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Comment by cj | Hacker News Reader

Isn't there a workflow where you scan a QR code to confirm the pass key on your phone?

I've definitely done this, but not sure if the workflow was at the OS or browser level.

I'm honestly confused by all the negativity in the comments. Passkeys are great for convenience. Just leave your password login enabled as a backup. That defeats any security benefit, but oh well.

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> Isn't there a workflow where you scan a QR code to confirm the pass key on your phone?

For people in this position, if they had their phone, they probably wouldn't be logging in on a computer anyway.

There are a lot of reasons why I might want to login on a computer I don't own to do something, rather than to use my phone. Having a keyboard is a major usability benefit for many types of work. Larger screen, printer. Software that is on the machine that can't run on my phone.

I agree with you; those are all reasons I only use my phone for on-the-go messaging or navigation. I'm against the idea that you should have to have a secure (against the owner) connected phone on your person at all times in order to sign in to a web service.

You don't have to with passkeys. I use passkeys every day, they rarely involve using my phone.

Thats still irrelevant to the example being discussed.

This is what I use to log into our remote desktop software at work. The passkey is on my phone and I scan a QR code presented by the remote desktop software (in this case it's the Windows App on my macbook and Microsoft Authenticator on my android).

There is. Doesn't work on every browser but it's really nice and I use it routinely.

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