Android 14 will be more secure with this third-party security app

Google revealed the Anrdoid 14 developer preview and brought many features, including third-party passkey app allowance like Dashlane.

Mar 3, 2023

Updated • Mar 3, 2023

Apps

Dashlane has introduced its new passkey sync feature in Android 14. This feature will work like Google's built-in password manager and help users manage their passwords.

Passkeys are used to authenticate or authorize access to a system or device. They are phishing-resistant credentials based on FIDO standards and are called "the future of online authentication." Big companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft have implemented the technology to protect their users against malicious activities. Last month, Google introduced the new Android 14 Developer preview. One of its most exciting new features is allowing third-party applications to manage passkeys on devices. Android users could only benefit from the built-in app before, but the latest news state that this will change with Android 14.

Dashlane recently released a blog post revealing that it will offer passwordless logins without needing Google's built-in password manager. The company says, "this is the first Android iteration that enables password managers to manage passkeys, and we anticipate the public release later this year." Dashlane already has a passkey extension on Chrome, but Google and Apple only allowed passkey synchronization to platform vendor ecosystems such as iCloud Keychain and the Google Password Manager, which kept Dashlane out of the mobile platform. If you want to know how it works, Dashlane posted a short video on Twitter showing the process.

Manage passkeys with Dashlane on Android later this year ? #fido #passkeys #passwordless pic.twitter.com/myFKDPAYF7

— Dashlane (@dashlane) February 23, 2023

How does passkey support work?

Dashlane mentions that there are two flows that it needs to implement. First, you create a password and save it in the encrypted Dashlane vault. Then you sign in with an existing passkey. It is considered one of the safest practices against online data and information theft. Creating a passkey helps you protect your account with a generated asymmetric pair. The company includes, "when signing in with a passkey, the relying party will send a challenge that Dashlane will sign with the private key, sending the response back to authenticate the user."

According to Google's announcement, Android 14 will go live later this year, and the public release is set for August 2023. Since it is a new feature, it will take time for other applications to adopt the new system, but in the near future, third-party passkeys will be more popular as more apps and users start using it.