ZDNETYou probably have a lot of passwords in your life.Even with the help of password managers, passwords are becoming more and more of a burden for most people.Long gone are the days of being able to use and reuserubbish passwordslike p455w0rd123. Now, all of your online accounts need to be protected by passwords that are complex and unique.You also need to be ever vigilant in case one of your many passwords is compromised.There's a better solution: Passkeys. What are passkeys? Passkeys are an authentication method for websites and apps that were first popularized by Apple in June 2022 when the company added support in iOS and macOS. However, it's not an Apple technology. Passkeys are a standard that's promoted byGoogle, Apple, Microsoft, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the FIDO Alliance.Also: The best VPN services: Expert tested and reviewedPasskeys are sets of two cryptographic keys: a public key that's registered with the online service or app, and a private key that's stored on a device, such as a smartphone or computer.That might sound complicated, but passkeys have been designed to be easy to use. In fact, to log in with a passkey, you use your face, a fingerprint, or a PIN in much the same way you unlock your smartphone.The advantage of passkeys is that even if a hacker gets their hands on a website's public key, your account is still locked because they don't have access to the private key on your device. Show more ZDNETThe screenshot above proves the benefits: no passwords in sight, nothing that needs to be remembered, and nothing to accidentally hand over to a hacker.Passkeys can also help you get around the issue of having to synchronize passwords between your devices.Say you normally log in to your Google account using a smartphone, but you want to log in using a laptop. That's no problem, even if the passkey isn't synchronized with the laptop, as long as the smartphone is within Bluetooth range of the laptop and you approve the login.What's even cooler is that the passkey isn't transferred between the smartphone and the laptop. Instead, after confirming the login, you get the opportunity to create a passkey on the laptop. Is giving your fingerprint or face to a third-party app or website risky? No, because none of your biometric information is sent to the website or app that you are accessing. Instead, your biometric information is only used to unlock the passkey that resides on your device.Your face or fingerprint information never leaves your device. Show more What do you need to use passkeys? Here are the system requirements for passkeys:A system running at least Windows 10, macOS Ventura, or ChromeOS 109A smartphone or tablet running at least iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or Android 9Optional: ahardware security keywith FIDO2 protocol supportThe computer or mobile device you are using will also need a supported browser, such as:Chrome 109 or greaterSafari 16 or greaterEdge 109 or greaterThe major tech players all have more information about how to use passkeys on their platforms:Apple,Google, andMicrosoft.As for overall support for passkeys, data gathered byState of Passkeysshows that support for passkeys on desktop computer browsers is very close to 100%, while on mobile it averages about 85%. Show more ZDNET Which websites support passkeys? You can find a list of websites that support passkeys atpasskeys.io.Some well-known websites and apps that support the technology include Adobe, Amazon, Google (wherepasskeys now secure over 400 million accounts), GitHub, PayPal, TikTok, Nintendo, WhatsApp, Shop by Shopify, and X. Recently, eBay and Uber have also added support for passkeys.On World Password Day 2024,Microsoft rolled out passkey supportfor all its consumer accounts and will roll out passkey support for signing into mobile versions of Microsoft applications over the coming months.Passkeys are growing in popularity -- and fast. Show more Why should you use passkeys? Two reasons: speed and security.According toState of Passkeys, companies are finding that passkeys offer logins that are faster by between 2 times and awhopping 17 times for TikTok, compared to using passwords.As for security, CVS Health says that passkeys havereduced account takeover fraud by 98%.Passkeys also reduced tech calls, withState of Michigan's MiLoginseeing a 1,300 drop in password reset support calls. Show more What is 2025 likely to bring to the passkeys landscape? It seems that after getting the passkeys tech in place and rolling it out to the masses to protect online accounts and identities, the next big push will be to get banks and financial institutions on board.FIDO Executive Director Andrew Shikiarpoints outthat while banks have been slow to offer passkeys to consumers, he is "quite confident that in 2025 we'll start to see some big brand banks across the world start to deploy passkeys to allow their users to sign in and access accounts without having to use a password."And that's just part of the spread, with other areas such as travel and hospitality also likely to adopt passkeys.By the end of 2025, Shikiar expects thatone in four of the world's top 1,000 websiteswill support passkeys. Show more Has Google made passkeys the default login option for all personal accounts? Yes, Google is now asking users to create a passkey and use that passkey as the default login.Using a passkey to log in to your account is about40% faster and a lot more secure than using passwords. Google's reach means its decision will not only help spread the word about passkeys, but it will also encourage other online services to do the same.In fact, Google is clear that its plan is to make "passwords a rarity, and eventually obsolete."Not ready to use a passkey for Google yet? You can skip this option and continue to log in to your account the old way. Show more Do apps support passkeys, or do you need to use a browser, and what about iOS vs. Android? Passkeys should work, whether you access a service via a browser or an app.The experience is not universal, though. For example, Amazon has rolled out support for passkeys, but support in the app is currently only available for iOS users. These are early days for passkeys, and soon we can expect across-the-board support. Show more ZDNET How can you get a feel for how passkeys work? If you're not yet ready to take the plunge and start using passkeys, the best way to experiment with how they work is to use the demo atpasskeys.io. It will guide you through the process of setting up a passkey and how to use it to log in to a site. Show more ZDNETIf you're ready to take the plunge, a great place to start is by securing your Google account with a passkey. Not only has Google made the process easy, but there's alsoextensive documentationavailable. Are passwords dead? Unfortunately, we're a long, long way from the death of passwords. Passkeys, much likehardware security keys, offer a way for you to harden accounts and online services that support the feature.You're going to need passwords andpassword managersfor a long time yet. Show more Do any password managers support passkeys? Yes. Show more Are there any cons to passkeys? While passkeys are certainly far better than the best-case scenario with passwords, there are downsides.Many of the downsides of passkeys revolve around the fact that the technology is relatively new and the rollout has been ongoing. On top of that, we're seeing companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google push their method of storing and sharing passcodes, and this can silo your passkeys and make them hard to access on different platforms. This is getting better with passkey management being included in password managers.Another common issue is that sites that use passkeys still demand users set a password to protect the account, thereby diluting the efficacy of passkeys.Tech siteArs Technicahas done a good job of highlighting some of the biggest issues related to passkeys. Show more All the big operating systems, as well as third-party password managers such asDashlane,1Password, andBitwarden, all support passkeys. Microsoft isalso on trackto add passkey support to its Authenticator app in mid-January 2025.These tools should help ease the transition from passwords to passkeys.These tools should help ease the transition from passwords to passkeys.Security