Google imagines a world where we no longer need passwords. In a blog post posted recently, the web giant announced that Chrome now supports passkeys, this alternative authentication method that wants to replace our good old passwords.
Available on Android, macOS and Windows
Passkeys, which are slowly gaining ground on the web, are based on a cryptographic key system. During an identification attempt, a website will pose a mathematical “problem” to your device, a problem that only it will be able to answer thanks to the use of its private key. To ensure that it is indeed you, the device in question (whether it is a mobile or a computer) will ask you to identify yourself via your pin code, your fingerprint or a scan of your face if you use facial recognition. This tool replaces passwords advantageously, because there are no long and complex sequences of characters to remember.
Already available in beta versions of the browser for a while, support for passkeys has therefore officially arrived in version 108 of Chrome, whether on Windows, macOS or Android. If a site offers passkeys authentication, logging in will simply be “use the same method as to unlock your device“explains Google.
In short, if you are on a mobile, a quick scan of your fingerprint or entering your PIN code will be enough to identify you. And if you’re on a PC, just scan a QR Code and enter its unlocking method on your mobile to unlock access to the site on your computer. In addition to that, the passkeys using a standardized identification protocol, it is possible to use an iOS or Android phone to identify yourself. “Passkeys do not leave your mobile device when you log in this way. Only a securely generated code is exchanged with the site. Thus, unlike a password, there is no risk of leakage” indicates Google.