How do I use Passkeys in Google Chrome on Android?

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Arian
Arian
Community Member
edited January 9 in Android

I was very excited, reading that Passkeys are finally fully supported in browsers and on my Windows it works great.

But now I'm trying to use Passkeys in Google Chrome with Android. Unfortunately every time I try to use (or create) a Passkey only the Google Passwordmanager opens and I'm not able to use my Passkeys saved in 1Password.
I have set 1Password as my preferred app in the settings and it works fine with other apps than Google Chrome.

How do I enable 1Password for Passkeys in Chrome?

1Password Version: Android 8.10.22
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Android 14 (G991NKSU4FWK7)
Browser: Chrome

Comments

  • Arian
    Arian
    Community Member
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  • BrendanR1P
    BrendanR1P
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    Hi @Arian,

    Currently by default Chrome and other Chromium based browsers doesn't appear to have Credential Management enabled by default. This would be required for third party password managers such as 1Password to allow you to sign in to websites using passkeys.

    While we would be unable to provide a timeframe for when Google will have this enabled by default, it's possible to enable Credential Management within the Flags feature of Chrome which should allow you to use 1Password to sign into websites with passkeys. Please note, enabling and disabling particular flags can potentially lead to instability within your web browser, please ensure only the changes mentioned below are made and if you encounter any stability issues after setting these flags, please set them back to default.

    Enabling Credential Management flag in Chrome

    1. Open Chrome, then type in chrome://flags into the address bar
    2. In the flags page which opens, tap the search box, then search for passkeys
    3. Tap Default under the Android Credential Management for passkeys flag, then tap Enable for 3rd party passkeys
    4. Click the Relaunch button that appears at the bottom of your browser

    If the steps above don't work, please repeat the steps again but in Step 3, please change Enable for 3rd party passkeys to Enable for Google Password Manager and 3rd party passkeys

    I hope this helps

    -- Brendan

  • Arian
    Arian
    Community Member
    edited January 14
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    Hi @BrendanR1P ,

    thank you so much for the support! It works great on my phone.
    Unfortunately on my tablet - for both options - Chrome just closes when trying to use a passkey. As this is an experimental feature, I want to make clear, that I don't want to complain, but rather let you know about potential issues.
    1Password Version: 8.10.22
    OS Version: Android 14 (X800XXU5CWL1)

    I'm really glad for the help you already provided!
    Arian

  • BrendanR1P
    BrendanR1P
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    Hi @Arian,

    You're very welcome. I'm sorry to hear on your tablet that Chrome just closes when trying to use a passkey.

    When Chrome closes, would it appear as if it has crashed, with a popup stating 1Password keeps stopping appearing?

    If you'd be happy to do so, to allow me to try and reproduce the issue on my end, could you please share the model of tablet you'd be encountering this issue on?

    Thanks,
    Brendan

  • Arian
    Arian
    Community Member
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    Hi @BrendanR1P ,
    a popup "Chrome was closed repeatedly" appears if I try it a couple of times. So it does appear like a "regular" crash, but not for 1Password. So I guess it's probably an issue with chrome - as it only appears when I activate the flags.
    But if it helps, I'm happy to share my model: "Galaxy Tab S8+ SM-X800NZABEUX"

    Arian

    Here is a screenshot:

  • BrendanR1P
    BrendanR1P
    edited January 18
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    Hi @Arian,

    Thanks for providing this screenshot. It does appear that this is a regular Chrome crash rather than one caused by 1Password.

    As you mentioned this only occurred when you enabled the flags, to see if there are possibly any other flags enabled which may be leading to the crash, if you open chrome://flags in your Chrome browser, would there only be the Android Credential Management for passkeys flag showing under Available with a Blue dot beside it or would there be other flags with this blue dot beside it (as shown in the screenshot below)?

    If the crash is preventing you from opening your Chrome browser at all to check this, please let me know and I'll be happy to help.

    -- Brendan

  • Arian
    Arian
    Community Member
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    Hi Brendan,

    yes - this is the only flag enabled (up to your post I didn't even know about flags...)

    Arian

  • BrendanR1P
    BrendanR1P
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    Hi @Arian,

    Thanks for your reply. If you tap the Reset all button shown in your screenshot, would the crash no longer occur in Chrome?

    Would you encounter any other crashes on this device when trying to sign in with passkeys in other scenarios, such as signing into apps using passkeys?

    -- Brendan

  • Racer77
    Racer77
    Community Member
    edited February 17
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    Hey,

    I was able to get this working! There's another Chrome flag that needs to be enabled. In order:

    1. Open chrome://flags/#web-authentication-android-credential-management and set it to "Enabled". The option "Enabled for Google Password Manager and 3rd party passkeys" also seems to work, but don't use "Enabled for 3rd party passkeys", it can only create passkeys with Google (probably a bug).
    2. Open chrome://flags/#enable-autofill-virtual-view-structure and set to "Enabled" (discovered in this blog post).
    3. Restart Chrome and go to Settings. There should be a new item Autofill Options. Open it, and change the setting to "Use other providers".

    1. Try creating a passkey or logging in with one, tapping "More options" should let you switch to the OS password manager.

    The implementation is very buggy: after getting this to work once, the Autofill Options no longer had any impact, and I was able to unset that flag without issue. But it works on passkeys.io and GitHub.

    Device: Pixel 6
    OS: Android 14 (UQ1A.240105.002)
    Browser: Chrome Beta 122.0.6261.43
    1Password: 8.10.26-38.BETA

  • BrendanR1P
    BrendanR1P
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    Hi @Racer77,

    Thanks for letting me know about this flag. I hadn't come across this before and appreciate you sharing this!😀

    -- Brendan

  • SomeBrowserDude
    SomeBrowserDude
    Community Member
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    @Racer77 that flag seems unrelated and could actually prevent some passkey use cases.
    From the Chromium docs, it seems that this allows 3P filling eventually. The Android filling API has no support for passkeys though. Non-Google Passkey-support was added with the credential-manager API (https://developer.android.com/training/sign-in/passkeys).
    So the flag with the credential-management name is more likely to work. If it works for you and not for others, then probably because you have Android 14.

  • Racer77
    Racer77
    Community Member
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    @SomeBrowserDude Looked into it and that makes sense, especially since the flag and options were useless after I got it to start working at all. In any case, that flag will be expired in Chrome 123 (crbug), so it won't work soon.

  • Dave_1P
    Dave_1P
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    Thank you everyone. 🙂

    If anyone else is having trouble using passkeys in Chrome on their Android device then please see my colleague's instructions here: https://1password.community/discussion/comment/703099/#Comment_703099

    -Dave