Amazon quietly joins the passkey revolution

Amazon has joined the ranks of tech giants like Google and Microsoft in shifting towards a passwordless future, by discreetly introducing passkey authentication to its users.

In response to increasing consumer demand for enhanced security and user convenience, the retail giant has made passkeys available across most devices and browsers.

What is a passkey? 

Passkeys are a secure way to sign into apps and sites. They replace weak passwords with biometric authentication techniques, like fingerprint or face scan, or a screen lock PIN. Passkeys are highly resistant to online attacks like phishing, making them more secure than SMS one-time codes.

The move underscores Amazon’s commitment to meeting consumer needs and follows a trend led by tech firms, including Apple, Google, TikTok, Uber, and even OnlyFans.

Vincent Delitz, co-founder of Corbado, shared his view on Amazon’s addition. “Given Amazon’s vast user base, this rollout is set to familiarise a large segment of non-tech-savvy users with the benefits of passkeys.

”Passkeys offer enhanced security and eliminate the need for creating and remembering passwords. Moreover, Amazon’s rollout educates many non-tech-savvy users about passkeys’ benefits.”

Want some more context? — Google hails password-less world on World Password Day

“The ease of use might convince these users to demand passkeys from other online platforms,” he added.

Despite the rollout marking a significant milestone in passkey adoption, Delitz believes Amazon’s execution could have been improved. Users may need separate passkeys for different Amazon domains depending on their set country due to the security structure of passkeys.

The absence of a Conditional UI feature, clunky device detection and management, lack of native app support, and redundant verification steps are also among the issues identified.

Despite these issues, Amazon’s rollout, and Google’s recent announcement to make passkeys its default sign-in mechanism underscores a growing consensus to move beyond passwords and basic two-factor authentication.

Google’s press release stated, “We’ve found that one of the most immediate benefits of passkeys is that they spare people the headache of remembering all those numbers and special characters in passwords. They’re also phishing resistant.”

It concludes, “We’ll continue encouraging the industry to make the pivot to passkeys — making passwords a rarity, and eventually obsolete.”

Amazon’s introduction of passkeys is indicative of widespread shifting towards quick passkey adoption in the e-commerce and SaaS industry.

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