How to Add Someone to a Shared Vault in Person, With a QR
When the person you want to share with is sitting right next to you, you should not have to message them a link and wait. Invite them by name, then show a code they scan. It stays private, and it only ever works for them.
Most of the time you share a vault with someone who is not in the room: you invite them, and they open the invitation on their own phone later. But plenty of sharing happens face to face, handing your partner access at the kitchen table, adding a family member during a visit. For that, messaging a link and waiting for it to arrive feels like a detour. Kinship Vault lets you do it on the spot: invite the person, then show a QR they scan.
Key takeaways
- Invite by name first (a contact or their Apple ID), confirmed with your Face ID or Touch ID.
- Then either send the link, or show it as a QR the person scans in front of you.
- The QR is just that private link drawn as a code, it only opens the vault for the Apple ID you invited.
- Nothing is posted anywhere, and adding a member is always gated by the owner's biometrics.
The invite is tied to a person, not to the link
The thing that makes in-person sharing safe is the same thing that makes messaging a link safe: in Kinship Vault you invite a specific Apple ID, not "whoever has the link." You pick a contact or type their Apple ID, and confirm with Face ID or Touch ID. From that moment, the invitation only works for that one person. So how you deliver it, a message, an email, or a QR on your screen, does not have to be a secret. A stranger who glimpses the code cannot join with it.
That is different from a public "anyone with the link can join" model, which we deliberately do not use. There is no open link to leak, and no join requests from people you did not choose. You added them; only they can accept.
The QR is not a key. It is a private invitation addressed to one Apple ID, drawn as a code so the person in front of you can pick it up without typing.
Doing it, step by step
- Open the shared vault's members screen and tap Invite People.
- Choose the person: pick a contact or type their Apple ID (email or phone).
- Confirm with Face ID or Touch ID. Kinship prepares their private invite.
- Tap Show as QR. Hold your screen up; they point their Camera at it.
- The invitation opens on their phone. Once you grant access, the vault appears, unlocked with their own biometrics.
On a Mac the flow is the same, with the QR shown in the invite window, ready for a phone to scan.
When to use the QR vs the link
Use Show as QR when the person is with you, it is the quickest handoff and nothing travels over the network. Use Send when they are elsewhere: because the link is tied to their Apple ID, it is safe to send over Messages, WhatsApp, or email. Either way, the vault's contents stay end-to-end encrypted, and you can remove anyone later, which rotates the key so they lose access to anything added afterward.
Share a vault with the people in the room.
Invite by name, hand it over with a QR, and give everyone their own key, end-to-end encrypted, with the power to take it back.
See how shared vaults work