Account and sharing
Sharing devices
How the family gets access - and how limited that access is, whether you like it or not.
Sharing lets someone else control your devices from their own account. It's the alternative to handing out your password, and it's always the right way to do it.
How to do it
Sharing is set per device, under the device's Share section.
- The recipient creates their own Shelly account. You can't share with someone who doesn't have one.
- Open the device you want to share.
- Go to Share and add the recipient's email address — the one they registered the account with.
A device can be shared with up to 100 members.
What the person you share with can actually do
This is the big limitation of sharing, and it catches most people out:
The person you share with can only control the device. Nothing else.
| Owner | Person you share with | |
|---|---|---|
| Switch on and off | Yes | Yes |
| Change the device's settings | Yes | No |
| Put the device in a room | Yes | No |
| Put the device in a group | Yes | No |
| Use the device in a scene | Yes | No |
| Update firmware | Yes | No |
The limitation that hurts most is that a shared device can't be used in the recipient's own scenes. Your partner can switch off the outdoor light, but can't build a scene of their own to do it automatically.
The consequence: who should own the home?
Sharing is built for guests and children, not for two adults who share a home on equal terms.
If you both want to build scenes and change settings, the app has no good answer. In practice it comes down to one of two options:
- A household account that you both log in to, with sharing to everyone else. It works, but it breaks the principle that each person should have their own password — and leaves no trace of who did what.
- An owner account, with sharing to the other person. It settles who's responsible, but one of you has to call the other for every change.
We recommend the household account for couples who genuinely share the installation, with a unique password in a shared password manager. But it's a choice with a downside, not a solution.
Removing sharing
Sharing is removed in the same place it was added. The person you shared with loses access immediately.
If someone moves out, or you sell the house: go through your shares. They stay in place until someone removes them, and a device you shared three years ago is still shared today.