Passkeys have been around for years. why is adoption still so slow?
Passkeys are objectively better than passwords.
Phishing-resistant, nothing to forget, nothing to breach, no password database to leak. the case for them is pretty airtight. and yet most products still default to email and password. most users have never set up a passkey. most developers have never shipped one.
so what's actually going on?
i think it's a few things.
passkeys require device support and most teams don't want to debug the fallback experience across every browser, OS, and device combination.
the setup flow feels unfamiliar to users who've been typing passwords for twenty years. and there's no forcing function, unlike passwords which visibly fail, passkeys just quietly don't get adopted.
the irony is that the friction is mostly on the builder side, not the user side. once a passkey is set up, the experience is genuinely better. face ID or fingerprint, done. no form, no reset email, no support ticket.
curious where people are on this. are you shipping passkeys yet? and if not, what's actually blocking you?
Replies
@riya_pariyar The user experience is much easier once the passkey is set up
@riya_pariyar @ethan_gabriel The first time is confusing, then it's basically one tap.
@ethan_gabriel exactly, the post-setup experience is the easy part. the hard part is getting users to that point without confusing them or making them feel like something went wrong
Does better onboarding actually improve passkey adoption?
@landon_matthew yes and no. better onboarding definitely helps but i think the bigger picture is making passkeys feel familiar rather than new. framing it as 'sign in with face ID' lands very differently than 'set up a passkey.'
The technology is ready. the account recovery story still feels like the awkward bit.
@charles_eric3 account recovery is the one that keeps teams from shipping it. passwords have a clear reset flow everyone understands. passkeys don't have that equivalent yet and nobody wants to be the product that leaves a user locked out.
i would probably introduce passkeys as an optional upgrade rather than replacing passwords immediately. let the user experience the convenience first then gradually move the default.
@irsa_doham makes sense. the most realistic route for most products right now. make it frictionless to try, let the experience sell itself, then slowly shift the default. forcing it too early just creates support tickets.