I don’t want to imagine what life would be like without a password manager by my side. In fact, I use several, including 1Password, Proton passAnd Apple Passwords. They help me generate and store unique passwords for hundreds of websites and apps. Password managers also contain credit card and other sensitive information that I might want to protect, but protecting my passwords is their number one responsibility.

The alternative would be to either constantly forget my passwords or reuse the same email and password combination over and over again. This is something I would never do and would not advise anyone else to do.

However, passwords are the weakest link in the security that protects our products and software. The best solution is already there, but it will take some time to permanently replace the use of password. I’m talking about passwords, which use biometrics to log you into apps and services. Access keys are linked to your devices, providing an extra layer of security.

Access keys are currently impossible to hack, as an attacker would need your fingerprint or face to access your accounts. They would also need access to the devices on which you stored the access keys.

Although it will be some time before the passkey can “kill” the password, 1Password says it has seen “record growth” in passkey adoption so far. Millions of people use passwords regularly, and more and more businesses are adopting this new password replacement.

The company said in a blog post that more than 4.2 million passwords have been saved in 1Password, and that number continues to increase every day. However, this is a drop in the ocean compared to all the password logins used in the world. Billions of people have all kinds of Internet accounts, most of which use passwords.

Again, this doesn’t depend on the user. You can only turn your biometrics into a password if the company offering a service for which you have an account adds support for login access keys. 1Password indirectly confirms this by saying that password usage increases every time a new service adds support.

1Password uses X as an example. When X announced general password support on the iPhone, nearly 90,000 new passwords were created and saved in 1Password in the first week. Hopefully the same user behavior will be replicated across all services.

1Password also shared more stats since its password manager added support for passkeys in September 2023:

• 4.2 million passwords saved in 1Password.
• 15.4 million passwords auto-filled by 1Password.
• On average, over 2.1 million password authentications per month.
• On average, one in 3.4 customers using the extension has at least one password stored in 1Password!
• Among customers with 1Password passwords, 73% are personal accounts and 27% are business accounts.
• 206 companies added a password login option, double from last year. Check out our directory for the full list of password-supporting websites.

This last item on the list is of particular importance. I advise you to keep this Password directory website offered by 1Password even if you are not a 1Password customer. You’ll want to keep visiting this website to see if any of the companies you’re a customer of support passkeys. Whenever they do, you’ll want to add passkeys to your devices so you don’t have to log in using a password.

I say this because I don’t always save access keys when the option is presented to me, thus putting it off until “later”. Later, I forget to do it. This website will remind me to save more passwords for the web services and online applications I use.

As the death of the password has begun, I will repeat what I said earlier. You should use a password manager to save all your passwords and set unique and strong passwords for your accounts. Creating a password for a connection does not actually delete the previous password. A person with access to this password can still log in.

Some services allow you to create new accounts without passwords now that they support passwords. Others might allow you to disable the password.

Regardless of your password situation, you will always need to store them securely. You don’t want to lose access to your accounts if your device is damaged or lost/stolen.

1Password is an option to save passkeys alongside access keys. Proton Pass, Apple Passwords and other password managers also work the same way.