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How to join the awesome password-free future and use passkeys

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No More Passwords
Passkeys are here, and I’m here to tell you they’re awesome.
Image: Santeri Viinamäki/Wikimedia Commons, D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Managing passwords is and always has been a giant pain. It isn’t the best system, but it’s the system we’ve got. Well, not if Apple can do anything about it. Passkeys are a new system that automatically signs you in to online services using your phone’s Face ID (or Touch ID) or your computer’s password. It’s one less thing to remember; it works without fiddling around with a password manager.

Passkeys aren’t an Apple-exclusive feature. You can bet it’ll be supported no matter what you have because all of these companies are part of the FIDO Alliance that created the system… eventually. Apple fully supports it in iOS 16 and Safari 16 for Mac, but Google’s version is still in beta and Microsoft won’t add it to Windows until next year. Until that day comes, you can still use your password to sign in.

Follow along as I show you how it works.

How to find and fix passwords that hackers have stolen

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How to find and update passwords that hackers already have
If hackers steal the passwords you use to log into websites, your Apple device can warn you and help you change them.
Photo: Cult of Mac

There’s a good chance that some company’s lax security has already let hackers steal the password you use for their website. And it could have happened with a bunch of them. Fortunately, your Apple devices make it easy to find out which of your passwords have leaked out so you can change them.

It’s World Password Day. Take this as an excuse to fix these problems now.

How to use iCloud Passwords inside Google Chrome on Windows

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How to use iCloud Passwords in Chrome
Grab Apple's new Chrome extension today.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple has rolled out a somewhat surprise Google Chrome extension that allows users to access iCloud Passwords on Windows machines.

You can use it to sync all the passwords you’ve created on Mac, iPhone, and iPad to your Windows desktop. And to sync any passwords you create in Chrome to iCloud Keychain for use on Apple devices.

We’ll show you how to get set up.