After several months of teasing, password manager 1Password has now launched its public beta for passkeys — a new login technology that allows users to replace passwords with authentication systems built into their devices. From today, 1Password users can now create, store, and share passkeys for supported websites by installing the 1Password beta browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox, or Brave.
1Password launches its public passkey beta
The public 1Password passkey beta for web browsers allows users to replace passwords on supported websites with their device’s own authentication.
The public 1Password passkey beta for web browsers allows users to replace passwords on supported websites with their device’s own authentication.
is a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.
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.
Passkeys can only be created for websites and services that have rolled out their own support. 1Password is keeping a directory of platforms where passkeys can already be used, in addition to a new tab where users can vote on which sites and services they’d like to see passkey support. This doesn’t guarantee that those platforms will actually add passkey support, but perhaps it’ll motivate some companies to develop the feature if they see enough demand. Alternatively, 1Password also has a feature called Watchtower that keeps tabs on your existing accounts and notifies you when passkey support becomes available.
Today’s release doesn’t include all of the passkey features coming to 1Password, however. Passkey support on mobile is still unavailable, as it’s still being developed for 1Password’s iOS and Android mobile apps, for example. You also can’t replace your 1Password master password with a passkey just yet, either, but that feature is currently expected to launch next month.
1Password claims it provides a superior passkey experience compared to offerings like Google Password Manager or Apple’s passkey support (which relies on the iCloud Keychain to sync passkeys across Apple devices) because those services only synchronize access on devices within the same ecosystem. You can still create passkeys for the same account on devices in different ecosystems; it just might mean doing it more than once. By comparison, 1Password’s Universal Sign On feature supports multiple platforms and devices with cross-platform syncing.
While 1Password’s goal is to eventually move away from passwords entirely, the platform isn’t ditching them just yet. It’s expected that passkeys will eventually become the new standard for login technology, but widespread adoption is going to take some time. Rival password managers like Dashlane have similarly announced support for passkey technology in the face of becoming obsolete as passwords are phased out.
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Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Richard Lawler
