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Access keys are the future of passwords. At least, they are the best alternative we have at the moment to eventually replace logins that can be hacked.
Passkeys rely on a physical device's biometrics for authentication and security and therefore cannot be hacked. Plus, with access keys, you won't have to worry about setting up two-factor authentication for some of your sensitive digital properties.
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Not all available applications and services yet support passkeys. It will take a while for passwords to disappear, so they will coexist with access keys until then. That's why the best place to save your passkeys is a password manager.
Password managers happen to be among my favorite iPhone and Android apps. And Proton Pass is one of the latest, an app I've been using alongside 1Password for several months. Just like 1Password, Proton Pass now supports passwords. The best part is that you don't even need to get the premium version of Proton Pass to get passkey support on all your devices.
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Proton announced support for passkeys on Thursday. The feature will be available everywhere you can use Proton Pass. That's PC or Mac via browser extensions or iPhone and Android apps.
All you need to do is save your passkeys to Proton Pass and they will be available on all your devices. Proton saves access keys on its server and then protects them and metadata (website addresses) with end-to-end encryption. Only you can access the passkeys after unlocking Proton Pass on your device.
You can then choose to authenticate to apps that support passkeys with Proton Pass. It should be as easy as autofilling your saved password in your password manager. And yes, you will be able to save your password and password(s) that you may have for a particular login. However, you must ensure that the respective website or service supports passkeys before doing anything.
By the way, Proton doesn't have password support for its services. That is, you cannot use a passkey to log into Proton Pass with a passkey. You will need your password/PIN or biometrics (Face ID/Touch ID and alternatives).
Still, support for saving passkeys on Proton Pass is an important update. This means you'll have your passkeys on hand even if you're not using the device you created a passkey for. That's the problem with access keys. When you make one, you connect it to a device.
While passkey support is free for Proton Pass, there are some requirements. To use them, you need to be running iOS 17 on your iPhone or Android 14 on your Android device. Additionally, the feature may not yet work on Firefox. You'll find additional help on using passkeys on Proton Pass at this link.