1Password rolls out public passkey support to its mobile apps and web extensions

1Password users can now create passkeys and sign in to supported websites via its iOS and Android apps.

by Jess Weatherbed

Sep 20, 2023, 1:00 PM UTC

Passkeys: all the news and updates around passwordless sign-ins

Jess Weatherbed is a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.

Following months of teasing, 1Password has announced that support for passkeys — a new login technology that replaces passwords with authentication systems built into a user’s own device — is now generally available across the password managers’ mobile apps and web browser extensions. From today, 1Password users can create, manage, and sign in to supported websites with passkeys via the 1Password iOS and Android mobile apps and its browser extensions for “all major web browsers on Mac, Windows, and Linux.”

This update doesn’t include the ability to replace your 1Password account’s master password with a passkey, however, which has been teased by the company since February. That’s set to arrive “later this fall,” when the company says it’ll deliver its first “end-to-end passkey experience” across all platforms and devices.

What are passkeys?

Passkeys can replace traditional passwords with your device’s own authentication methods. That way, you can sign in to Gmail, PayPal, or iCloud just by activating Face ID on your iPhone, your Android phone’s fingerprint sensor, or with Windows Hello on a PC.

Built on WebAuthn (or Web Authentication) tech, two different keys are generated when you create a passkey: one stored by the website or service where your account is and a private key stored on the device you use to verify your identity.

Of course, if passkeys are stored on your device, what happens if it gets broken or lost? Since passkeys work across multiple devices, you may have a backup available. Many services that support passkeys will also reauthenticate to your phone number or email address or to a hardware security key, if you have one.

Apple’s and Google’s password vaults already support passkeys, and so do password managers like 1Password and Dashlane. 1Password has also created an online directory listing services that allow users to sign in using a passkey.

This is a notable milestone toward 1Password’s goal for a passwordless future. Passkey support has been available via the service’s beta browser extensions since June, but the lack of mobile support was a sore spot for folks like myself who prefer to use a smartphone to browse the web. There are some limitations — passkeys can only be created for websites and services that already support the new sign-in technology, for example — but this update at least makes accessing passkeys a little easier without reaching for a laptop.

Passkeys are expected to replace passwords as a new standard for login technology, but it’s going to take a while for them to be widely adopted. Several other password management services like Dashlane have similarly announced (or added) passkey support in a bid to avoid becoming obsolete, though 1Password says its own variation, called Universal Sign On, is superior because it supports multiple platforms and cross-platform syncing.

1Password has a growing directory of platforms that support passkeys if you want to check the compatibility of specific websites. Alternatively, 1Password’s Watchtower feature can keep track of your existing accounts and notify you when passkey support becomes available for those services.

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