WhatsApp announced on August 25 that more than one billion people now use passkeys to log back into the app.
The announcement included two other security upgrades: a stronger two-step verification method and more context for incoming calls from unknown numbers. It marks one of the largest passwordless authentication rollouts to date. Passkeys are now firmly mainstream, with the FIDO Alliance estimating that 5 billion are in use worldwide and 75% of consumers have enabled one on at least one account.
Three things changed:
Passkey support originally launched on Android and later extended to iOS. WhatsApp now supports multiple passkeys per account, so people who switch between an Android phone and an iPhone (or use both) can register a passkey on each device.
Two-step verification is moving from a simple six-digit PIN to a longer alphanumeric password that can include special characters, making it much harder to guess or brute-force.
