We had originally planned to go all-in on passkeys for ONCE/Campfire, and we built the early authentication system entirely around that. It was not a simple setup! Handling passkeys properly is surprisingly complicated on the backend, but we got it done. Unfortunately, the user experience kinda sucked, so we ended up ripping it all out...

It’s a combination of issues. First is compatibility issues. Like logging in on mobile web or app with a passkey doesn’t reliably work for me. It might have been due to the password manager, but for some things the option wasn’t even there afaict. If I’m going to really switch to passkeys, I want it to work more reliably.

The second is usability. Passwords in a password manager are a 2 click entry on the username or password form field. Password managers have streamlined this system over the past decade.

Passkeys, ironically, required more steps when pulling from the password manager, including required clicks in less convenient places. I hope these types of issues get ironed out eventually.

Yeah, both feels like password manager issues. Which one do you use?

Create a post

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community’s icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

  • 1 user online
  • 69 users / day
  • 204 users / week
  • 640 users / month
  • 2.07K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 3.48K Posts
  • 69K Comments
  • Modlog