PayPal has today announced that it is adding support for passkeys to its app and website, allowing people to log into their accounts without a traditional password.
Apple is just one of the companies that support passkeys, with other members of the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium also on board. That ensures that passkeys will work across platforms and aren’t limited to use just on Macs, iPhones, and iPads.
Security matters
PayPal announced the new passkey support on the same day that the macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16.1 updates were released by Apple. Both add support for passkeys — iPhones already gained the same support with iOS 16 in September.
Today’s announcement comes via a press release in which PayPal confirmed how easily people could go about creating a passkey on their devices. All they need to do is log in using their existing credentials, and they’ll have the option to generate a passkey there, and then, PayPal says. “Customers will then be prompted to authenticate with Apple Face ID or Touch ID,” the press release says, adding that “the passkey will be automatically created, and next time PayPal customers log in, they won’t need to use or manage a password again.”
Passkeys remove the need for people to remember passwords, with credentials instead stored on-device, and remove the need to enter details manually. Instead, Face ID or Touch ID can be used to log in seamlessly. Apple says that passkeys are “securely synced with end-to-end encryption using iCloud Keychain, so they are available across Apple devices including Mac, iPhone, and iPad.” And yes, they also work across apps and the web, even on non-Apple devices.
Passkeys have the potential to be the best iPhone security feature released in some time, assuming apps and services come on board. The cross-platform nature will hopefully ensure that happens.
