Google Makes 'Passkeys' The Default Login Option: A Step Towards A Passwordless World

According to Google, Passkeys is the "simplest and most secure way to sign in to your Google Account."

The Mountain View-based company officially introduced support for Google sign-ins through passkeys in May 2023. At that time, during the "World Password Day," big tech companies have agreed on implementing a passwordless sign-ins on all platforms they control.

In an attempt to make passwords a thing of the past, the three companies plan to use FIDO passkey technology across all of their mobile, desktop, and browser.

The joint effort means that passwordless authentication should be available an all major device platforms.

In the days when people are already familiar with unlocking their phones with their fingerprint or face, Passkeys is just like that. the passwordless sign in method is very easy to use, and straightforward, and that it's a no brainer to use.

And also because it's passwordless, meaning that users are not required required to manually input their credentials, the process of signing in also "40% faster."

Passkeys is a technology developed by the FIDO Alliance (with members including Google, Apple, and Microsoft), a a way for people to sign in to websites and apps.

When users sign up to a website or app, they have to provide their login credentials, which typically include an email address and a password.

The website and app then have to store this credential on their servers, and keep them away from prying eyes and hackers.

With Passkeys, websites and apps don't have to do this anymore.

Users using Passkeys can simply say what they say they are, through their own device's authentication system, like your fingerprint, face ID, or PIN.

If they are what they say they are, the website or app will grant them access, and let them sign in.

So here, username and password combination is no longer stored inside servers.

It's literally a BYOD for authentication.

Because of this, using Passkeys is easier and "more secure alternative to passwords" because the data cannot be phished or stolen.

Besides the fact that the FIDO-powered technology uses public key cryptographic protocols, the technology also doesn't transmit any data over the internet.

When Google agreed on implementing the passwordless login system back in May, the company initially introduced it to users as an option they can opt out.

But this time, Google is making it the default option for users to sign in to their Google Account.

However, Passkeys is still a new technology, and that killing passwords is not yet possible.

This is why Google is still giving users the option to use passwords and opt-out of Passkeys by turning off the "skip password when possible" option in their account settings.

In the future, technology like Passkeys has the capacity to completely replace passwords.

The more websites and apps support the technology, the more likely people will use less passwords.

According to Google in its blog post, Uber and eBay have enabled Passkeys — giving people the option to ditch passwords when signing-in on their platforms. Google also said that WhatsApp is also supporting this technology.

At this time, there are some limitations through.

For example, only Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Safari support Passkeys.

And while Passkeys can be created on devices running Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Google's Chrome OS, Linux is not yet supported.