Apple has always been ahead of time with its thinking and inventions when it comes to technology and the tech giant has come up with a lot of devices, operating systems and features that has changed the world of tech for the better.
Now Apple is on another mission, which may remove your worries of remembering your password for every account. Apple believes that passwords are an old technique now, which have been going on for years for users to keep their accounts secured, however the string of text that the password holds is more likely to be easily hacked, phished or forgotten now and considering how people use the same password for multiple devices it is more at risk to cyber criminals.
Hence the company at the WWDC announced that they are working towards something which they call “Passkeys in iCloud Keychain”. This new method by the company will allow users to use Face or Touch ID or simply a security key to login into their accounts rather than a written password, and the company believes that this may make things easier for users as they will not have to remember their passwords considering how the same Passkey will be synced to all other Apple devices using iCloud.
At the conference, Apple spokesperson’s showed a chart which compared their Passkeys method to various other password methods like memorizing passwords, Password manager etc. and the most number of tick checks on how easy and convenient all these methods are was received by the new Passkeys method which assured the company that this new feature may be a lot better than the old ways. According to the company, the passkeys are easy to use, recoverable, works with all Apple devices simply through the same iCloud ID and is even phishing resistant. The only drawback with this is that it does not work for non-Apple devices because this feature is iCloud dependent and while this may not be a problem for people who only use Apple products, the company assures they will be looking into cross platform services soon after.
The functionality of this new feature is dependent on WebAuthn standard, which is the same functionality process Apple used last year to offer its users, password less logins on their Safari’s in iOS and MacOS and has also been used by companies like Google and Microsoft for some of their products over the time.
However, according to the company this time the functionality of WebAuthn has been used in a different way and unlike previously it is now used to login into different applications on your Apple devices all connected with the same passkey through their iCloud ID.
The authentication experience engineer at Apple, Garrett Davidson showed how this new feature will work. He created an account on an app and instead of putting in a password and username like we normally do for creating an account, he entered a password using his face as an authentication and even showed the public how he could later login to the app through his Face ID as a password. This shows how in the future with evolving technology, we may not need to remember or create password altogether.
The company is introducing this new feature on iOS 15 and macOS Monterey which will soon be launched, but this feature is not here to stay. Apple is only releasing it for initial public testing and soon it will be turned off on both the devices by default.
Similar to Apple, Microsoft and Google have and are working towards a pass free tech world, however this is not something that will happen in a matter of days, but it’s going to take time and a lot of testing before you get to use such passkey features officially for all your accounts. Till then stay tuned to see a change in the tech world with this.
Read next: iOS 15 allow users to add several copies of the same app on home screen
Now Apple is on another mission, which may remove your worries of remembering your password for every account. Apple believes that passwords are an old technique now, which have been going on for years for users to keep their accounts secured, however the string of text that the password holds is more likely to be easily hacked, phished or forgotten now and considering how people use the same password for multiple devices it is more at risk to cyber criminals.
Hence the company at the WWDC announced that they are working towards something which they call “Passkeys in iCloud Keychain”. This new method by the company will allow users to use Face or Touch ID or simply a security key to login into their accounts rather than a written password, and the company believes that this may make things easier for users as they will not have to remember their passwords considering how the same Passkey will be synced to all other Apple devices using iCloud.
At the conference, Apple spokesperson’s showed a chart which compared their Passkeys method to various other password methods like memorizing passwords, Password manager etc. and the most number of tick checks on how easy and convenient all these methods are was received by the new Passkeys method which assured the company that this new feature may be a lot better than the old ways. According to the company, the passkeys are easy to use, recoverable, works with all Apple devices simply through the same iCloud ID and is even phishing resistant. The only drawback with this is that it does not work for non-Apple devices because this feature is iCloud dependent and while this may not be a problem for people who only use Apple products, the company assures they will be looking into cross platform services soon after.
The functionality of this new feature is dependent on WebAuthn standard, which is the same functionality process Apple used last year to offer its users, password less logins on their Safari’s in iOS and MacOS and has also been used by companies like Google and Microsoft for some of their products over the time.
However, according to the company this time the functionality of WebAuthn has been used in a different way and unlike previously it is now used to login into different applications on your Apple devices all connected with the same passkey through their iCloud ID.
The authentication experience engineer at Apple, Garrett Davidson showed how this new feature will work. He created an account on an app and instead of putting in a password and username like we normally do for creating an account, he entered a password using his face as an authentication and even showed the public how he could later login to the app through his Face ID as a password. This shows how in the future with evolving technology, we may not need to remember or create password altogether.
The company is introducing this new feature on iOS 15 and macOS Monterey which will soon be launched, but this feature is not here to stay. Apple is only releasing it for initial public testing and soon it will be turned off on both the devices by default.
Similar to Apple, Microsoft and Google have and are working towards a pass free tech world, however this is not something that will happen in a matter of days, but it’s going to take time and a lot of testing before you get to use such passkey features officially for all your accounts. Till then stay tuned to see a change in the tech world with this.
Read next: iOS 15 allow users to add several copies of the same app on home screen
