What the hell are passkeys? (Runway)

Passkeys are an alternative to passwords that allow you to sign in to any website or app that supports this technology without needing to define/remember a password.

Over the last couple of years, the tech world has been witnessing many companies updating their products to add support to this new technology, including tech giants like Apple, who introduced several APIs and device features related to passkeys in iOS 16, and Google, who has been pushing passkeys hard since announcing passkeys support for Chrome and Gmail back in 2022.

When I first saw Apple and Google’s announcements, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. The fact that the tech industry has been trying to move away from old-school passwords wasn't news to me, but I asked myself: didn't we already solve this problem when products started allowing users to register a "secondary" authentication requirement, such as receiving an SMS containing a PIN code?

I then decided to look deeper into this topic, and was so pleasantly surprised by what I found that I thought it would be cool to share it with you. In this article, we'll take a look at what passkeys are, why companies like Apple and Google are adding support for them, how they work under the hood, and whether or not you should convert your own accounts to use them and build support for them in your mobile apps!