iOS 11 Makes it Easy to Share Your Wi-Fi Password With Nearby Friends
With the developer beta of iOS 11 out in the wild, new features of the operating system have been coming to light throughout the week, including an unobtrusive volume indicator and new AirPods controls. In iOS 11, users will also be able to easily join a Wi-Fi network thanks to a new password sharing process between trusted devices, which should reduce the hassle of joining new networks.
The feature allows one iOS device with knowledge of a Wi-Fi network's password to grant access to a separate iOS device that still needs the password in question. 9to5Mac detailed an example where an iPad was already on a Wi-Fi network, while an iPhone still required the Wi-Fi password to connect.
All devices must be running iOS 11, and it appears that macOS High Sierra will support the feature as well.
Images via 9to5Mac
After navigating to Settings > Wi-Fi and choosing the right network, the iPhone user is greeted with the traditional password screen (seen above), but on iOS 11 when the iPhone is brought near the iPad, a card on the iPad notifies its user that the iPhone wants to join the network (seen below).
The iPad user can then tap and send their password to the iPhone, which recognizes the password, fills out the information, and connect to the Wi-Fi. As Apple notes, the iOS device or Mac with knowledge of the network's password must be unlocked for the transfer process to work.
There are plenty more iOS 11 tidbits to discover in the wake of the official unveiling this week at WWDC, so be sure to check out the MacRumors iOS 11 roundup to find out everything we know about the newest version of iOS.
Popular Stories
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple is scaling back its Hollywood spending after investing over $20 billion in original programming with limited success, Bloomberg reports. This shift comes after the streaming service, which launched in 2019, struggled to capture a significant share of the market, accounting for only 0.2% of TV viewership in the U.S., compared to Netflix's 8%. Despite heavy investment, critical acclaim,...
Last Friday, a major CrowdStrike outage impacted PCs running Microsoft Windows, causing worldwide issues affecting airlines, retailers, banks, hospitals, rail networks, and more. Computers were stuck in continuous recovery loops, rendering them unusable. The failure was caused by an update to the CrowdStrike Falcon antivirus software that auto-installed on Windows 10 PCs, but Mac and Linux...
