Automatic Passkey Upgrades

Accelerate passkey adoption with automatic registration

Starting in Fall 2024, browsers and operating systems have been adding support for an awesome new feature to speed up passkey deployment and adopting a passwordless future: automatic passkey upgrades.

In browsers and native apps that support this functionality, you'll be able to register passkeys for your existing users without having to prompt them. This will let you adopt passkeys faster without disrupting your sign-in flow or making any other user-visible changes. When they sign in using their existing authentication method (such as a password or OTP), this API will create a passkey for them in the background automatically, with no extra UI needed.

SnapAuth supports automatic passkey creation

With SnapAuth, you'll be able to adopt this functionality in minutes with just a couple lines of code.

const registration = await snapAuth.upgradeToPasskey({
    username: '[email protected]',
})
if (registration.ok) {
  const token = registration.data.token
  // Send this to /credential/create through your backend
}

This is currently available in our JavaScript/TypeScript SDK, and in final testing for Swift.

Seamless passkey adoption

Like passkey autofill using the mediation: "conditional" APIs, the new conditional registration API disappears into the background to create a seamless upgrade path. You can create passkeys for your existing users the next time they sign in without them having to see or do anything. They won't be slowed down by a prompt to create a passkey anymore - instead, their browser or OS will take care of it for them!

Stop phishing by going passkey-only

Passkeys are far more secure than passwords or other traditional auth factors, and are effectively immune to phishing.

For users that have adopted passkeys, you can choose to go passkey-only for their accounts. This will maximize their account security, without disrupting authentication for other users.

With the new automatic passkey creation API, you can dramatically accelerate this process and increase your site's security without adding friction.

Availability

Automatic passkey upgrades are currently available in Safari 18, iOS 18, and macOS 15 Sequoia, with other platforms gaining support soon.

SnapAuth's SDKs handle availability detection for you, so you can easily add support for this in mere minutes.