It can be a tough day when you realize you forgot your Google account password or lost the phone that stored your passkeys. The search giant is rolling out a new safety feature that allows your friends or family members to come to your rescue when you get locked out of your account.
If you"re eligible to use the feature, you can add Recovery Contacts to your Google account by visiting your My Account page > Security. Here, you"ll find the Recovery Contacts option under "How to sign in to Google."
Google will send an email or notification to these contacts when you can"t access your account for some reason. When you have a failed login attempt, Google will automatically take you to the account recovery page. Here, you"ll select your recovery contact and generate a code, which you need to share with the other person as quickly as possible to complete the recovery process via email or notification.
You can have up to 10 recovery contacts at a time for your account. After you add a person as a recovery contact, they have seven days to respond to the invite. You can use that contact to recover your accounts for only seven days from the day the request is accepted. You will have to resubmit the request or choose another recovery contact after the seven-day period ends.
Google recommends that your recovery contact be a trusted person who can respond within 15 minutes if you need help. "While you should choose someone you trust, rest assured that your recovery contact will not have access to your account or any of your personal information," it said.
Note that you can"t add a recovery contact while you"re locked out of your account or in the account recovery process. Google Workspace users and people enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program can"t add recovery accounts, but act as one for other eligible users.
You should not confuse this feature with recovery email, which is often an alternative email address you own that can be used to verify your identity and get alerts for suspicious login attempts.