Goodbye, password muscle‑memory. Hello, productivity.
For years, a surprising amount of our daily typing practice went into pecking out passwords—often twice, then again for a one‑time code. That era is ending. In 2025–2026, passkeys (the FIDO/WebAuthn, passwordless way to sign in with your device’s biometrics or PIN) moved from early adopter to everyday default. Microsoft’s large‑scale rollout reports passkey sign‑ins are about three times more successful than passwords (roughly 98% vs. 32%) and eight times faster than password + MFA flows—a huge dent in the time we spend typing to log in. (fidoalliance.org)
The passkey boom by the numbers
- Consumer awareness and enablement surged in 2025: a FIDO Alliance survey found 74% of consumers are aware of passkeys and 69% have enabled them on at least one account. Over half say passkeys are both more secure and more convenient than passwords. (fidoalliance.org)
- Google announced in May 2024 that passkeys had already authenticated users more than 1 billion times across 400+ million Google Accounts—and are used more often daily than legacy OTPs on Google Accounts. (blog.google)
- Amazon says more than 175 million customers have enabled passkeys, with mobile sign‑ins defaulting to passkeys when set up, and reports sign‑ins up to six times faster. (aboutamazon.com)
- Across real‑world deployments, organizations report fewer support calls, faster sign‑ins, and reductions in phishing incidents; for example, Yahoo! JAPAN ID cites 28 million active passkey users and 2.6× faster logins than SMS OTP. (fidoalliance.org)
Taken together, this is a practical shift, not just a security upgrade. Less time spent typing secrets means more time writing, coding, and creating.
What this means for your typing habits
If passkeys replace most password entries, the "typing tax" on sign‑in disappears. That changes what we should practice:
- Fewer bursts of symbol‑heavy, error‑prone strings. Passkeys cut retries and failed attempts (Microsoft reports passkey success around 98%). (microsoft.com)
- More continuous focus time. Every avoided OTP copy‑paste—and every avoided reset—protects your flow state and reduces context switching.
- A small but real speed dividend. When sign‑ins are multiple‑times faster, the cumulative savings across dozens of daily authentications adds up to meaningful productivity. Even password managers observe higher success rates when users shift to passkeys. (theverge.com)
Bottom line: with password typing fading, the highest‑leverage practice shifts to prose, command shortcuts, and text quality.
How typing training should pivot in 2026
We’re updating the skills that matter most once password typing isn’t the bottleneck:
1) Prose and structure over strings
- Emphasize long‑form accuracy, punctuation, and rhythm. Build drills around paragraphs, headings, and clean link formatting instead of random symbol strings.
2) Shortcut fluency and command palettes
- Practice OS/app shortcuts (search, switch, screenshot, format, emoji, AI prompts). These save far more time per day than faster password entry ever did.
3) Editing speed and clarity
- Add timed “revise this paragraph” sessions. Measure words kept, clarity gained, and errors removed.
4) Secure hygiene without the typing
- Teach learners to recognize genuine passkey prompts and confirm the site/app origin—phishing resistance is built‑in, but good habits still matter.
Set up passkeys on the big platforms (quick starts)
- Google Accounts: Create passkeys on your phone or computer (or use a security key). Google notes passkeys are faster than passwords and widely used across accounts. Tip: enable “Skip password when possible.” (security.googleblog.com)
- Apple devices: Passkeys sync end‑to‑end encrypted via iCloud Keychain and can be recovered if you lose all devices. Set up iCloud Keychain, add an account recovery contact, and you’re resilient. (support.apple.com)
- Windows and Microsoft accounts: Windows 11 lets you create, use, and manage passkeys in Settings > Accounts > Passkeys. You can store device‑bound passkeys locally, sync with your Microsoft account, or use a third‑party passkey manager. (support.microsoft.com)
- Amazon: Turn on passkeys under Your Account > Login & Security; on mobile, Amazon defaults to passkeys if you’ve set one up. (aboutamazon.com)
Enterprise note: Even cloud consoles are on board—AWS IAM supports passkeys as an MFA factor, improving both security and usability for admins. (aws.amazon.com)
Migrating and backing up: as secure transfer standards mature
One early limitation of passkeys was portability across ecosystems. That’s changing fast:
- In late 2024 the FIDO Alliance introduced draft specs for the Credential Exchange Protocol (CXP) and Credential Exchange Format (CXF) to standardize secure passkey transfer between providers. (theverge.com)
- By September 2025, iOS 26 added system support for these credential‑exchange standards, enabling end‑to‑end encrypted transfers of passkeys (and passwords) between Apple Passwords and third‑party managers like Bitwarden. Translation: switching managers or consolidating accounts is getting safer and simpler. (finance.yahoo.com)
Practical migration tips for learners and teams:
- Before moving: export nothing in plaintext; use the built‑in transfer workflows from your OS or manager when available.
- Keep a hardware security key as a back‑up sign‑in method for high‑value accounts.
- After moving: test sign‑in on two devices per critical account. Delete stale credentials only after confirming.
Will passwords disappear completely?
Not overnight. There’s a long tail of sites that still use passwords, and some enterprise flows will keep them for a while. But the center of gravity has shifted: Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are all reporting massive passkey usage, and consumer awareness jumped sharply in 2025. As more sites adopt passkeys and transfer standards land broadly, typed passwords will become the exception rather than the rule. (blog.google)
A new practice plan for a passwordless world
Try this four‑week refresh:
- Week 1: Enable passkeys on your core accounts (OS account, email, cloud storage, shopping, banking). Add a recovery contact and a hardware key.
- Week 2: Shortcut bootcamp—map 10 shortcuts you’ll actually use daily and practice them to automaticity.
- Week 3: Prose sprints—alternate speed and accuracy drills on paragraphs (not random words). Finish with a 10‑minute edit pass.
- Week 4: Migration checkup—move a low‑risk account between managers using the new transfer flows; document your recovery options.
Typing tests won’t vanish—they’ll just measure what matters more: fluent prose, fast edits, and deft command of your tools. Passwords trained our fingers; passkeys free our focus.
