Google is making passkeys a default authentication option for all users. Anyone with a personal Google account can now use passkeys for signing in, skipping the traditional passwords. The age-old method of passwords isn’t going away, though. You can use either authentication system to access your account.
Passkeys are now available for all Google users
Passkey is a more secure and convenient alternative to passwords that you use to access your online accounts. It has several benefits over the traditional method. Firstly, you don’t have to memorize a complex combination of text, numbers, and characters. You also don’t need a password manager to store your passkeys securely. Your device will automatically create a passkey for your account and store it locally.
Whenever you need to access your account on an app or the website, the device will pull up the passkey and let you authenticate it using your fingerprint or other unlocking options for your phone or computer. This makes signing into accounts faster. Moreover, in the case of a data breach, passkeys ensure that no one has access to your account. Passwords don’t offer this much safety.
The tech industry has been working on making passkeys default for several years now. The work came to fruition earlier this year. Many platforms have since added support for the next-gen authentication system, including PayPal, TikTok, Nintendo, Dashlane, 1Password, Uber, eBay, and more. In May, Google enabled passkeys for users with personal accounts. It expanded the feature to Workspace and Cloud Identity customers a month later.
However, passkeys still weren’t defaulted for Google users. That’s changing now. The next time you sign in to your Google account, you will see a prompt to create and use passkeys. You can click on the prompt to proceed. Once you have set a passkey for your account, it will save you time during future sign-ins. Google says passkeys are 40% faster than passwords, while simultaneously offering better security.
You can continue to use passwords
If you don’t find passkeys more convenient, Google will let you continue using passwords. You can revert to the traditional method by turning the “Skip password when possible” toggle off in your Google Account settings. However, passkeys may completely replace passwords at some point in the future. As Google says, “New technologies take time to catch on — so passwords may be around for a little while.” The company is encouraging the industry to move to passkeys, “making passwords a rarity, and eventually obsolete.”
2023-10-11 15:05:30