Meta announces Passkeys for Facebook

Meta wants to introduce Passkeys as a new registration method for the Facebook app. The function is initially rolled out for iOS and Android devices of the Facebook app. The introduction is planned for the messenger in the coming months, as the company announced.

Passkeys enable users to register without a password by using the fingerprint, facial recognition or the PIN of your device instead. “Passkeys are a new method for identity verification and registration that is easier and safer than conventional passwords”, Meta explains in his announcement.

Interestingly, Facebook itself is a straggler within the meta group. The WhatsApp, which is also part of Meta, has been supporting Passkeys on Android since October 2023 and also on iOS since April 2024. At that time, the function was gradually activated for users and has since enabled biometric registration in the messenger app.

With the implementation, Meta follows numerous other services that already support Passkeys. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, PayPal, Ebay, Shopify and many other providers have integrated the technology into their platforms in the past two years. Facebook is one of the last major platforms that introduce Passkeys.

Resistant to Phishing

Meta promises several advantages of the technology based on the FIDO2 standard: it is resistant to phishing attacks, passwords cannot be guessed and it simplifies the registration. As soon as Passkey support is available for the messenger, the same Passkey, the user for Facebook, can also be used for Facebook Messenger.

The facility should be made via the account overview in the Facebook settings. Alternatively, users can also be asked to set up a passkey. Meta emphasizes that the biometric data used to unlock the passkeys remain exclusively on the user’s device and are not shared with the company.

In addition to registration, Meta plans other areas of application for Passkeys. In this way, users should also be able to use their passkeys in the future to securely fill out payment information for purchases with META PAY and later to protect encrypted news backups. The use of passkeys for encrypted backups is still in the test phase at WhatsApp and is not yet generally available.

Passkeys were developed by the Fido Alliance, which is committed to reducing the dependence on passwords. Despite the increasing spread of passkeys, challenges such as the platform dependency and the lack of possibility to export passkeys between different ecosystems remain. The FIDO Alliance works with the Credential Exchange Protocol (CXP) and the Credential Exchange Format (CXF) on a solution that should enable the safe import and export of passkeys between different services and platforms. A precise time for the broad availability is still pending.