How to use Contact Key Verification on iPhone

You can use Contact Key Verification to receive automatic alerts that help verify you’re communicating only with the people you intend. You can also generate unique codes that you and your contacts can compare simultaneously in the Messages app to further verify each other’s identities.

And you can post your Public Verification Code to a social media account, so other people can confirm that it’s you when they send you a message. You can save other people’s codes in the Contacts app, too.

Note: Contact Key Verification is designed to prevent highly sophisticated cyberattacks; it isn’t designed to prevent fraud such as phishing or other text-based scams.

Before you begin

Contact Key Verification works only when all of the following are true:

• Your devices are passcode or password protected.
• You’re signed in to iCloud and iMessage with the same Apple Account and you have two-factor authentication turned on for your Apple Account.
• The person you’re trying to verify is in your contacts.

Turn on Contact Key Verification

1. Open Settings, tap [your name], and then tap Contact Key Verification.
2. Turn on Verification in iMessage and tap Continue.

Note: When you turn on Contact Key Verification, you’ll be asked to update all of your Apple devices to compatible software. Any device that can’t be updated needs to be signed out of iMessage before you can turn on this feature.

Share a Public Verification Code

To let other people verify your identity, you can post your Public Verification Code on a social media account or share it in a message.

1. Open Settings, tap [your name], and then tap Contact Key Verification.
2. Tap Show Public Verification Code.
3. To share your Public Verification Code, tap Copy Verification Code, tap OK, and then paste the code wherever you want to share it.

Someone else’s Public Verification Code can help you verify their identity, too. Say someone shares a Public Verification Code with you, but it doesn’t match the code on their social media profile. In that case, hold off on sending them messages until you can confirm their identity.

Generate verification codes in Messages

You and your contacts can get a higher level of security by generating a verification code in Messages, then saving each other’s Public Verification Codes in Contacts. It helps when you want to verify each other simultaneously, or when the code your contact shares with you doesn’t match the Public Verification Code you received.

1. Open the Messages app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the person’s name at the top of the conversation, scroll down, and tap Verify Contact.

   When the other person taps Verify Contact on their device, a contact verification code appears.

3. Compare the verification codes on both devices. Do one of the following:
   • If the codes match: Tap Mark as Verified and then tap Update to add the verification code to the other person’s contact card.
   • If the codes don’t match: You might not be communicating with the person that you intend. Tap No Match. Stop sending messages to the person until you can verify their identity.

Once you verify a contact, Messages shows a checkmark next to their name. You can check their verification status in the Conversation Details, too, or find their Public Verification Code in Contacts.