Apple Wants Passkeys to Replace Passwords: Here's Where You Can Try Them Out Now With iOS 16

Apple is on a mission to get rid of traditional passwords for good, and a step towards that future is something called "Passkeys." Passkeys aim to entirely replace passwords in both apps and on the web and instead use either your finger or face as the password.

Passkey Feature Triad
Passkeys are part of iOS 16 and macOS Ventura but also work on non-Apple devices and platforms such as Android and Windows. Apple's goal with Passkeys is to eliminate the need for users to ever type out, remember, or use a password again.

There are two scenarios for Passkeys: when you're using an Apple device and when you're on a Windows or Android device.

On an Apple Device

apple passkey
When you go to a website on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 16 or a Mac on macOS Ventura that supports Passkeys, the website will not prompt you to enter a password as you may expect it to. Instead, you'll simply be asked to authenticate with Touch ID or Face ID.

On a Windows or Android Device

passkeys ios 16 2
On non-Apple devices, when you go to a website that supports Passkeys, you'll be asked to scan a QR code with your ‌iPhone‌ and then proceed to use ‌Touch ID‌ or ‌Face ID‌ as your actual password.

Passkeys will be more widely supported by apps and websites when iOS 16 and macOS Ventura are released to all users this fall, but there are already some websites that support Passkeys. Here are just a few apps and websites that are starting to roll out support:

  • eBay
  • Best Buy
  • Cloudflare
  • Microsoft
  • Nvidia
  • PayPal
  • Carnival

ios 16 passkeys websites
In an interview earlier this month, Apple's director of platform product marketing Kurt Knight said, "This isn't a future dream to replace passwords. This is something that's going to be a road to completely replace passwords, and it's starting now."

Passkeys is just one of several new changes and features coming to iOS 16 and macOS Ventura which you can learn about in our respective roundups.

Related Forums: iOS 16, macOS Ventura

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
macOS Sequoia Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:04 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15. With...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...

Top Rated Comments

EmotionalSnow Avatar
35 months ago

That is just a cheap trick be Apple to make it more difficult to leave the Apple ecosystem and switch to Android, as long as you still need an iPhone in order for your Passkey to work on a Windows device. Hacking a good password is virtually impossible. Even if you only use nunbers and lowercase letters, there are 36 combinations for each letter of the password. So to more letters already makes it 1000 times more diffictult to hack.

Hacks usually happen at the server level and not at the user level. When millions of passwords for Ebay or Yahoo were hacked, Passkey would not have prevented that.
Sure, passkeys cannot prevent a database from being accessed by an attacker. The important difference is that when passkeys are leaked your account is not compromised because unlike passwords they use asymmetric cryptography and are also unique to every website.

Please do not spread misinformation about passkeys if you do not have a clue what you are talking about ...
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ProfessionalFan Avatar
35 months ago
This sounds really good and a nice evolution on passwords.


That is just a cheap trick be Apple to make it more difficult to leave the Apple ecosystem
This is the standard reply when Apple introduces something new.

When it’s a feature Android already had (even if worse), the common reply is “iNnOVAtion”.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tomnavratil Avatar
35 months ago

That is just a cheap trick be Apple to make it more difficult to leave the Apple ecosystem and switch to Android, as long as you still need an iPhone in order for your Passkey to work on a Windows device. Hacking a good password is virtually impossible. Even if you only use nunbers and lowercase letters, there are 36 combinations for each letter of the password. So to more letters already makes it 1000 times more diffictult to hack.

Hacks usually happen at the server level and not at the user level. When millions of passwords for Ebay or Yahoo were hacked, Passkey would not have prevented that.
Actually, the passkeys will utilize an open standard so they can be migrated between systems AFAIK. Also, passkeys or even passphrases are often more suitable options to stronger passwords - the latest NIST recommendations and guidelines are a good read on the matter.

These days, obtaining password via phishing is much more common compared to larger password leaks from companies. Personal data is leaked more often, certainly, passwords, not that much.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BootsWalking Avatar
35 months ago
For those asking how this works, here's a simplified explanation based on my understanding from reading and watching the online resources about it.

To register on a new site, say widget.com
[LIST=1]
* You go widget.com and navigate to its new-account creation page
* Type in what you want your username to be and then click "create account"
* Your phone will bring up a system sheet confirming you want to create a credential for widget.com. After you confirm, the phone will create a site-specific credential token (called "passkey" in FIDO parlance), the security of which is based on public-key encryption.
* The phone will store the token and private-key portion of the token on your iCloud Keychain. It will share the public-key portion of the token with widget.com so it can save it on their server.

Whenever you visit widget.com in the future, Safari will know you have a saved credential for the site and will confirm you'd like to login, similar to how it works today for traditional passwords saved in your keychain, including you proving you have rightful access to your keychain (Face ID, passkey, etc...). But instead of a password, Safari will present the passkey (token) to the site (which it already has stored on their server to compare), then verify you're the rightful owner of the token by proving to the site that your phone has the private key associated with the token (challenge/response).

This is an improvement over passwords because there is no password to be stored on a server or presented for each site, which reduces the attack surface of your credentials. It also solves the problem of weak user passwords, or users reusing their password across multiple sites.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ashdelacroix Avatar
35 months ago
I said at the time that this was the biggest announcement at the keynote, and I still believe that.

This will totally change how we authenticate online.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
maninhat Avatar
35 months ago

That is just a cheap trick be Apple to make it more difficult to leave the Apple ecosystem and switch to Android, as long as you still need an iPhone in order for your Passkey to work on a Windows device. Hacking a good password is virtually impossible. Even if you only use nunbers and lowercase letters, there are 36 combinations for each letter of the password. So to more letters already makes it 1000 times more diffictult to hack.

Hacks usually happen at the server level and not at the user level. When millions of passwords for Ebay or Yahoo were hacked, Passkey would not have prevented that.
If you even bothered to read the article, you'd learn this is not an apple thing.

And the rest of your post just underlines that you have zero idea how it works
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)