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Legacy contact

A legacy contact is a person nominated in advance by a platform user to manage or receive their account data after the user dies. It is a feature of the platform's own settings — set up while the user is alive and has access — not a legal instrument. Three of the largest UK-relevant platforms operate broadly equivalent schemes under different names:

  • Apple Legacy Contact — set up under Settings → [Your Name] → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact on iOS or macOS. The user nominates one or more contacts; Apple generates an access key that the contact must keep. After the user dies, the legacy contact uses the access key plus a death certificate to request a download of the deceased's iCloud data (photos, notes, messages, files). The Apple ID itself is then closed; the legacy contact does not "inherit" the account. [source: apple/digital-legacy-2026-05-02.html]
  • Google Inactive Account Manager — set up at myaccount.google.com → Data and Privacy → Make a plan for your digital legacy. The user chooses a period of inactivity (between 3 and 18 months) and nominates trusted contacts to receive selected data after that period passes without account use. Google also offers automatic account deletion at the end of the inactivity period. [source: google/inactive-account-manager-2026-05-02.html]
  • Meta (Facebook) Legacy Contact — set up under Settings → Memorialisation Settings. The legacy contact can manage limited aspects of a memorialised Facebook profile after death (pinning a tribute post, responding to friend requests, updating the profile photo) but cannot read the deceased's private messages or remove old posts. Instagram does not have a separate legacy-contact feature; the same family processes apply. WhatsApp does not have a legacy contact at all. [source: meta/memorialised-accounts-2026-05-02.html]

Why the legacy-contact route is materially better than the no-planning route: every platform's standard bereavement process requires the family to provide a death certificate and (often) additional legal documents, after which the platform reviews the request individually — typically taking weeks. The legacy contact can act in days, with much less documentation, and (in Apple's and Google's case) actually receives the data rather than just being able to request closure.

Limits:

  • The legacy contact handles one platform only. A user with Apple, Google, and Meta accounts must set up three separate legacy contacts (often the same person, but the settings are independent).
  • The legacy contact cannot do anything not specified by the platform's policy — they cannot access purchased content (App Store apps, Kindle books), cannot reset the deceased's other passwords, and cannot bypass the device passcode.
  • A nomination made in the platform's settings is not the same as a legal appointment. The platform legacy contact role is a private contractual arrangement with the provider; the legal authority over the estate sits with the executor under the will. The two roles can be the same person (and usually should be) but they are conceptually separate.

→ Digital legacy · Managing a deceased person's social media

AfterLoss

See how AfterLoss handles information and documents for where designated legacy contacts are recorded alongside the rest of the digital-account picture.