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Amazon has quietly launched support for Passkeys as it becomes the latest tech giant to join the password-less future. But you may still need to keep your Amazon password for a while.
The option to set a passkey is now available on the e-commerce giant’s website, allowing users to log in using biometric authentication like fingerprint or face scan on their device. Doing so makes it far more difficult for bad actors to remotely access users’ accounts, given that the attacker also needs physical access to the user’s device.
A screenshot showing the Passkey set-up feature in Amazon’s Settings. image: TechCrunch (screenshot)
But Amazon’s implementation of Passkeys is not without issues, as noted by Vincent Delitzsch, co-founder of German tech startup Corbado, who first documented the arrival of Passkey support at Amazon.
Delitzsch notes that there’s currently no support for Passkeys in Amazon’s native apps, like Amazon’s Shopping app or Prime Video, which TechCrunch also checked, meaning you’ll still need a password to sign in. Will have to use (for now). Additionally, if you set up a passkey but have previously set up two-factor authentication (2FA), Amazon will prompt you to enter the verification code once when you log in, a step Delitzsch calls “unnecessary.” That said, passkeys remove the need for 2FA because they’re stored on your device.
Amazon says on its website: “You’ll still need to verify the code once after signing in with Passkey,” but doesn’t explain why.
It’s unclear whether the 2FA code requirement is a temporary feature and whether Amazon plans to add passkey support to its mobile apps. It is also not yet known whether Passkey support has been made available to all Amazon users, although TechCrunch has confirmed that the feature is available in the US, UK, France, and Germany.
Amazon did not respond to TechCrunch’s questions.
Passkey arrives at Amazon as WhatsApp announced It’s rolling out support for Passkeys to all Android users, and just days after Google said it planned to make Passkeys the default sign-in method for all Google Account holders. GitHub, Windows 11, TikTok, and 1Password have all started supporting Passkeys.
