WhatsApp is starting to adopt passkeys as security authentication for users of its Android application.
According to WhatsApp, Android users can now log into the messaging app more easily and securely using facial recognition, a fingerprint or a PIN. This replaces the existing SMS authentication for using the Android application.
Out of beta phase
The feature was previously tested in a beta version, but is now being rolled out to release versions of the messaging service. This means that Android app users can expect the security feature sometime in one of the upcoming releases. When passkeys will become available for the iOS version is not known.
A passkey is stored in Google’s password manager. This allows a passkey to be used on other devices as well.
WhatsApp is not the only platform now switching to passkey authentication. Google recently announced that passkeys will become the default login method for all Google services.