What are passkeys? A simple guide for friends and family

Hey Hacker News! Over the past few years, most posts about passkeys have spiraled into endless debates with hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of comments. I've ventured into many of these trying to provide some context from the development of passkeys and some ecosystem perspectives. Two big observations were that there aren't any vendor neutral resources for regular users to help understand passkeys, and many sites/apps which use passkeys don't provide a lot of guidance or education to users.

A few of us from the passkey developer community have teamed up to create a new consumer-friendly site about passkeys, with easy to understand explanations and illustrations, frequently asked questions, and some details on picking a good credential manager. There's also an advanced toggle which adds some technical details to each section (and in the future some more technical FAQs and sections). Much of the content is based on questions and comments from this community as well as Bluesky, the Fediverse, Reddit, and direct user engagement.

The goal is for this to be a living site, with constant tweaks based on community feedback. You can create issues and/or PRs on GitHub or just submit general feedback via the web form (both are linked at the bottom of the site). The site has no corporate backing or influence, and all feedback is welcome. Scathing critiques or praise. Just please be respectful.

We're also eagerly looking for non-native English speakers to review translations for the current future localized versions of the site.

If you run a site that offers passkeys, please consider adding a link to your docs, and even your passkey enrollment screens.