GitHub introduces passwordless authentication

New Delhi Microsoft-owned open-source software platform GitHub on Thursday announced the public beta of passwordless authentication on its official website, allowing users to upgrade from security keys to passkeys.

To use passkeys with a GitHub account, users will need to navigate to the 'Settings' sidebar, locate the 'Feature Preview' tab, and click 'enable passkeys'.

Once passkeys get enabled, they'll be able to upgrade eligible security keys to passkeys and register new passkeys.

"Passkeys build on the work of traditional security keys by adding easier configuration and enhanced recoverability, ensuring a private, and easy-to-use method to protect accounts while minimising the risk of account lockouts," Hirsch Singhal, Staff Product Manager at GitHub, said in a statement.

Unlike SMS and email, passkeys are unique per website, so they cannot be used to track a user's activities across different sites, according to the company.

Moreover, the company said that a new experience, known as Cross-Device Authentication, will let users use a passkey on their phone or tablet to sign in on their desktop, by verifying their phone's presence.

In addition to cross-device usage, many passkeys can be synced across user devices, ensuring they are never locked out of their account due to key loss.

Depending on the passkey provider, the company mentioned that the passkeys can be synced across devices automatically -- so a user's iCloud account will sync passkeys from iOS to macOS, Google Password Manager syncs across Android devices, and password managers like 1Password or Dashlane can sync passkeys across installations of their password managers across any device.