Is 2025 the Year of the Passkey?
In his latest “Rob’s Notes”, Rob Leathern explores whether passkeys will finally deliver on the decades-old promise of eliminating password frustrations, examining both encouraging adoption trends and persistent real-world challenges.
Arguments FOR 2025 being the passkey breakthrough year:
Major platforms showing strong adoption: 1Password reports 1 in 3.4 users has a passkey, Amazon has 175 million passkey users, and Microsoft saw a 987% rise in passkey usage
Proven performance benefits: passkey sign-ins are 3x faster than passwords, 8x faster than password + MFA, and users are 3x more likely to succeed on login attempts
Effective messaging strategies: Microsoft found that promoting speed and security (rather than ease) resonates with users, with 25% creating passkeys when prompted
Built on strong cryptographic standards that eliminate phishing vulnerabilities entirely
Arguments AGAINST passkeys taking over in 2025:
Password fallbacks remain: most platforms still allow standard passwords alongside passkeys, negating some security gains if hackers can still exploit traditional methods
Cross-platform friction persists: syncing passkeys across devices is simpler than it was but still not perfectly seamless, especially for users with older devices
User education gap: mass adoption of new login flows isn't a flip of the switch and passkeys may sound alien or confusing, especially to older or less tech-savvy populations
Infrastructure complexity: truly removing passwords requires rethinking everything from user provisioning to enterprise group policies, device reassignments, and so on
Leathern concludes that while the technology exists and adoption is accelerating, the password era is changing but far from dead with years of education and persistence still ahead. Read the full piece here in Rob’s Notes 18.
