The days of asking your friends for their Wi-Fi passwords every time you visit them are about to come to an end. Or at least they are for anyone with an iPhone running iOS 11.
When Apple announced its new OS, iOS 11, Apple demoed several new features including Siri updates, mobile payments, and a new display panel, among others. But one big feature didn’t make the demo: Automatic Wi-Fi log-ins between iOS 11 devices.
The new capability was spotted by developers and reported by 9to5 Mac, and will make signing friends onto your Wi-Fi network a quick, painless process, similar to the AirPods’ seamless paring experience.
To use iOS 11’s new Wi-Fi sharing feature, just pull up the Wi-Fi login screen on the “foreign” device for which you’ll be granting access and put it near a “native” device already on the network. The “native” device will be notified that someone else is trying to join the network, and will be given the option of sending them the password directly over the air. Once you’ve OK’d the transfer, the password field on the “foreign” device will be filled and automatically granted access to the network.
How cool is that now I don’t have to give my phone to my friend so he can enter his password or he keeps repeating the password for me to enter myself.