Why plan for this now
When a family member is in hospital, or worse, the people around them need the health insurance policy, the bank accounts, the loan details and the passwords to the accounts that matter. If all of that is locked behind one person's password, it is lost at exactly the wrong moment. Writing passwords on paper solves that, but anyone who finds the paper gets in.
Emergency access is the middle path. Your vault stays fully private in normal life, and a person you trust has a way in that you can always see and stop.
Choosing the waiting period
The wait is your protection if the request is a mistake or comes from someone who has taken over your contact's account. Pick the shortest wait you would still reliably notice: 1 or 3 days if you check your phone every day, 7 or 14 days for a comfortable margin, 30 days if you would rather be very sure. You can approve a genuine request early at any time.
What your contact gets
- A read-only view of your personal vault: documents, payment records, insurance, banking details and passwords.
- Not your attached files, which stay in your own Google Drive.
- Not your family or group spaces, which have their own keys.
How it is kept private
When you add a contact, your device seals your vault key to their personal public key. The sealed key is stored separately, and the database rules release it only once the request has been approved by you or the waiting period has passed with you notified. Comparing the fingerprint code with your contact before you add them makes sure the key really belongs to them. The full design is on the security page.
Set it up
- Ask your contact to install OnlyWallet or open the web app and create a vault.
- In OnlyWallet, go to Settings, then Emergency access, and add them by email.
- Compare the fingerprint code with them in person or on a call, then tick that it matches.
- Choose a waiting period and send the invite. They accept it in their app.