How to share your Wi-Fi password in various simple ways

When people come to visit they’ll likely ask for your Wi-Fi password at some point. Then you’ve got the headache of trying to remember what it is or the chore of trudging to your router to read out what the default password is.

It doesn’t have to be this way though. There are some fairly easy solutions that you might not have thought of. So stick with us as we show you how you can share your password with others easily.

How to share your Wi-Fi password via your Android phone

If you have an Android phone then it’s really easy to share your password with just a few clicks through the settings. This is great because you don’t need to worry about what the actual password is, all you need to do is to dig into the settings while your guest waits at the ready.

To do this you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Unlock your phone and access your settings
2. From there click on Network and Internet
3. Then tap on Internet or Wi-Fi
4. Select your Wi-Fi network
5. On the next page of options you should then see a “share” button
6. Tap that and you’ll see a QR code appear
7. You then need to get the other person to scan that QR code

The easiest way for your visitor to scan that QR and access your Wi-Fi network is probably by using Google Lens. This a handy app with many different uses but one of them is simply scanning QR codes.

Once they’ve downloaded that app and scanned the code they should be automatically prompted to join the Wi-Fi network. This is a much easier way than trying to remember and share the password. If you have trouble though, you may well see the password displayed underneath the QR code.

Share your Wi-Fi with Nearby Share

Another option for Android users is Nearby Share. This is similar to AirDrop for iOS and basically gives your phone the ability to broadcast information over the air locally with ease.

Nearby Share can be used for sending all sorts of things including photos and files, but it can also be used to send your Wi-Fi network connection to another Android user.

To use Nearby Share for this:

1. Open your phone and head over to settings
2. Tap on Network and Internet
3. Then hit Internet or Wi-Fi settings
4. Choose your Wi-Fi network
5. Look for the share button
6. Tap that and you’ll see a QR code appear
7. Below that you’ll see an option for Nearby Share
8. Tap that to turn Nearby Share on temporarily
9. You can then choose settings of who can see your device – friends (i.e. people in your phone’s contacts), everyone or your own devices
10. Tap to turn on
11. Your visitor should then be notified that you are sharing, they should tap that notification and select to turn on Nearby Share, Bluetooth and location settings
12. Then follow on-screen steps

Once done don’t forget to turn Nearby Share off again, especially if you’re sharing publically. You can find more guidance on Nearby Share here.

Apple

iPhone to iPhone Wi-Fi password sharing

If you’re an Apple iPhone user and so is your guest then good news as Apple has made it really easy to share your Wi-Fi password in just a few steps.

There are a few things to keep in mind first though:

• You may need both devices to be on the latest version of iOS
• You’ll need to ensure that both iPhones have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on and ready to go
• You’ll need to make sure that you both have each other in your contacts via iCloud
• You need to by nearby when you start sharing

If all those things are in place then follow these steps to share you Wi-Fi password with another iPhone user:

1. Unlock your phone and check it’s already connected to the right Wi-Fi network
2. Select the network from your settings
3. On your device you can then tap “Share Password” and tap done
4. On the other phone the guest should click in their settings to try to connect to the same network
5. Follow on screen prompts and it should connect

If for any reason this doesn’t work it might be down to you not having each other’s email address in your respective contacts. So double check that’s the case.

Setup a guest password on your router

Another option for sharing your Wi-Fi is to simply setup a guest network instead.

You can make this a temporary network that you can then disable once your guests have gone. This saves giving out your normal password and prevents people having your password forever. It also means you can make it an easy to access password that’s less secure than your main password but easier to share. Just don’t use password123.

Most ISP routers will have an app associated with them that includes parental controls and other things. You might already have this installed and be logged in. If you have then it’s easy as you can login to that app and find the settings for guest networks and then just create one. You can give it an obvious name and relatively easy password, then just tell all your guest what it is. When they’ve gone go back into the app and turn it off again to re-secure your network.

If you don’t have an app you can usually access your router’s settings by navigating to https://192.168.0.1/ in your chosen browser on a desktop machine. This will present you with a login page so you’ll need to enter your credentials there and then poke around in the settings for the guest WI-Fi network options.