Do you often worry about remembering various passwords? Are you worried about your passwords being stolen or leaked by hackers? Do you think it’s too much trouble to enter your password and secondary verification every time you sign in to your account? To solve these problems, Google has launched a new feature called Passkey, which allows you to sign in to your Google account in a simpler and more secure way without using a password.
What is Passkey?
Passkey is a cryptography-based authentication technology that replaces your Google Account password with the password (PIN, fingerprint, facial recognition, etc.) already on your device (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, etc.). This way, when you sign in to your Google account, all you need to do is unlock your device and you can go directly to your account without having to enter your password or do secondary verification. This not only saves time but also improves security.
Why Passkey?
Google says that passwords are no longer adapted to the modern web environment because they are easily reused, hacked, and phished scams. Passkey avoids these problems because they can’t be written down or accidentally leaked to the wrong people, nor can they be compromised by cyber attacks or data breaches. Google believes Passkey is more robust than most current secondary authentication methods, allowing you to skip the password and secondary authentication steps.
How do I use Passkey?
Google officials that to use Passkey, you need to create a Google account for each device Passkey. in the background, the device will store a private key, and Google will upload a corresponding public key. When you sign in, Google will ask your device to sign a unique challenge code with the private key, which your device will only do once you unlock it. Google will then verify the signature with the public key. If you sign in with a new device (or temporary use), you can scan a QR code with Passkey on your phone and check the distance via Bluetooth. On the new device, you just need to select “Use Passkey from another device” and follow the prompts. This does not automatically transfer Passkey to the new device but simply uses the screen lock and distance on your phone to approve the one-time login. If the new device supports storing your own Passkey, Google will additionally ask if you want to create one on the new device.
For now, Passkey is just another option for signing in to your Google account. The existing sign-in method remains unchanged, and the password is the fallback method (for devices that do not support Passkey). But there may be changes in the future, with Google stating that
"Passkey is still a very new technology and will take some time to become common everywhere, but there are still security benefits to creating a Passkey today, as it allows us to keep a closer eye on logins that fall back to a password. As Passkey gains broader support and familiarity, we will be reviewing these behaviors more closely."