Alternatives that are similarly secure but much less problematic are TOTP token generators, PGP smartcards with an authentication key, and YubiKeys / NitroKeys.
Good luck getting the masses to adopt them. Passkeys seem like an improvement on trying to get your average meat brain to remember several unique passwords.
I just can’t communicate why or how an average user should use passkeys.
I use them, I like them even, they’re a decently easy flow with good trust boundaries.
Yes, passkeys are hard/impossible to phish, but the fallback flows are exactly as easy to phish as passwords today and are basically a requirement if you implement passkeys.
I can’t recommend using passkeys in Chrome’s password manager, for lock in and portability reasons (plus every browser should have an ad blocker). I can’t recommend the OS based ones because frankly nobody should install windows anymore, and macOS is on the precipice of enshittification. That just leaves password managers, which I think are a good idea, but also a single point of failure.
Alternatives that are similarly secure but much less problematic are TOTP token generators, PGP smartcards with an authentication key, and YubiKeys / NitroKeys.
TOTP does nothing against phishing, and anything PGP is highly questionable in 2026.
But, I agree about the FIDO U2F keys.
PGP has nuisance usability, but I do have control over my keys.
why is PGP questionable ?
No infrastructure of it’s own to support it.
What’s the standard used by YubiKey most of the time to save authentication methods? Right, it’s PassKey
Good luck getting the masses to adopt them. Passkeys seem like an improvement on trying to get your average meat brain to remember several unique passwords.
I just can’t communicate why or how an average user should use passkeys.
I use them, I like them even, they’re a decently easy flow with good trust boundaries.
Yes, passkeys are hard/impossible to phish, but the fallback flows are exactly as easy to phish as passwords today and are basically a requirement if you implement passkeys.
I can’t recommend using passkeys in Chrome’s password manager, for lock in and portability reasons (plus every browser should have an ad blocker). I can’t recommend the OS based ones because frankly nobody should install windows anymore, and macOS is on the precipice of enshittification. That just leaves password managers, which I think are a good idea, but also a single point of failure.