Google is killing passwords and replacing them with passkeys — what you need to know

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Google has announced that it has begun rolling out passkey support for all Google accounts in an effort to further secure them from password reuse, phishing and being stolen by hackers.

After setting up passkeys with your Google account, you’ll no longer need to enter your password or use 2-step verification when logging into Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs and the search giant’s other products according to BleepingComputer.

What makes passkeys better than passwords

Holographic login above laptop keyboard — (Image credit: Song_about_summer / Shutterstock)

The best thing about passkeys is that each one is a unique digital key that can’t be reused which can make a huge difference when it comes to fighting phishing attacks. Likewise, since they’re stored in an encrypted format on your devices instead of on a company’s servers, they also can’t be leaked online following a data breach.

By using biometric authentication, PINs or patterns for signing in, you also won’t need to create strong, complex passwords or have to remember them. Passkeys rely on a public key and a private key to work. While the public key is stored on a company’s servers, the private key remains on your devices and can’t be easily stolen.

When you login using a passkey instead of a password, the only information shared with Google is the public key along with the signature used to verify your private key. Fortunately, neither contains any of your biometric information.

If you do happen to lose the device that has your passkeys on it, don’t worry as passkeys are backed up and synced to the cloud. In order to recover them, you just need to provide the lock screen PIN, password or pattern from your old smartphone.

How to set up passkeys for your Google account

A picture showing how passkeys work with Google accounts — (Image credit: Google)

At the moment, Google is offering passkey support as another sign-in option when logging into your Google account. However, as the transition to only using passkeys will take time, passwords and two-step verification will still work for Google Accounts.

Passkeys are now generally available and if you want to try them out for yourself, you can do so here. However, you won’t have the option to use them with your work account just yet as they still aren’t supported with Google Workspace accounts. When passkeys do become available for Google Workspace, an administrator at your company will need to enable them before you can use them.

Now that Google, Microsoft, Apple and many other tech giants have fully embraced passkeys and have begun rolling out support for them, we could see passwords disappear almost entirely over the next few years.

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Anthony Spadafora is the managing editor for security and home office furniture at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches to password managers and the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. He also reviews standing desks, office chairs and other home office accessories with a penchant for building desk setups. Before joining the team, Anthony wrote for ITProPortal while living in Korea and later for TechRadar Pro after moving back to the US. Based in Houston, Texas, when he’s not writing Anthony can be found tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.