The popular password manager company, 1Password, released passkey support for various devices over the last few years, but until now, Android users were unable to take advantage of this highly secure replacement for passwords.
After finishing beta testing, 1Password is rolling out full passkey support for Android devices. It’s one of the first major companies to adopt Android passkey support.
If this is the first time you’ve heard about passkeys, they’re a replacement for passwords that use biometric logins (like fingerprint censors and FaceID) to create a more secure environment. Regular passwords can easily be guessed, obtained in a data breach, or stolen phishing scams — for years, passwords have been a blatant cybersecurity flaw with no real answer.
While a passkey isn’t a perfect solution, as hackers can still find ways to exploit them, they’re significantly safer than passwords.
On top of being more secure, they make signing in much easier for users. Instead of memorizing a different password for every website and having to keep track of them, regularly rotate them, and so on, a passkey lets you sign in by using your device’s biometric features.
The new feature will be free for all 1Password subscribers on Android. The only thing users need to do is make sure their app is updated with the latest security patches. If you plan on using the passkey support, you also need an Android 14 or higher.
Not every app is passkey compatible yet. You’ll need to double-check which of your apps you can use a passkey for. 1Password recommends starting with WhatsApp, Amazon, and Uber, as these companies all have passkey support and regularly see hackers targeting passwords.
For now, you still can’t use passkeys for websites on your Android browser. This is due to technical restraints by Google; which hasn’t released the API that lets an app store passkeys for your browser.
That said, 1Password offers extensions for Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Edge, and other popular browsers.