Hacks, lost accounts and compromised emails may be a thing of the past with companies moving towards a “passwordless future”. Google is the latest to bring this future to the present with its introduction of “Passkeys”, a new way to log in to your Google accounts moving forward.
“Passkeys” will use biometrics like facial recognition and fingerprints to log in to your accounts. How? Well, it will use your smartphone. Yes, this also means that you’ll be able to use your screen lock PIN to log in to your Google account. However, it also makes your password obsolete. So, you won’t need to have that notebook or that codenamed document on your PC with all your passwords recorded. According to Google, these passkeys resist online attacks like phishing and are more secure than SMS one-time codes.
That said, Google isn’t forcing all users to immediately migrate over to using passkeys. Instead, users will be able to opt-in to using Passkeys in addition to their password and two-factor authentication (2FA) by going to g.co/passkeys. For companies using Google Workspaces, administrators will soon be able to activate passkeys for their end users.
Setting up passkeys for your Google account is pretty straightforward. You can either use the g.co/passkeys link or look under your account’s security settings. You will now see a new setting called passkeys. There you will be given the option to activate passkeys for your account. It will automatically turn your most recently used Android devices into passkeys. So, you may want to clean up the list of devices with access to your account. Once you activate the feature, you’ll be prompted on your phone or Windows device when you sign in to verify your identity.
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