RIP passwords: Google accounts now support passkeys

Google is kicking off the death of the password on the eve of World Password Day. What a way to celebrate

- ALAINA YEE

Managing passwords is pain. Tools exist to help (like password managers, fave.co/3IRkfRz) but staying on top of them remains dreary work.

But a new system for securing accounts is filtering through the web-passkeys. They take away a lot of the burden associated with passwords. You simply need a device capable of serving as an authenticator to set up a passkey, then you’ll use a biometric method on that device (face identification, fingerprint) or a PIN to authorize logins. And after much anticipation, their rollout is starting to pick up steam—as evidenced by this week’s launch of passkey support for Google accounts, right on the eve of World Password Day 2023.

Passkeys first started generating buzz last year when Google, Microsoft, and Apple all pledged to adopt them (fave.co/3BAbv9q). A form of passwordless sign-in based on FIDO standards (fave.co/3IbdMfd), passkeys manage your login info through public-key encryption, also known as asymmetrical encryption (fave.co/42xpNDP), in which a public key and private key are generated. For a passkey, the public key is held by the website you’re logging into, while you have the private key. You can store the private key to a device, but also sync it to an account for access from other devices. The two keys together let you get into the website. Google first started with support for storing passkeys in Chrome and Android back in October 2022. Now you can log into your Google account via passkeys, too.