Love them or hate them, passkeys have become widely adopted across many websites and apps as an alternative to passkeys. But unlike passwords, which can be easily copied into a new password manager, passkeys need to be manually exported and imported into a new password manager.

That is, until now. Google has just added the ability to quickly and easily transfer passkeys from one Android password manager to another, no downloads required.

Passkeys are a solid password alternative. They're more secure, work with a lot of websites and apps, and are much harder to steal. The downside is they need a password manager to work, and you can't really use them without having the app on your phone. However, the increased security is often worth the downside.

Which is why it's so odd that transferring a passkey from one password manager to another would involve downloading an unencrypted file to your phone. Sure, you can delete it, but that's such a weak point in an otherwise secure process.

Thank goodness Google noticed that, and has put a more secure process in place to transfer passkeys with ease.

To get started, all you need to do is open your password manager, and find the option to transfer your passkeys. At that point, it'll hand over the process to Android itself, which will take over.

Android's new process will automatically detect which password manager apps you have, and let you know which are eligible for imports. At the moment, that includes Google Password Manager, 1Password, Bitwarden Password Manager, and Dashlane, and Google promises more are on the way.

Just select which apps you want to transfer between, and Android will handle the hard work. Without needing to leave unencrypted files lying about, to boot.

I'm not personally a fan of passkeys. I've found password managers are slapdash enough about working on various apps and websites, and I don't want to be locked out because it doesn't detect an app when it should. Plus, there are times when I simply need to use a password. Such as when I'm using someone else's computer.

But, if you're a passkey convert, I can see that this would be a useful feature to have. Enjoy swapping between password managers with ease.

https://www.androidpolice.com/you-can-now-easily-move-your-passkeys-directly-between-password-managers/