Technology Google announces Recovery Contacts: ask your friends and family to help you sign in to your account

[lokamoka820]

Content source

https://www.ghacks.net/2025/10/15/google-announces-recovery-contacts-ask-your-friends-and-family-to-help-you-sign-in-to-your-account/

Google has announced a new safety feature for securing user accounts. If you can't sign in to your account, you can now ask friends and family to help you regain access to your account.

Now, you can now recover your account in a new way. Let's say someone has forgotten their password, or their phone, or the device that had their passkey or 2FA authenticator, email client, etc. They can't receive a text to sign in, or use alternate methods immediately. Recovery Contacts is Google's answer to this problem. You simply add a trusted contact, like a close friend or a family member, to your account. It's important to note that the contact will need to have a Google account. That should be fairly obvious, but I think it's better to mention it. Don't confuse this with a recovery email address, that's different, as you own both accounts.

Recovery Contacts are rolling out to users slowly. I think this is a good feature, it may be useful for everyone, but especially for elderly people, or those who aren't tech-savvy, and may need assistance with recovering their account.

 

[RoboMan]

I hate this.

I know for a fact I won't fall for phishing or social engineering. But how can I know my recovery contact won't either? How can I know some cybercriminal won't impersonate me and request a password reset link?