From Clever Concept to Everyday Login
Passkeys were designed to fix what passwords get wrong: they are easier to use and far harder to phish. Instead of memorising complex strings, you approve sign-ins with your device’s own authentication—fingerprint, face scan, or a simple device code. Under the hood, password manager passkeys rely on a secure pair of keys: a private key that never leaves your device and a public key shared with the website or app. When you log in, your device proves you hold the private key, without revealing it. This delivers strong passwordless authentication that is resistant to fake login pages and credential stuffing. The one big drawback, until recently, was that your passkeys were stuck wherever you first created them. Changing devices or switching apps often meant starting from scratch, making many people reluctant to fully embrace passkeys.
Passkey Portability: Solving the Lock‑In Problem
The biggest psychological barrier to adopting passwordless authentication has been fear of lock‑in. People are used to exporting passwords from one app and importing them into another, but passkeys initially did not offer this flexibility. If you generated dozens of passkeys inside one password manager, moving to a different app risked losing convenient access to your accounts. That is now changing with passkey import export features powered by the emerging Credential Exchange Protocol (CXP), developed under the FIDO Alliance. CXP provides a standard way to transfer passkeys securely between apps and devices, so your cryptographic keys can move with you. Instead of being trapped inside a single vendor’s ecosystem, you can switch tools while keeping your existing logins intact. This shift directly tackles vendor lock‑in, making passkey portability a reality rather than a promise.
Google Password Manager Catches Up to the Pack
Google Password Manager on Android is preparing to add full passkey import export support, bringing it in line with other major players. A hidden interface discovered in the app shows options for both importing and exporting passkeys, suggesting the underlying plumbing for passkey migration is already in place via Google Play Services. That matters because many Android apps rely on Google Password Manager to handle sign-ins, so its support effectively unlocks passkey portability across a wide range of services. As CXP support rolls out, password manager passkeys stored with Google will no longer feel like a one-way commitment. You will be able to move passkeys to and from other managers that support the same standard, including those preinstalled on devices such as Samsung’s. This interoperability makes switching tools far less risky for users who rely on Android.
Apple’s Lead: When One Feature Converts a Skeptic
On the other side of the ecosystem divide, Apple has already shipped passkey import and export within its Passwords app. Users can open Passwords, choose to export data to another app, and select the logins that contain passkeys to move them into a different password manager. The same flow works in reverse: you can export from a third-party app and import those passkeys into Apple Passwords through its menus on Mac. This real-world implementation of passkey portability has been enough to convince some hesitant users to finally go all‑in on passkeys, because they know they can change tools later without losing access. Crucially, more third‑party managers have started integrating the same specifications, so Apple’s feature is not a closed loop; it is part of a broader ecosystem where multiple apps understand the same migration language.
What Passkey Interoperability Means for the Future
With both Apple and Google embracing passkey import export, passkeys are moving from a niche perk to a viable mainstream standard. Interoperability removes the last major excuse to cling to passwords: fear that choosing the “wrong” app or platform today will strand your logins tomorrow. As more password managers adopt CXP and support password manager passkeys consistently, you will be able to treat passkeys the way you already treat passwords—portable, backed up, and under your control. For organisations, this lowers migration risk and makes rolling out passwordless authentication far more attractive. For everyday users, it means you can start enabling passkeys wherever they are offered, confident that your credentials can follow you to new devices and apps. The passwordless future is no longer just secure; it is finally flexible enough for everyone to join.