Apple made a small change in iOS 16, but a significant tweak to make your life easier in certain situations, by making the Wi-Fi password for the network you're currently using viewable on your device.
Instead of clearing the saved password for the current network in the Wi-Fi section in Settings, so there's no way of knowing what it is if you don't remember it, you can now see the actual password text (as long as you authenticate first). using Face ID or Touch ID, or a password).
In this case, you can tell a house guest what password to enter or copy the password and send it to the person's device. This was spotted by MacRumors (Opens in a new tab), and the capability is in the iOS 16 Developer Preview.
While those with iOS hardware can already seamlessly share Wi-Fi passwords with anyone trying to connect to the same network, as long as the visitor is also using an iPhone (or iPad or Mac), if the visitor has an Android device or a Windows Laptop, for example, this is not possible.
It's in these situations where it will be really useful to see what the Wi-Fi password actually is, rather than having to go and retrieve it from that piece of plastic you pull out of the back of your chip-enabled router or company. card sent by your broadband provider that shows the login details for your default router, sitting somewhere in a drawer.
Analysis: a useful change, and also a matter of time
This is a small tweak, but sensible enough to save you some time in the aforementioned situations. In fact, you might be wondering why it took so long for Apple to implement what can't be a difficult feature to implement, let's face it.
Showing the stored password for the current Wi-Fi network can also be useful for visitors on iOS devices, as sometimes the ability to automatically share the password with them may not work properly, and at least you now have a quick backup path. and easy in case of problems for guests with iPhones or iPads.
The new capability will arrive with iOS 16 later in the year, and the mobile operating system isn't far from public beta testing now - that should be in July.
While we're talking about easy Wi-Fi password sharing, there's a neat trick that those on Android phones can use to their advantage that you might not know about, and that has to do with QR codes. If you want to know more, here we explain the ins and outs.
Via The Verge (Opens in a new tab)