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It means they have set aside some of their accounts and instructions so that you could reach them if something happened and they could not be reached themselves.

Nothing is open right now. Nothing opens because time passes, or because you ask. It opens only when the people they chose confirm that something real has happened — and it closes again as soon as they check back in.

Accepting costs you nothing and gives you nothing today. It exists so that on a bad day you can simply sign in as yourself, instead of being handed a code by a stranger at the worst possible moment.

Codes are single-use and they expire. If yours has been used or has run out, the person who named you can issue another one from their People screen in a few seconds.

Check the characters first: codes never contain the digits 0 or 1, or the letters O, I or U, precisely so they can be read aloud without confusion. A character that looks like a zero is the letter O — try the other one.

If it still fails, ask them to issue a fresh code rather than resending the old one.

You are answering one question: whether the situation is genuine. That is the whole of it.

You will never see anything inside their vault — not before you answer, and not afterwards. Confirming does not give you access; it lets the access they already arranged for somebody else begin.

"I do not know" is a real answer and it is safe to give. It is not counted either way, and somebody else will be asked instead.

If it turns out to be a false alarm, they can close everything by checking in. Nothing you do here is permanent.

Then say so, and use "Step down from this" on your standby screen. It removes you immediately and tells them.

This is not a discourtesy. Somebody who has quietly stopped agreeing is worse than useless in an emergency, because the plan still counts on them. Leaving honestly is the helpful thing to do.

On your standby screen there is a control to ask. It tells you before you use it exactly what asking costs: they are asked first, and everybody else they named is told that a request was made, whatever the outcome.

If they cannot answer within the window, the people they chose to confirm an emergency are asked instead. So it does not depend on them being reachable — which is the entire point.

That deliberate visibility is what makes it safe. Nobody can reach into somebody else’s accounts quietly.

Use "Lost your authenticator?" on the sign-in screen. You will need your email address and one of the recovery codes you saved when you created your vault.

You then set up an authenticator on the new phone and everything else is exactly as you left it. Nothing in your vault is touched — recovery replaces how you sign in, nothing more.

Then nobody can let you back into that account. Not us either.

This is not a policy we could choose to relax. Your vault is encrypted with keys we cannot read, and your identity is proved by things only you hold. There is no override, because an override is exactly what an attacker would use.

What still works: the people you named. If something happened to you, they can confirm an emergency and reach what you set aside for them, exactly as planned. The plan survives even when your access does not.

If you can still sign in today, open Account and issue a fresh list of recovery codes before you need them.

There is no way around this one — not by us, and not by anybody.

The banner at the top of every screen tells you, and it is deliberately hard to satisfy. It goes green only when the plan could genuinely run — not when you have filled in every field.

The most common reason it is not green is that you have named people but not verified them. Verification is a two-minute phone call: four words appear on your screen and the same four on theirs. Until you have made that call, their answer would not count towards opening anything.

What was opened stays open. Access closes when you check in, and only when you check in — it does not lapse or quietly withdraw. The people you chose keep what you gave them for as long as they need it.

What was not opened stays shut. Only the rules written for the trigger that fired are in force, and no further release happens on its own.

It is not a will and does not become one. What your family gets is continued access — enough to keep a household running — not a transfer of anything. Whoever advises you on a will or a power of attorney is still the person to ask.

Just update that one item. "Update" beside it lets you replace the value and correct what it is called; everything else stays as it is.

This is the part that decides whether any of it works in four years. A password rotated and never updated here becomes an entry your family opens, reads, and finds does not work — at the worst possible moment.

All three are on the Account screen, and none of them is a support request.

Export gives you a readable file of every item, decrypted in your browser. Cancelling a subscription deletes nothing — the free limits only affect adding more. Closing the account removes the vault, the people and the rules, and anybody relying on it loses access immediately.

Export first, then close. That order is deliberate.

That is not from us — and here is how you can always tell.

A real message from Relay never asks you to click a link and then sign in or enter anything. When something needs you, it gives you a short code, and you type it in at relaystandby.com — an address you come to yourself. So a message that asks you to click and then log in, or click and then enter a code, is an imitation.

In one rare failure case Relay may send a personal access link — and even that link asks you for nothing after you follow it. A link that asks for your code, your password, or anything else is not ours. If you are unsure, ignore the message and go to the site yourself.

No. Items are encrypted in your browser before they are sent, and we hold only the encrypted form. That applies to us, to anyone who obtained our database, and to anyone helping you set it up.

It is also why we cannot recover anything for you. The two facts are the same fact.

No — including the things they type themselves. An entry is sealed to you the moment it is saved, so they should check it before saving.

They also cannot decide who reaches what. Every such suggestion comes to you as a question, including if they suggest themselves, and you are told plainly when that is the case.

No. Relay does not offer estate or inheritance services, and that is a settled decision rather than a pending feature — no death-verified handover exists, and none is planned.

Everything you can choose today is reversible: it closes again when you check in. If a permanent handover is what you need, a solicitor is the right answer, and we would rather say so than sell you something adjacent.

There is no way around this one — not by us, and not by anybody.