Passkeys are a highly secure, easy-to-use authentication alternative to passwords that allow users to use their device biometrics, such as fingerprints or facial identification, or a PIN or pattern. Built on FIDO standards, passkeys are asymmetric key pairs tied to a user account and a registered website or app. However, a user’s ability to use passkeys depends on the browser and device they’re on and whether they support the WebAuthn protocol. The complexity of browser support for passkeys – aka the “browser dilemma” – has created blind spots for development teams in terms of UX impact, implementation lift, and passkey deployment strategy.
The Passkey Journey provides a short JavaScript snippet that, when integrated into a website, analyses visitors’ browsers and devices to determine WebAuthn support and provides a dynamic report of the user base's ability to use passkeys. Developers, product managers, UX designers, and product security engineers will now have access to a detailed breakdown of the percentage of website visitors that can use passkeys with biometrics, with only security keys, or cannot use passkeys at all. Additionally, the report shows clickable UX flows to provide context for each UX scenario. Finally, the report provides deployment recommendations to optimise the rollout of passkeys, close the technical gap, and enable more users to use passkeys.
“Passkeys present a pivotal moment in authentication, offering a frictionless and secure answer to the persistent challenges of user authentication. But with platforms quickly evolving, development teams face the challenge of solving for inconsistent user experiences across browsers and devices,” said Jasson Casey, CTO of Beyond Identity. “We’re excited to present a simple tool that can help teams quickly understand their users’ ability to use passkeys for authentication and make informed decisions around deployment.”
With The Passkey Journey, development and UX teams have a free, simple, and transformative tool that offers greater visibility into their user bases’ passkey readiness. Not only will those who leverage the tool better understand the differences in device and browser support of WebAuthn, but they’ll also have information at their fingertips to design passkeys more quickly, accurately forecast UX impact, and integrate passkeys with greater confidence and speed.
“Driving passkey adoption is a critical goal for the FIDO Alliance. Over the past year, we have published research-backed UX guidelines to support consumer deployments and best practice deployment papers to enable enterprise utilisation,” said Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director and CMO of the FIDO Alliance. “Beyond Identity has been a valuable contributor to FIDO Alliance’s efforts to resolve deployment challenges for companies looking to support passkeys. The Passkey Journey is a valuable development tool that stands to help enterprises make informed decisions on their passkey deployments.”
