covers the credentials layer; a digital legacy vault like TimeWill (时间遗书) adds a heartbeat check-in that releases your full account list and letters to a trusted contact when you stop responding — the layer platform tools intentionally leave out. For the wider accounts-after-death picture, see what happens to your accounts.

Set up both in about 20 minutes

• Decide who — Name someone technically comfortable and emotionally stable for each ecosystem — they do not need the same person for Apple and Google
• Set up Apple Legacy Contact — Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact → add contact → share the access key and print a backup copy for your estate folder
• Set up Google Inactive Account Manager — Visit myaccount.google.com/inactive → pick 6-12 months → add contacts with phone numbers → choose data per person → write your message
• Tell your contacts it exists — Google never notifies them at setup — one conversation now prevents confusion later
• Cover the gap — Store passwords, seed phrases and the accounts list in a vault or password manager with an emergency/legacy handover, and reference it in your will without pasting credentials into it (wills become public at probate)
• Review yearly — Contacts change, people move, ecosystems update policies — put a calendar reminder to check both tools once a year

Which one should you pick?

If your family photos and messages live in iCloud and they use Apple devices, start with Legacy Contact. If Gmail is your identity and Drive holds the documents, start with Inactive Account Manager. If you use both — most people do — set up both and pick a different contact for each. Neither replaces a will or an executor: the legal framework is in our digital executor guide, and state access law in digital will laws by state.

Disclaimer

Platform policies and interface labels change over time; this article is informational, not legal advice. Check Apple and Google's current help pages for your region, and consult a licensed attorney for estate-planning decisions.