What we have learned in 6 months about user devices' passkey-readiness

Since the three major digital leaders, Apple, Google and Microsoft, are pushing passkeys as new login standard, the current technical support for passkeys is already quite high. To prove that the vast majority of users are "passkey-ready," Corbado has developed a free tool that analyzes how many of your users’ devices are technically able to use passkeys. In the following article, we will share our insights on current data we gained over the past six months.

Janina

January 25, 2023

Passkeys are the newest technological advancement in login standards: Due to their technical concept, they are very secure by design and provide the best customer experience currently possible in logins. The three big platform and operating system leaders, Apple, Google and Microsoft, enforce passkeys as new standard.

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What does “passkey-ready” mean?

Passkey-ready means that a device is able to create and use passkeys for authentication (e.g. via facial recognition, fingerprint scan or PIN pattern). In general, there is a further distinction between passkeys that are available on a single device and passkeys that are automatically synced in a cloud account (e.g., Apple iCloud KeyChain, Google Password Manager, or Microsoft account). In the following, we include both types of passkeys for the analysis.

The current technical support in practice is already very high with over 80% of all devices supporting passkeys (see our data below). All three major platforms have announced their full support meaning passkeys will be available on all new devices and thus will be available presumably on more than 95% of all devices soon.

Apple:

Synced passkeys: available on iPhones with iOS 16+, iPads with iPadOS 16+ and MacBooks with macOS Ventura, Monterey and Big Sur
Non-synced passkeys: available for iPhones with iOS 15+, iPads with iPadOS 15+ and MacBooks with macOS Catalina+

Google:

Synced passkeys: available on Android devices with Android 9+
Non-synced passkeys: available on Android devices with Android 7+

Microsoft:

Synced passkeys: available soon with a new Windows Hello update
Non-synced passkeys: available for devices with Windows 10 (activated Windows Hello) and 11

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In 2023, >80% are “passkey-ready”

To validate if the vast majority of your customers are "passkey-ready”, Corbado built a free tool that analyzes how many of your users are technically ready to use passkeys. Thereby, the following data is gathered and used to for the analysis:

WebAuthn support: the device and browser combination’s support for WebAuthn, the underlying technology of passkeys
Platform auth support: the existence of a device’s built-in authenticator (e.g., Face ID, Touch ID or Windows Hello)
Conditional UI support: the device and browser combination’s support for Conditional UI which allows to automatically fill in passkeys including the identifier in login forms which is another major advancement in authentication

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In our demo, developer panel and website, users have been able to test passkeys over the past six months. We have evaluated anonymous, technical data regarding their passkey-readiness. The number of visitors was in general a medium-sized four-digit number in the analyzed months. Based on that, the following insights were gained:

Almost 100% of devices and browsers support WebAuthn. This was expected as mainly digital users with modern devices and browsers visited our services. Checking the raw data there was just a tiny fraction (less than 0.1%) using an outdated browser or device.
Platform auth support is available on >80% of the devices and the trend is increasing. This was very interesting to see that most devices already have the required hardware to use passkeys (e.g., facial recognition, fingerprint scanner or PIN pattern). This also proves that a lot of desktop devices already support passkeys. We expect this number to increase even more as old devices are being replaced over time.
Over 70% of device and browser combinations support Conditional UI. From the data, it is obvious that the support increased drastically in November when Chrome and Safari announced their support and made it available for all users (before it was only available for developers which explains the low support until November).

To sum these findings up: most (>80%) user devices are passkey-ready today (based on the visitors from our sites). We keep on analyzing the data and expect platform auth and Conditional UI support to increase steadily over time.

Determine your users’ passkey-readiness with our free passkeys analyzer

As passkeys are the new login standard on the web, you should consider an integration into your websites and apps soon. If you are not sure how many of your users are passkey-ready, you can find out with Corbado’s free passkeys analyzer. It’s completely riskless and has no lock-in. With two lines of code added to your website or app, you can start analyzing. The passkeys analyzer is fully GDPR-compliant, anonymous and uses no cookies. It can be integrated in less than five minutes and has no impact on the current user experience.


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Start analyzing now and then offer passkey logins to these users. Trust us: once they experienced passkeys they will be using and demanding them.

Besides insights regarding the passkey-readiness, the passkeys analyzer also provides data regarding total visitors as well as used browsers and operating systems.

Start your passkeys journey now for free with Corbado's passkeys analyzer and find out your users’ passkey-readiness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janina

Janina has a passion for digital transformations as well as the acceptance of them in enterprises. Having a background in computer science, she works in an interdisciplinary role at the intersection of engineering and sales at Corbado. With her blog contributions, Janina would like to promote the exchange of knowledge and experience in the community. In doing so, she aims to increase the enthusiasm for the implementation of passwordless authentication, especially among readers without a technical background.