Use Google’s New ‘Recovery Contacts’ to Let a Friend Help You Get Back Into Your Account

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news.

Against all cybersecurity advice to the contrary, right next to my computer is a piece of paper with the password to my Google account written on it. Why? Well, if I forget it, what am I gonna do? Send a recovery email to my Gmail that I can't log into? It seems Google's aware of that little problem, because while it does have other workarounds on its account recovery page (like providing a mobile number that you've hopefully already linked to your account), now it's letting you use your friends' and family's emails to help you recover your Google accounts instead.

Google is calling these emails "Recovery Contacts," and you can set them up now. Just navigate to your Google Account's security settings (or click here) to get started. From the Recovery Contacts page, click the button to add a contact, then enter someone you trust (you'll see several suggestions) and send them a request to be a Recovery Contact for you. Once they accept it, they'll be able to help you get your account back if you ever find yourself unable to log in, but they'll have to jump through a few hoops that a normal recovery email wouldn't.

First, a Recovery Contact only has seven days to accept your invite, so if they missed your initial request, you'll have to send it again. Second, if they decline your request for whatever reason, you'll have to wait four days before you can send them a new one. Third, once they've actually accepted your request, you'll need to wait seven more days before they can actually help you recover your account.

But once your friend or family member is set up as a Recovery Contact for you and through the waiting period, there are only a few steps left. It's not quite as convenient as a standard recovery email, but it's close. When trying to recover your account, select your recovery contract from the list of recovery options, or follow a prompt Google says may pop up to reach out to them. Then, select Get number. Your recovery contact will then get an email with three different numbers on their device. Give them the number you got within 15 minutes, have them select it, and you should be able to get back into your account on your own device. Or, if you missed that time window, you can simply get another number to try again.

Note, though, that like with other recovery methods, Google might require additional case-by-case verification that you are who you say you are. The company says that if this is the case, your account will be put on a temporary security hold, and you'll be notified that an account recovery request was made. It's a bit annoying, but the idea is that if someone else tries to use your recovery contact , you'll be able to deny them access to your account. Given that one of the steps here simply requires a 1/3rd chance guess, I suppose that makes sense. It's still more secure than my piece of paper.

And speaking of security, if you ever find yourself not trusting a Recovery Contact as much as you once did, you can easily remove them from your list. Navigate to your Google Account's Security & sign-in page, then tap Recovery contacts, hit the Trash icon next to the account you want to remove, and hit Confirm. Note that a Recovery Contact won't get your standard security alerts or notifications, but it's still good practice to remove them if you no longer trust them.

View the full article