After some testing in the unstable version (Chrome Canary), PassKeys is becoming a reality in the stable Chrome environment. It’s set to change the way we access our online accounts so that we don’t have to insert a password anymore. However, that also means you’ll need a mobile device around you if you plan to sign in to any social or online platform.
The move to include PassKeys on Chrome is to improve online security. As you may recall, many browsers, including Google’s, suffered from major hacks in the past. While the password managers were meant to be safe, these hackers still managed to log into accounts and steal valuable credentials.
PassKeys provides a solution to this problem. When you try to log into an online account, it stores a secret in the cloud. With this measure in place, you’ll need to have your mobile device in hand to access the account with this secret. That means that it doesn’t matter if hackers somehow discover these secret PassKeys. Without your smartphone or tablet, they can’t do anything with it.
Right now, PassKeys is only compatible with a few devices. They’re still working on Android and macOS compatibility, but the issue is with Windows. You can only use it with Windows 11, which forms a minority of Microsoft OS users at the moment. Since 70% are still using Windows 10, PassKey availability will be limited.
It seems to be a step in the right direction, but only time will tell. Even if PassKeys provides a more secure way of logging in, that doesn’t mean you can relax. You still need to make sure you remain safe online and don’t try to enter phishing sites. At least you’ll have one less thing to worry about as long as you can work out how the PassKey system works.
