Go Passwordless: Google Accounts Now Support Passkey Sign-Ins
Google is taking another step to kill the password. The company now officially supports Google sign-ins through passkeys, a security system designed to one day replace old-school passwords.
The tech giant is now nudging users to try out passkeys when logging into personal Google accounts, which could help drive adoption and awareness of the security technology.
“Passkeys let users sign in to apps and sites the same way they unlock their devices: with a fingerprint, a face scan, or a screen lock PIN,” the company said in its announcement(Opens in a new window). “And, unlike passwords, passkeys are resistant to online attacks like phishing, making them more secure than things like SMS one-time codes.”
Indeed, passkeys phase out passwords, which can be stolen via a data breach, malware, or even lucky guesses. Instead, your laptop or smartphone will create a private and unique cryptographic key bound to the device. Your Google account will then issue a digital “challenge” that the passkey can sign and use to unlock access.
No password data is ever exchanged, denying hackers a chance to steal the login method. When signing in via a passkey, the site will simply ask you to complete a second authentication step, be it a fingerprint scan or screen-lock PIN, to ensure it’s you logging.
Last year, Google took a major step in supporting the security technology by joining Apple and Microsoft in adding support for passkeys on their operating systems and browsers. This opened the door for third-party websites to adopt passkeys. However, Google itself refrained from making passkeys an official sign-in method on user accounts. (Apple, on the other hand, went all in.)
That changes with today’s rollout, which comes ahead of World
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