Google doubles down on Passkeys in Password Manager; will soon lose Pixel exclusivity

Google included some privacy and security improvements for its Pixel phones with the December Feature Drop update, such as helping you set ‘Passkeys’ security system on all your compatible accounts. Now, the feature is available for all elegible Pixel devices (from 5a onwards), and they also confirmed that it will reach Android devices from other brands through the Password Manager in the future.

Along with the previous confirmation, the company’s blog post announced some new big services that now offer support for Passkeys. These include ‘Best Buy, DocuSign, eBay, Kayak, Money Forward, Nintendo, PayPal, Uber, Yahoo! Japan‘, while TikTok, the massively popular short video platform, will be compatible soon.

If you want to set up Passkeys on your compatible accounts, you can do it as follows:

1. Go to your Pixel device settings
2. Look for the Google Password Manager (‘Passwords & accounts’)
3. Tap on the ‘Simplify your sign-in’ card

In this section, Google Password Manager will explicitly tell you which of your accounts are compatible with the security system, after which you can complete the process with one tap, as simple as it sounds! Also, it is not only compatible with smartphones since it is available for Chrome browser too (Windows and macOS).

Google promotes ‘Passkeys’ as an alternative and more secure system to traditional passwords for logging into apps and websites. Now, instead of the classic, complex login credentials you’re used to, you’ll be able to access your compatible accounts the same way you unlock your phone: with a PIN, face scan, or fingerprint scan. The company also claims that this system is more resistant to phishing attacks.

With Passkeys, Google looks towards a ‘passwordless future’ where there are no complications to accessing your accounts while the risk of attacks against the security of your data is significantly reduced. Now that the company has confirmed that the system will be available on more Android devices besides Pixels, let’s hope that it won’t take long to reach everyone.

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