Cross-platform passkey login and storage is nearing
Passwords protect your online accounts from misuse and cyber crime, but advanced phishing scams, ransomware, and other cyberattacks make it challenging to ensure passwords alone would suffice. You can start by using one of the best password managers around, so you can eliminate password reuse without remembering hundreds of unique credentials. Passkeys are the next step in authentication, combining convenience with faster logins, and are quickly gaining popularity. Now, password manager 1Password has announced support for saving passkeys, with full support coming this fall.
Passkeys are cryptographic keys which are used to sign you into accounts online. One half of the key is stored on the service you’re accessing, and the other is stored securely on your device, authenticated using biometrics like a fingerprint. The biometric layer acts as a secondary security measure, eliminating the need for conventional SMS or email-based two-factor authentication, which is vulnerable to phishing. Your sign-in attempt succeeds only if the two keys match. Since you don’t need to type in a password or remember the key manually, sign-ins are more secure and immune to phishing attempts.
Unsurprisingly, Google has doubled down in attempts to promote passkeys, and most password managers have followed suit. The search titan even compiled detailed statistics suggesting passkeys are faster to use and less likely to fail than conventional passwords.
How to set up passkey storage on 1Password through a browser extension
1Password announced beta testing for passkey support in May this year, but you could try the feature only through browser extensions on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Safari. Now, 1Password’s mobile apps on Android and iOS are picking up support for saving passkeys you need to sign in to other platforms. Arriving at the same conclusion as Google, 1Password says using passkeys are twice as fast and have a four times higher success rate than a conventional password, while being the safer option of the two.
1Password users can now store passkeys they use to sign in to other platforms. The keys are stored with full end-to-end encryption to ensure they can be stored securely. It also means you could share your passkeys with friends, family, and colleagues, even if they aren’t 1Password users themselves. This feature can be handy in a corporate setting or a larger family where you share your 1Password account to store credentials, or just use the same credentials on many devices.
This fall, 1Password plans to start beta testing passkey login as well, replacing its own master password with a passkey. The service will back this important step by adding in support for trusted devices you can link with your account, and recovery codes as a failsafe for when you lose a trusted device. Support for passkeys on the 1Password app for other operating systems like Windows, Linux, and MacOS is also expected this fall. This will make seamless cross-platform access even more convenient.
Most popular apps and segment leaders like WhatsApp, TikTok, and Google have embraced the passwordless future. However, widespread adoption where websites offer setting up a passkey on the sign-up page is still a distant dream. However, password managers like 1Password are ready to store all those passkeys when you start using them, and even have a helpful list of all the services supporting passkey login.
