What is a passkey, and should I use one?
A passkey lets you sign in with your face, fingerprint or device PIN instead of typing a password. It only works on the real website it was made for, so a fake site can't trick you into handing it over. Yes, it's worth turning on for important accounts that offer it.
Behind the scenes, a passkey is a pair of matching digital keys. The website keeps the public half. Your device keeps the private half and never sends it anywhere. That means there's nothing to guess, reuse or type into a scam page. Passkeys follow a shared standard backed by Apple, Google and Microsoft, so they work across brands.
Passkeys usually live in a password manager, such as Apple's Passwords app, Google Password Manager or apps like 1Password and Bitwarden, which sync them to your other devices. On a borrowed computer, you can often sign in by scanning a QR code with your phone. You can usually keep your password too, so it's an easy upgrade.
- Open an important account's security settings, such as email or banking
- Look for Passkeys or Create a passkey
- Confirm with your face, fingerprint or PIN
- Pick one main place to save passkeys so you always know where they are
- Keep a backup way to sign in in case you lose a device
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Passkeys Everywhere
From the Passwords, Passkeys & Two-Step course. Use passkeys on any phone, browser or password manager, even on a borrowed computer.
Try it on the practice computer Read the full lesson
The reading is free. The hands-on lab is part of Pro.