[polalavik]

Passkeys need a marketing campaign and UX overhaul.

I’m a technical guy, but I really don’t understand what the fuck is going on when I use a passkey. All I know is one day it appeared as an option and it let me login to things. I don’t really understand where it lives, what device it’s tied to, how scanning a QR code on Google Chrome on my phone magically logs me in, etc etc.

The user was not educated on this. Hacker News is the top 1% of computer power users. You gotta understand to someone’s grandma or mom or brother who works in real estate none of this makes any sense nor will they educate themselves on what it is.

[johanyc]

How do you use your passkeys? Do you have them sync with your apple or google accounts?

I've only experienced using passkeys with 1password and it's smooth as butter. Assuming 1p is unlocked, To login: press login with passkey on website -> press sign in on 1p extension pop-up -> done To create account: click create passkey on the website -> click save on 1p extension pop-up -> done

Tbh i think it's more important to get people to use password managers than passkeys.

[timmyc123]

when you create or use a passkey, the UI on all platforms tells you where it is going to be saved or where it is coming from.

[crazygringo]

Right now, when I go to the security section of my Amazon account in Chrome, it (unasked) prompts me to add a passkey, and the popup on my Mac says, verbatim:

> Add a passkey? "amazon.com" supports passkeys, a stronger alternative to passwords that cannot be leaked or stolen. A passkey for "[e-mail]" will be saved in "Passwords". Touch ID to Save Passkey Cancel

I don't have the slightest idea what "Passwords" is as the destination. My iCloud keychain? My Google account? My 1Password?

[timmyc123]

Passwords is the name of the app on your Mac.

[crazygringo]

OK, on the one hand TIL -- thank you! That's a super-meaningful piece of information.

On the other hand, you can understand why that is not remotely clear from the message. It's a generic term in quotes. If it said it would be saved "in the Passwords application (and synced to iCloud)", then I'd actually understand it.

So Apple is either being intentionally obtuse or incompetently confusing here, and I don't know which is worse. And it's UX crap like this which is why I still won't use passkeys, because I don't know where anything is going.

[timmyc123]

I can certainly see the confusion. Thanks for highlighting it!

[polalavik]

Exactly passkeys are confusing to the laymen (and not Laymen) because it’s is an orchestration across multiple services and devices.

If I’m using a passkey to login to my Gmail via chrome browser but used my phone what just happened - did it save in chrome? My Google account? My iPhone?

[timmyc123]

The dialog provided by the browser or OS usually tells you where the passkey is saved.