What happens to your important documents and passwords if you're suddenly not around to unlock them?

I wanted Kinship Vault to have an answer without running a server that stores your data or decides when you're gone.

You create a separate Recovery Vault, choose what goes into it, name a trustee, and set a 30, 60, or 90-day check-in window, followed by a grace period.

While you're checking in, the trustee sees nothing. Not the contents. Not the filenames.

If both the check-in window and grace period pass, the trustee can deliberately release the Recovery Vault on their phone with Face ID. What they receive is a separate, read-only vault. Your own vault isn't touched.

The interesting part is that **there is no Kinship server running the timer or deciding that you're gone**. iCloud carries the encrypted Recovery Vault and signed check-in information, while the evaluation and release happen on the trustee's device.

# The whole thing, owner side + trustee side

[https://kinshipvault.app/video/dms-demo.mp4](https://kinshipvault.app/video/dms-demo.mp4)

I also wrote up exactly how it works, including the security model and limitations:

[https://kinshipvault.app/blog/what-is-a-dead-mans-switch/](https://kinshipvault.app/blog/what-is-a-dead-mans-switch/)

**Shared Vaults** :  if someone needs access while you're still around, that's what **Shared Vaults** are for. You can invite another person to a vault, they use their own device and credentials, and removing a member rotates the vault key:

[https://kinshipvault.app/blog/introducing-shared-vaults/#watch](https://kinshipvault.app/blog/introducing-shared-vaults/#watch)

Kinship Vault is free to try on iPhone, iPad and Mac:

[https://apps.apple.com/app/kinship-vault/id6764678332](https://apps.apple.com/app/kinship-vault/id6764678332)

[https://kinshipvault.app](https://kinshipvault.app)

I'd genuinely like to know whether this is something you'd actually use, and especially whether there are edge cases with the handoff that I haven't thought through.

I built a dead man's switch for your digital life that doesn't rely on any server