How to Set Up Google's Inactive Account Manager

Google's version of this feature works on a completely different principle than Apple's — there's no death certificate involved at all. It's triggered by time passing with no activity, which you configure yourself.

How to turn it on

Go to Google's Inactive Account Manager page from your Google Account settings.
Choose how long Google should wait — 3, 6, 12, or 18 months of inactivity, or a custom period.
Add up to 10 trusted contacts, and choose per contact which of your data (Gmail, Drive, YouTube, Blogger, and more) they're allowed to download.
Optionally write a message that gets sent to your contacts when the timeout is reached, and decide whether Google should also automatically delete your account and its content after that point.

How Google decides you're 'inactive'

Google watches signals like your last sign-ins, activity in My Activity, and whether you're using Gmail or Android — not just whether you've logged in once. This is meant to avoid triggering on a long vacation.

What a trusted contact actually gets

Once the timeout is reached, your chosen contacts get an email with whatever message you wrote, and — if you enabled data sharing — a list of the data categories they can access and a link to download them. They verify their identity using a phone number Google already has on file for them. Nothing about proving your death is required; the mechanism is entirely about the inactivity period elapsing.

What happens if you never set this up

Google states that it may delete an account that has been inactive across all of Google's services for two years or more, along with its data.

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Frequently asked questions

Can someone falsely trigger this by just not hearing from me for a while?

The waiting period is one you choose, and Google's inactivity signals look at real usage across Gmail, Drive, and Android, not just a single missed login — but a genuinely long absence (an extended trip with no phone access, for example) could still be indistinguishable from real inactivity, so pick a timeout you're comfortable with.

Do my trusted contacts need a Google Account?

They need a way to receive the notification email and, if you're sharing data, to verify their identity by phone — check Google's current setup flow for the specifics, since requirements like this can change.

Can I change my trusted contacts or timeout later?

Yes, at any time from the same Inactive Account Manager page, including turning the whole feature off.