What Does It Mean?

Apple is entering the passwordless era with the use of passkeys at the WWDC 2022 keynote on Monday. Apple, Microsoft, and Google have joined the FIDO Alliance to ensure you can log in to accounts without the help of passwords. And the passkeys on the Safari web browser provide us a preview of how the company wants to make the passwordless logins a reality.

On the contrary, Apple wants people to change to passkeys that are claimed to be hack-free, and also they can’t be leaked. Apple is keeping the passkeys on the local device itself. The passkey is secure behind end-to-end encryption.

On the other hand, Passwords are normally alpha-numeric with some special characters included. But with passkeys, nobody knows the fusion, making it complex for people to crack your digital accounts. Apple is integrating passkeys with Face ID or Touch ID  to make things more secure. In case of a possible data breach, It is not storing the passkeys in the cloud, which makes it safer than other applications. 

Apart from it, Apple is introducing Passkeys to iOS and macOS that can bring the whole Apple ecosystem into play. Also, if you have support for most Apple devices, cross-syncing becomes possible via the iCloud Keychain option. The use of passkeys means you can log in through the web browser using your iPhone without passwords.

In addition to Apple, Google and Microsoft have also started progress on their respective passwordless systems. Google shared the update at the I/O 2022 last month, and we expect this feature to roll out for users maybe next year.

Similarly, Microsoft also has the same timeline for its feature rollout. But Apple now has a clear benefit over these two technology leaders, and passkeys show us the possibilities of account logins without passwords. All these companies are introducing the option to their respective products, so it would be interesting to see if they can combine the tool into cross-platform apps and services shortly.