Google to roll out Passkeys support to Android, Chrome for better safety

Tech giant Google has announced to roll out Passkey support to both Android and Chrome for better safety.

Passkeys are a safer alternative to passwords and other phishable forms of authentication.

"They cannot be reused, don't leak in server breaches, and protect users from phishing attacks", the company said in a blog post late on Wednesday.

"Passkeys are built on industry standards and work across different operating systems and browser ecosystems, and can be used for both websites and apps", it added.

Passkeys follow user experience (UX) patterns and build on the existing experience of password autofill.

To avoid lockouts in the event of device loss, Passkeys on users' phones and PCs are stored up and synced through the cloud.

Users can also login into apps and websites on other nearby devices using Passkeys stored on their phones.

The key enables two key capabilities -- on Android devices, users can generate and utilise Passkeys that are securely synchronised through the Google Password Manager.

Through the 'WebAuthn API', developers can add Passkey support to their websites for end users utilising Chrome, Android, and other supported platforms.

Developers can use Chrome Canary and sign up for the Google Play Services beta to test this as of right now. Later this year, both features will be generally accessible via stable channels, said the company.

Apps associated with the same domain will readily accept passkeys generated through the web API and vice versa.

Passkeys work across several systems and browsers, including Windows, macOS and iOS, and ChromeOS, with a consistent user experience because they are based on industry standards, the company said.

--IANS

aj/na