Passkeys are the “new black” in the world of authentication! Cameo has supported logging in with a passkey long before they were called passkeys1. Now, password managers and many websites and apps support passkeys. They makes logins easier and safer.
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Passkeys
A passkey offers password-less logins. Your password manager stores a digital key (properly called a private key) and your website stores a matching lock (the public key). When you want to log in (in effect) the website provides a long number derived from the public key (a challenge) that the password manager, can check did indeed come from the same key pair.
Where possible, the platform’s physical security protects the passkey. On iPhone you’ll need to use Face ID or Touch ID (fingerprint), for example. On Macs that have a fingerprint reader, you’d use that. Third-party password managers usually let you decide whether you need this verification.
Passkeys are much less vulnerable to hackers than passwords because:
- the password manager generates credentials randomly for you
- are much longer than passwords,
- you can’t re-use them across multiple websites,
- you don’t need to memorise or write them down,
- you can’t easily share them, and
- website servers do not store the private keys (so they cannot leak them; you can’t steal the private key if the public key is all there is).
Passkey support
Products that now manage passkeys include:
- Apple’s built-in password manager on iPhone, iPad (some support in version 16, better in 17) and recent MacOS, synchronised between them,
- Windows 11 Hello (in Windows 22H2 and later). However, we don’t recommend using this as the passkey is only available on that single computer (unless you are using a Yubikey or similar physical key)
- Bitwarden password manager (free – or very low cost if you store 2FA in it as well); recommended where you use both Windows and Apple; and on Linux); synchronised everywhere you install it
- 1Password (similar to Bitwarden, but paid subscriptions only)
As well as Cameo, many big-name websites and apps allow you to login with a passkey, particularly:
We expect most significant websites to offer logins via passkey soon.
Adding a passkey for Cameo login (one time set-up)
Once you have logged in to Cameo with a password (Video):
- go to profile → login in / log out
- click the add new passkey button
- follow the instructions for your chosen provider
Once you have a working passkey, you can delete your password altogether using the button provided in login in / log out.
Log in to Cameo using a passkey
The first time, on the login page:
- click log in with passkey
- enter your email address
- click the login with passkey button
- follow the instructions for your chosen provider
Cameo remembers your choice in that browser. After that, it automatically takes you to that login screen, with your email address already filled in. So all you have to do is click the button to authorise the passkey app to let you in.
For example, an iPhone with FaceID just needs to click to confirm, and then see your face to complete authorisation; or scan your fingerprint on a TouchID-enabled Mac.
Logging in on someone else’s computer
Occasionally you may need to log in on a computer where your password manager is not available. In this position, you should use passkey’s phone login solution. Both devices must have Bluetooth turned on (but don’t need to pair).
Your password manager should synchronise your passkey across all your devices where you have installed it. This should include your phone, whether or not that is where you added the key.
On an unfamiliar computer, start as usual by requesting login in with a passkey. One of the choices offered should then be iPhone, iPad or Android devices (Windows wording) or Scan QR Code (Apple wording). If the unfamiliar computer already has (someone else’s) password manager installed, it may start that instead. There should then be an option to choose an alternative, possibly at the end of its list, which leads you to that choice.
Choosing that option displays a QR Code. Scan it on your phone and tap the button to use the passkey. That starts your password manager, where you authorise using the key stored on your phone, just like logging in locally. The other computer recognises you have done this and magically2 logs you in.
This now works much more smoothly on up-to-date systems than it used to. So as of May 2026 Cameo no longer provides its own equivalent, phone login.
- They originally went under the terrible name webauthn. Strictly speaking, passkeys are just one way of using webauthn, which also includes hardware keys such as Yubico, where the hardware stores the public key. But in practice, this is what they’ll all be called now. ↩︎