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On May 3, Google sent ripples through the digital world by declaring the beginning of the end of the password. The tech giant announced the rollout of passkeys for Google Accounts, marking a significant shift in the way we secure our online identities.
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As a part of the FIDO Alliance, NordPass is excited to be part of this transformative journey. Today we’ll be going through the ins and outs of passkeys from Google and will also look into how you can store and use them with NordPass.
What are passkeys?
Before we get down to the nitty-gritty, let's pause for a moment to understand what passkeys are. You can think of passkeys as digital keys created by your device that will eventually replace traditional passwords.
Passkeys offer a more secure and convenient way to authenticate your online identity. They work in tandem with your biometric data, which means that instead of remembering and typing in a password, you can use your fingerprint reader or facial ID to verify your identity and gain access to your favorite online accounts.
Read our dedicated post — What Is a Passkey and How to Store It in NordPass for an in-depth explanation of passkey technology.
Google and NordPass
NordPass is always at the forefront of cybersecurity, and we're proud to say that we’re ready for the passkey revolution ushered in by the biggest players on the market such as Google.
We’ve introduced support for secure passkey storage and management in the NordPass desktop app earlier this year, and we’re super thrilled to see this feature gaining momentum.
As members of the FIDO Alliance, we're committed to promoting the technology of passkeys and educating the public about its benefits. We're also hard at work on further improving our Passkey Holder and introducing the feature for mobile devices later this year. Learn more about this in our passkey post.
Set up passkey authentication for your personal Google Account
Setting up a passkey-based authentication method for your personal Google account is a simple and quick process. Here's a guide on how to do it:
Make sure you have the latest versions of the NordPass desktop app open and the NordPass extension enabled on your browser.
Go to the “Passkey” section in the security settings in your personal Google account.
Click “Create a passkey.”
Now enter your Master Password.
Click “Close.”
Check if you see a newly created passkey attached to your Google account (the same “Passkey” section in the Google account settings)
Check if you see a newly created passkey item in your NordPass vault (see the “Passkey” section).
That’s it. You can now log in with the new password.
Set up passkey authentication for your Google Workspace
Google Workspace is enabling the use of passkeys for signing in to Google accounts. Here's how you can enable passkeys as an admin and as an end user:
For Admins:
Log in to your Google Workspace account.
Access the Admin console.
Go to “Security” and then to “Passwordless.”
Toggle “on” to start using passkeys and to bypass passwords.
For End Users:
Go to myaccount.google.com.
Select “Security.”
Scroll down to “Passkeys” under “How you sign in to Google.”
To start using passkeys for sign in, select “Use passkeys.”
If you don’t have any passkeys yet, click “Create a passkey.”
Now click “Continue” and follow the instructions to complete the creation of your passkey.
To create passkeys on multiple devices, repeat these steps from those devices.
And there you have it! You've successfully set up a passkey for your Google Workspace account.
Using Google to sign in to your Nord Account or Nord Business Account
Please note that it is not recommended to store both your Google account password and passkey in NordPass if you use Google as an authentication service to sign in to NordPass. If you are using Google single sign-On (SSO), you will need to log in to your Google account first before unlocking NordPass. Due to this, you should not depend solely on NordPass for accessing your Google account.
However, you can still use passkeys to access your Google account. There are two workarounds to use passkeys for the Google account used to log in to NordPass:
Google offers passkey authentication as an alternative to passwords, which means that you can use both a passkey and a password to log in to your Google account. A password can be used when signing in to NordPass, while a passkey stored in NordPass can be used to log in to your Google account in other cases.
You can create multiple passkeys for your Google account and use one that is not provided by NordPass to log in to your NordPass account. Another passkey, provided by NordPass, can be used to log in to your Google account whenever it's needed.
Bottom line
Passkeys represent a major leap forward in cybersecurity. The new technology offers a safer and more user-friendly way to authenticate your identity online, and they're now available for Google accounts. At NordPass, we are proud to support this innovative feature, and we urge you to use NordPass for passkey storage and management.
If you want to learn more about passkey technology, be sure to check out our FAQ article on passkeys. And if you're ready to step into the future of secure and convenient user authentication, go to our passwordless page to learn more.