Passkeys in 2025: your complete guide to passwordless sign-in

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Can you ditch passwords entirely for passkeys? We explore when it’s possible, and when it’s still a challenge.
 
Imagine ditching passwords and SMS verification codes, and instead signing in to apps and websites with a simple fingerprint scan or even a smile at your camera. That’s the promise of passkeys. What’s more, unlike passwords, passkeys are resistant to theft. This means you could read news about data breaches — like the recent one affecting 16 billion accounts — without your heart sinking.

Under various names, this sign-in method is strongly recommended by WhatsApp, Xbox, Microsoft 365, YouTube, and dozens of other popular online services. But what does using passkeys look like in practice? We’ve covered this in detail for Google accounts, and today, we’ll explore how other online services and platforms support passkeys. In this first post, we’ll cover the basics of using passkeys on one or multiple devices. In our next post, we’ll dive into more complex scenarios, such as signing in to your account on a public computer, using Linux, or storing your passkeys on a dongle.

What’s a passkey?

A passkey is a unique digital login key created for a specific website or app. It’s securely stored on your device: your smartphone, computer, or a dedicated USB dongle such as a YubiKey or Google Titan Security Key. When you sign in, your device uses biometrics or a PIN to verify it’s really you. After verification, your device sends a secure response, generated from that unique passkey, to the website. This mechanism offers strong protection against account theft, which is possible with traditional passwords — be that through phishing attacks or website breaches. Passkeys are supported across Apple, Google, and Microsoft devices, and theoretically, with cloud synchronization, they should be accessible across all your devices. For a deeper dive into the internal workings of passkeys, check out our previous article on the subject.

How secure and user-friendly are passkeys?

Before you fully commit to using passkeys, it’s worth considering how convenient they’d be for your specific setup. While the technology is becoming widely adoption, each website and platform implements it differently, using varying terminology for the same features. Additionally, transferring or syncing passkeys can present challenges.

If your smartphone is your only gadget, you are all-in on Apple devices, or you have a couple of recent Android or ChromeOS devices, passkeys will likely save you time when signing in to websites and apps, with minimal hassle.

However, if you use multiple platforms and own many devices, we strongly recommend a third-party password and passkey manager, such as Kaspersky Password Manager, for a smoother experience. Even then, you might still encounter occasional incompatibilities or quirky interfaces on some sites and apps.

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